The Clone Wars: Episode 15 - Trespass
Date: January 29, 2009 at 07:59 PM ET Topic: Movie and TV News
This
weeks episode of The Clone Wars takes us to a very cool location, with a look at
some super cool clone troopers in snow gear! Click
here for information on this weeks episode: Trespass...
C-3PO Plays a Pivotal Role
in “Trespass” on STAR WARS:
THE CLONE WARS
Anthony Daniels and his alter ego C-3PO
play a pivotal role in “Trespass,” an
all-new episode of the hit animated series STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, premiering
at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Jan. 30, on Cartoon Network.
While investigating the disappearance of
a clone security force on a fiercly inhospitable ice world, Anakin and Obi-Wan are
caught in the middle of a conflict between the planet’s natives and the greedy representatives of a nearby moon. In an effort
to broker a tentative peace, Anakin turns to C-3PO for help – and finds his
fluency in more than 6 million forms of communication to be most useful.
Daniels has played C-3PO on screen in all six STAR WARS movies, and has
continued in the role since the inception of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS.
With the animated series, Daniels becomes the only actor to play the same role in
every on-screen incarnation of the Saga. He has also become a spokesman and host
for the popular Art and Science of Star Wars exhibition around the world, and has
written extensively about his experiences as a part of the Star Wars phenomenon.
“I've never left the character or, rather, he's never left me,” says
Daniels. “I put him in the cupboard for a while, but people call and I take
him out again. There was a time many years ago when I thought I should move on to
other things, but then I thought that was stupid. I'm very fond of Threepio.”
Daniels says the voiceover performance
of Threepio is a welcome respite from the rigors of bringing Threepio to the screen
in live-action productions. He finds the animation process offers “quite a
lot of freedom.”
“When you're reading lines by yourself, it's not always as easy to ad-lib,” Daniels
says. “But what Dave (Filoni) and I do is to go over my lines before we start
because, sadly, I am the world's greatest expert. And I say that with a kind of wry
fun, because Threepio is kind of like my best friend, and you know your best friend
better than anyone.”
Filoni says, “It was important to have Anthony as Threepio because I wanted
to learn as much from him as I could. Anthony has incredible insight into every word
and phrase that he says. There’s rarely a line that he won’t adapt to
Threepio’s cadence, so we’ve developed a good vocabulary. We’re
both excited to do new things with Threepio, and hopefully in the future, viewers
will see us expand our view of the character. After all, Threepio is as much an icon
of Star Wars as Darth Vader.”
In “Trespass,” Threepio presents his most proper, most effective side – that
of translator. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t provide a moment
or two of levity, as is usually the case with the protocol droid.
“The thing I always liked about Threepio is that he wasn't a hero – he
was somebody who had no sense of humor and no sense of irony,” Daniels says. “He
doesn't know that he's funny. We think he's funny because he's ridiculous, he's uptight
and a bit critical and it makes us laugh at him. But his saving grace and the reason
that we like him is that he's very thoughtful and very loyal. If he's on your side,
you would have a friend to the end of your existence. Or probably to the end of his
existence, because he's loyal to a fault, to his last nut and his last bolt.”
Daniels has a clear memory of the original
reference to the Clone Wars, and the curious impression it had on the cast – though,
he admits, nobody had any idea it would grow to the proportions it has achieved within
the Star Wars universe.
“I was amused the other day to remember Mark Hamill going through his lines
with me one day, and we both kind of looked at each other regarding this casual one-liner
about ‘the Clone Wars,’” Daniels recalls. “And then of course,
it got picked up in the prequels and now it's its own TV series. Animation has grown
up. It's become very, very honorable, and I think Clone Wars has taken the
next step.”
A never-before-seen ice planet is the setting for “Trespass,” an
all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS premiering at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday,
Jan. 30, on Cartoon Network
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