Sir Alec Guinness made over $95 million from Star Wars due to unique contract clause
On May the 4th, Star Wars fans across the world will be coming together to celebrate their love of the franchise. Surprisingly though one of the most iconic parts of the film hated it, even though he went on to make heaps of cash from the role.
Prior to Star Wars releasing Sir Alec Guinness was by far the most well-known name and respected actor amongst the cast, having won an Oscar for The Bridge on the River Kwai and appearing in Lawrence of Arabia.
He was paid $150,000 up front for appearing as Obi Wan Kenobi in the film, as well as earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the now legendary character but actually hated appearing in the movie.
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Though this was a sizeable sum at the time all things considered, he made far, far more money than that in the long run.
Sir Alec Guinness made roughly $4.75 million for every minute he was on screen in Star Wars
By the time the actor died in 2000 he had made $95 million off his role in the film, despite clocking in at just under 20 minutes of screen time throughout the movie.
Guinness quite famously was unconvinced when he took on the role of Obi Wan, sending a letter to a friend in 1975 saying: “I have been offered a movie which I may accept, if they come up with proper money. London and N Africa starting in mid-March.
“Science fiction - which gives me pause - but it is to be directed by Paul Lucas [referring to George Lucas] who did American Graffiti, which makes me feel I should. Big part. Fairy-tale rubbish but could be interesting perhaps.”
He similarly criticised the dialogue, saying it was ‘pretty ropey’ but said he found the script engaging enough that he agreed to do it. Another letter however showed that he was unconvinced during filming, saying he didn’t enjoy it and that ‘new rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper’.
Ultimately though, a clever contract clause earned him the nearly $100 million he got for his 20 minutes of screen time.
Guinness got 2.25% of the film’s gross, including subsequent screenings of the film, but hated acting in it
The actor has spoken about how his agent initially negotiated 2% of what the film made, with it being a massive slightly unexpected hit. Guinness explained in an interview that writer-director George Lucas called him up to offer an extra 0.5% due to his help with making suggestions regarding changes to the film. By the time he called up the studio to get this in writing however he claimed it was reduced to 0.25%, likely due to the expected success of the movie.
The film initially made $775.4 million at the box office but has gone on to be screened on numerous occasions in the years since its release, earning him a massive $95 million until his death, and even more for his estate in the years since.
Ultimately though Guinness spoke on multiple occasions about how he ‘detested’ being asked about the movie, and even said he encouraged Lucas to kill off his character because he didn’t want to work on the movie’s sequel.
He said that the film made him ‘a caged animal for the special effects from the word go’, but was still praised as a ‘great artist’ by Lucas at the time of his death in 2000.
The director said: “I was looking for someone who was powerful yet gentle and that came across in Alec. The world has lost a great artist.”
Topics: Star Wars, Film, TV and Film, Money
Michael Slavin