[SWOOSH]
- My guest this week says he's been in every single "Star
Wars" movie, but I re-watched them all recently,
and I only saw his face once.
So take that for what it's worth.
[KNOCKING]
- Oh.
- Anthony Daniels is here.
- Where did you come from?
- I came from over there.
And then I went to come to my seat.
And turns out, you're in it.
So good for you.
- Yeah, but-- you know--
- Good power move right off the top.
- I checked out the background.
- Yeah.
- I mean, are you jealous? Look at this stuff.
- [LAUGHS]
- Do we see Carboni material behind you?
- No, but to be fair--
- We see--
- --once again, I don't see any Daniels back there either.
- Hey, hey, hey.
I don't need to have my face on camera to be famous.
You know, one day, one day.
Behave.
- You behave.
- [BUZZING]
- So you wrote a book. You're touring around with it.
- You heard. You heard I wrote a book.
- I heard.
You may have mentioned it once or twice.
- I wrote a book called--
should I do it in the voice?
- Please.
- "I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story."
- I love it. - I love it too.
- You've been on tour with it.
- A little tour, yeah, talking about it.
And the great thing about that is actually--
first of all, on TV and stuff, talking
to people you cannot see.
But then going to a bookshop, big bookshop,
and doing a signing, and meeting people who read books.
You know, page-- have you read a book?
- I have them on my phone. - That's what I hate.
- [LAUGHS]
- I so hate that.
It's like when they gave me the script for Episode 7 and did--
and it was on one of those things.
You had to swipe the pages.
It doesn't feel right.
I want to feel the paper.
And the great thing about a bookshop, it smells of books.
And it's lovely.
And there are a lot of books.
But now there's one more.
Who'd ever have thought it.
- This is the story of your entire experience has C-3PO,
right?
- Yeah, that's right.
It's about my life around the movies.
It's kind of hung on all 11 movies.
Not just the three trilogies.
Oh, no, no.
I've worked a lot.
You'll see.
And on the back, there's a Droid-ography
that goes on for pages.
And I think, did I really do all this?
You know, it's amazing.
And then there's side issues where I talk about the 501st,
or a whole chapter about John Williams and how amazing
his music is, a chapter about Carrie,
a whole chapter about people who forge
signatures and cheat on eBay.
You know, because my signature is really, you know,
quite valuable.
- OK, calm down.
Calm down.
- Do you have, like, an autograph, do you?
- Oh, do I have-- do I have a what?
- Yeah, do you-- you know, do you sign things?
- Oh, an autograph that I do?
- Yeah.
- I do a birthday card for my mom every year.
- That's cool. - Yeah.
- That's so nice.
- [LAUGHS].
- I really have to speak to her, though.
Because she's-- bringing kids--
- She did the best she could.
- Yes, she failed.
- And I don't blame any of it on her.
- Yeah, it's-- her failure was not her problem.
- You know, you set them loose.
And then whatever they do afterwards--
- Yeah, look at you now.
Who'd have thought.
She wanted you to have a real job, didn't she?
- You don't have a real job either.
- [LAUGHS] - You can't--
- Hey, look.
- You get-- well, but that's what I'm saying,
is you can't be like, well, when I grow up, I'm going to be
a golden robot for a living.
It's like, you can't say that.
That's like a kid coming up to you and saying,
I'm going to grow up to be a bird.
You're like, OK, kid, sure.
So like, you don't really have a real job either.
- I don't.
But it's similar.
But you know, back in the day--
I note in the book--
have we mentioned I've written a book?
- Did we get Mr. Daniels saying that he wrote a book?
Oh, great.
- Just in case, I wrote a book.
And in the book it explains how I only
ever wanted to be an actor.
And I don't know why.
There's no good reason for it.
But I did want to be an actor.
And for years, I did other stuff, kind of pretending life
was OK.
And it wasn't really.
It wasn't until I became an actor that it got better.
- I hear that a lot from people who work on camera where
it's like, I had 100 jobs.
And I was bad at all of them.
And I knew that I was bad at all of them
because I was supposed to be on camera.
- Isn't that great?
- Yeah, was it kind of like that for you?
- I think so.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I wasn't interested in anything.
I didn't put much effort in, I think.
But boy, you do have to put effort in when you're an actor.
Because they notice it.
- Well, for you, especially.
I mean, this is something that we've talked about before.
But like, not a physically easy thing, the thing that you do.
Now the suit's a little more comfortable than it was.
But running around in the desert in the '70s in this, like,
clanky metal thing. Like--
- Clanky metal thing.
One of the things I say in the book--
because I have written a book.
- You wrote a book?
- I wrote a book.
And in the book, I talk about-- and I try and do it--
it's a bit of a challenge-- to explain technical
things in words without--
you know, no diagrams or pictures, whatever.
And one of the things that you can see very clearly
in the first movie-- and actually this is not
in the book-- that one of the legs
keeps catching on one of the--
- Anthony Daniels stopped himself from saying something.
I'm going to take a moment and marinate on that.
- OK, yeah. - Like, wow.
- OK, OK.
- I can't believe it. - No, it just--
- No, go on. Go on with the anecdote, please.
- It comes to mind now.
You can-- I can see that bits of the costume
were catching on things, which meant one
leg got longer than the other.
And I'm kind of hobbling along in the desert.
Because nobody worked out that this thing
here was catching on this thing here and pushing it
the wrong way. - Right.
- Now I can so see it.
And indeed, now we kind of worked
out what was going wrong.
In the first film, there was only one person with his eye
to the camera.
You realize this?
And George would say, you know, how was that?
And the cameraman would go, it was OK.
Now you've got big plasma screens.
Everybody can see.
It doesn't have my name here.
Why is that?
Can we get a graphic of the book up on here.
Can we do-- put a green screen-- - Absolutely not, Anthony.
Absolutely not.
- I wrote a book. It's a ton of--
- You can carry--
I'll allow you to pick up your cardboard cut out again.
Give me your poster board. - I love this.
Thank you. - Here.
- Yeah, OK. - Here.
- Do that.
- You're comfortable now?
- I love that. - Yeah.
- Yeah.
Are you going to write a book?
I hear you're studying the alphabet.
- I'm going to try to write a sentence one day.
- Sentence needs a subject, object, and verb.
Do you remember that?
- I'm not here to learn from you, Anthony Daniels.
Nobody's taught me anything in all my life.
- That's entirely obvious.
- And you're not going to be the one to do it.
- Entirely obvious.
Look.
Can we just straighten me up a bit there?
It's just-- you're not good with props, are you?
No, that's good.
I think that's fine.
Sorry, you were saying? - Was I?
- Yeah.
Anyway, one of the reasons to do it now--
first of all, I was asked to do it.
But now, of course, we have a little film coming up.
- Yeah.
- In December, just a few-- but I'm here first.
My book's out.
[LAUGHTER]
I do talk about Episode 9, "The Rise of Skywalker."
But I talk about it in a really roundabout way.
- Yeah, I was going to say, because the book
came out beginning of November.
- That's correct.
I was subtle, and delicate, and sensitive.
- Doubtful, knowing you, but go on.
- You've got to stop doing that.
I wanted to talk about it, because it's
the logical bookend of the whole thing.
- Sure.
- But I wanted to talk about it in a way that doesn't spoil.
So each time something new came up,
like the desert planet of Pasaana,
I could go back and say, [CLICKS] we
were on this strange planet called Pasaana.
- Right.
- So with a computer, you can pop these things in.
So it is very up to date, very current.
- Yeah.
- And very good. - Obviously, it's an under--
- Have you bought a copy?
- Yes, of course.
Come on. - I don't believe you.
- Come on. Of course.
- I think you were waiting for free.
- I mean, I'm also waiting for a free--
I'm going to get you to sign the free one.
And then I'm going to be one of those people on eBay.
[LAUGHTER]
- There's many there.
- One to read, and then--
- Oh yeah.
- --one to, you know-- - Yeah.
- --pay the bills this month. - Uh-huh.
- That's how it works.
As a matter of fact, if I can get
you to sign a couple of those before you go, that'd be great.
But I want to talk about-- obviously, leading up
to "The Rise of Skywalker" here, asking somebody who's
been involved with "Star Wars" from the beginning
what it's like to be involved with "Star Wars"
is kind of weird.
Because you don't have an experience of the last 40 years
not being part of "Star Wars."
So it's to be hard to quantify.
- That's-- it's a good point.
I'll deny saying-- - Did we get that?
Did we get that? - No, I deny it.
We'll edit that one out. - Can we play that back.
- No.
[LAUGHTER]
Let me start again.
On the subject of my view of "Star Wars,"
people say, what's it like being in "Star Wars?"
I know you were going to ask it.
So I got there first.
- [LAUGHS]
- But it is--
I realized I don't know, because I'm so close to it.
It's as though my nose is right up against it.
So I can't see the whole thing.
And it's going to take a few years to come back
and come back and say, wow.
But you know the thing that's actually helping me is
the reaction of fans and so on.
Because they see it objectively.
They see it from a distance.
So I've realized by listening to them,
I can see what I don't see.
I get it reflected from them.
And it's been only in the last few years
that I kind of clocked that that's a good thing to do.
- It's been really wild as the new stuff
has been coming out just living in a world where everybody--
I'm going through the airport security line.
People are talking about "Star Wars."
I'm sitting at a restaurant.
People are talking about--
like, it's everywhere in a way that I think
hasn't been in quite a while.
What's it like when that sort of, like, ebb and flow
comes back? - Well--
- Because you've been in it a couple of times.
- It's kind of weird.
Because in the early parts of the book,
I talk about where the first film came out.
And the hoopla, everything-- the magic was huge.
But I was very little talked about.
They wanted to pretend that 3PO was 3PO.
And I was not allowed to be connected with it.
So I was really kind of pushed sideways.
And I talk about my feelings at that time
and how that felt, to be ignored so big.
Because it was everywhere.
As you say, at airports, or whatever, on TV.
I couldn't get away from something that I
wasn't allowed to be a part of.
- Oh, wow.
- But I had been a part of it.
And I talk about it in the early chapters.
Because it was an honestly difficult time.
And I wanted the book to be honest.
It's the rough and the smooth, the yin,
the yang, the Abbott and Costello,
the peaches and cream, the--
- Keep going.
Give me three more.
- OK, that's a competition, Tony.
[LAUGHTER]
- But no, now, I mean--
- And so I waited.
- Yeah.
- All this time-- it's been, like, 43 years or something--
where gradually that process kind
of moved in an upward curve.
- You're kind of the king of Celebration now.
You're kind of the king of fan events.
- Oh, don't you love Celebration?
- It's you and Warwick are the king of--
- Oh yeah, totally.
- --king of fan--
- He just tries to get in on my act.
I'm a thespian, like yourself, you know.
I come to do a show, and there you are.
It's, like, scary.
- Warwick says the same thing about you.
[LAUGHTER] No.
- By happenstance, one of the best films
is going to be "Rise of Skywalker,"
that I have adored working on.
It's been incredibly hard work.
I mean, it ain't digging roads, but it's harder than it looks.
You don't need to know that.
But I believe the bits I've seen,
knowing what happened on the set,
knowing what J.J. is like with his huge brain,
huge intellect, huge spark, his childish joy
in the whole thing-- you know, I talk about first meeting him
and how he first saw Star Wars when he was 10 years old.
And he remains that bright-eyed kid.
He's got that energy and pizzazz about him
that's going to make this film really
the one for me to end on.
People say, am I sad it's over?
No, not at all.
I think it's good when a story comes to an end.
You don't want it to be "Days of Our Lives"
that just goes on forever and ever.
And you're grinding it out.
Let's stop here, because we've had a great time.
Sorry, did you want to say something?
I'm awfully sorry. - No, no.
- Because when we have visitors like you on the set,
it's kind of sometimes hard for them to cope.
- This is all very new to me.
This-- this whole thing. - Yeah.
- So I appreciate you leading me through it.
- I notice it's always midnight here.
- Always.
- It's kind of-- do you ever go out in daylight?
Are you allowed to?
- I try not to. - Right.
- Because of my delicate porcelain skin.
- Yeah, yeah. - You know.
It's bad for my complexion.
- Right.
- As we're getting closer and closer to the premiere,
and it's getting closer and closer to it being real, 40--
- Yeah.
- --40-something years is a long chunk of time,
man, like, to put a bow on, you know what I mean?
- Yeah, I do.
I do.
It's a slightly cruel thought, slightly unkind.
- Why?
- Well, you're trying to make me sad in advance, aren't you?
- Well, I mean, listen, man-- - You want me to suffer.
- I know you just wrote a book.
And if we can get you to just tear up--
- Did you hear-- - --just get a couple--
- Yeah?
- I think it'd be great, you know what I mean?
For sales. - OK, I'll--
- And also for me. - I'll tell you what.
- You know, we got one Emmy.
And if I can get another one before the end of the--
- You got an Emmy?
- Yeah, do you have an Emmy?
- Not yet.
What's an Emmy?
- [LAUGHS] That's the TV one.
- Oh, TV, right, yes.
- Oh, there we go.
He turned it back around on me.
[LAUGHTER]
- I'll tell you what.
I'm not sad about "The Rise of Skywalker"
being the end of the whole thing.
What was a little difficult was the last day on set, for me.
It wasn't the last day of the movie.
But that was kind of a little hard to cope with.
- Can I ask you, just because I like
to connect these dots in my head-- was your last
day that trailer moment?
- No.
I will tell you, because I said in the book.
My last day was not that.
- OK.
- What's great about the trailer thing is J.J. cut it--
because it's from two camera angles-- exactly as I said it,
as I timed it.
He didn't futz with the timing.
Because you know, editors can do that.
- Yeah.
- My last day, curiously, I was with other actors on a set.
And I didn't have a thing to say.
3PO was there, looking around.
Didn't have any lines.
My last day after all these years, nothing, nada.
Isn't that weird?
- That's so weird.
- It's really ironic.
- It's got to feel, like, a little weird the moment.
You're like, OK, that's it? We're good?
- [LAUGHS] Yes. - That's it?
It's over? - Yeah.
- All right.
- Yeah, can you do that again?
- Did I do it? - It's not working.
- You kind of-- right?
- Yeah, upright.
And for some reason--
you don't move all the time.
You look like, you know-- - Are you sure?
You look kind of like--
- --the Energizer bunny if you do that.
- Yeah, OK.
- And you need new batteries, by the way.
It's so obvious.
What is hard-- this is not bad, actually.
Not bad. - I told you this.
When I was a kid-- when I was a kid,
3PO was my favorite character, right?
Have I ever told you this?
I was very fastidious, like, organized--
- Yeah.
- --slightly nervous kid.
And I was absolutely in love with 3PO.
- Am I safe?
- No, never.
- Well, I feel slightly overwhelmed.
How old were you?
- The first time I remember seeing "Star Wars," I
was four years old.
- And at that point you showed immense taste
and style if you liked 3PO.
- Mm-hmm. I just--
- What happened? - I just complimented you.
Don't do it. Don't do it.
- OK. I--
- [LAUGHS] Don't do it.
- I am so grateful that, as a four-year-old, you found
3PO your favorite character.
- I hope you're this convincing with the people who line
up for you for a signature.
[LAUGHS]
- They're real people.
They don't sit in a dungeon like this.
[LAUGHTER]
They don't sit with all this tut around.
I mean, I do like the shrine here.
This is good.
- We thought you might, yeah.
"Skywalker" is soon.
Book is out now.
This is a very exciting month.
And we're very excited that you made a little time to come
out here and hang out with us.
Anthony Daniels. - How are you doing?
- Always a pleasure.
[LAUGHTER]
That was my chair, though.
That was-- this is not a bit.
I came in, and he was in my chair.
And he knows what he's doing when he does that.
- I got this shrine here.
It just is obvious.
- It's supposed to be you.
And then when we're not on you, it's still the shrine.
It's-- - You don't have a--
- We got a director. - What do you mean?
- They think of stuff, man.
- I thought it was my show. - I know you do.
You always do.
- I wondered why you kept interrupting.
It's, like, really irritating.
- You want me to run and get you the gold blazer,
and you could just stand up and give a monologue?
- Yeah, thank you for dressing up so nicely today.
Yeah. - I knew you were coming.
- Do they pay you--
- So I sprayed some of that wrinkle-free
stuff on my sweater.
- OK, have you got--
- And I got in 10 minutes late, just for you.
- Yeah.
Told me you have wrinkle-free spray, please, give it to me.
I got there first.
[LAUGHTER]
Is it over?
When's this over? - It's over.
It's over. - It's over?
It's so over.
- The second you can bring yourself to stop talking--
- The second I walked in, I can--
- --it's over.
- It's over.
- The second you can just lock it up.
- OK, where's your office?
[SWOOSH]
[BEEPING]