\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tIan McDiarmid in \u2018Revenge of the Sith\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tIt wasn\u2019t mapped out at all, really. When I first got the part, I had no idea what the world was that I\u2019d be in charge of as the Emperor. So it started off as a big mystery. I had no idea that Palpatine would figure [into the story so heavily]. But by then it so happened that I was young enough to play the younger Senator. When I first met George about it, he said, \u201cDo you know anyone who wants to play an Emperor?\u201d I said, \u201cI think you know the answer to that question.\u201d And then I got the script and realized that he was more than one character, which made it even more fascinating to play \u2014 an ordinary, everyday, fairly hypocritical politician with a monster hiding inside his body.<\/p>\n \n\tNot really. Back in 1982, I met George in 10-minute chat over lunchtime. My agent told me if I wanted to be, I could be the emperor of the universe. I knew he was at the center of power. So I speculated in my head about maybe how he got there\u2026 But also, it didn\u2019t seem relevant because I died. But the more I did it, I thought it was a really tremendous invention of George\u2019s. \u2026 It was fairly obvious to us all that he had more in mind than just an exciting adventure story for kids.<\/p>\n \n\tWell, it was supposed to be my age, which was early fifties when I did Palpatine for the first time. So it wasn\u2019t so much that he was aging, but when he got that monstrous face and he was sort of in transition physically as well as mentally, the aging process wasn\u2019t really relevant. The evil <\/em>process was. It\u2019s like when Dr. Jekyll turned into Mr. Hyde. As I\u2019m approaching his age myself, although the body is failing, the mind is as active as ever. Palpatine certainly had a hyperactive mind.<\/p>\n \n\tWell, he\u2019s a hypocrite, plain and simple \u2014 and a very good actor. He\u2019s a performance. He\u2019s only interested in one thing: absolute power. It sounds objective and black and white, but it\u2019s extraordinary. If you think of people who have absolute power or pretty damn near it, you think that\u2019s all they want, really \u2014 wealth and to be able to run people. But also, he was a Sith from way back. Now, I don\u2019t really know what that means, but that particular personality is completely different from everybody else. He plays the human, but he isn\u2019t one. Palpatine embodies the dark side. He relishes it. He thinks people who don\u2019t enjoy it or don\u2019t allow themselves to be drawn to it are stupid.<\/p>\n \n\tI think that\u2019s fair, although underneath I managed to find a lot of wit in it. I mean, obviously he hated the word \u201cfriend.\u201d He thought it was stupid that people had friends, because that was a sign of weakness. So when it came to a word like that, I could sort of dish it out with a bit of contempt.<\/p>\n \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tPalpatine (McDiarmid) tells the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise to Anakin Skywalker (Christensen) in \u2018Revenge of the Sith\u2019<\/span> \n\tI wouldn\u2019t want to quantify it, but that\u2019s right \u2014 it\u2019s both. Palpatine sees the spark of ambition, and he cultivates it. In the opera scene when Anakin asks him to help save Padme\u2019s life, the phrase he uses is \u201cNot from a Jedi.\u201d In other words, \u201cYou\u2019re going to have to betray everything that you think you stand for in order to join this side. You\u2019ve got to embrace evil and all its totality, otherwise you\u2019ll be no use to yourself\u201d \u2014 let alone me. It\u2019s amazing, manipulative stuff. That scene at the opera was, for me anyway, the apotheosis of it. He invites him into his world, to be his right-hand man, and as Palpatine gets physically more frail, Vader will become stronger.<\/p>\n \n\tI thought I\u2019d gone much too far, and George said, \u201cNo, no, you can go much further.\u201d It\u2019s the moment when the monster becomes available and he is ecstatic with delight because he can lose the hypocritical face. When we were doing \u201cThe Phantom Menace,\u201d George said, \u201cYou should think of your face as a carapace\u201d \u2014 as if we\u2019d made me up, and underneath was the real person. That was great, because to believe that my own face and voice were utterly manufactured was a huge help.<\/p>\n \n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p><\/div>\n\t\tHow carefully mapped out was Palpatine\u2019s arc when you were first re-hired to play him in \u201cThe Phantom Menace\u201d?<\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tWas there an early mention of the character that clued you in on what you wanted to focus on in your performance?<\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tIn playing the character later on, was there a sort of reverse-engineering of his decrepitude?<\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tThis is a character who can turn on emotion when needed. What reality are you playing as an actor to be able to tap into those feelings?<\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tGeorge Lucas\u2019 dialogue is famous for being a little bit stiff. But I feel like that formality serves Palpatine.<\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
<\/p><\/div>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\tAnakin obviously experienced a lot of trauma in his past. How much of Palpatine\u2019s work manipulating him was aided by that trauma?<\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tThe fight with Mace Windu where Palpatine reveals his true form offered you a great opportunity for scenery chewing. What sort of collaboration did you have with George to modulate the intensity of that moment?<\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n