20 Little Known Star Wars Facts
12. The Real Darth Vader
The physical presence of Vader was portrayed instead by English bodybuilder and actor David Prowse.
Prowse, who had previously appeared in films like “Casino Royale” and “A Clockwork Orange,” was cast by Lucas for his sheer size.
Originally, the actor was in talks to play either Chewbacca or Vader, but he claims that he chose the villain so that he wouldn’t be trapped inside a hot “monkey suit” throughout the filming process.
During filming, Prowse performed Vader’s lines, but his voice was muffled by the helmet, so it was always clear that the dialogue would need to be dubbed. Before the release of “A New Hope,” Prowse was under the impression that he would be called into the recording studio to re-record the dialogue himself, and he was quite surprised when he went to see the film and heard Jones delivering his lines.
Prowse was among the actors who weren’t let in on the secret of Vader being Luke’s father. Secrecy was paramount on the set of “The Empire Strikes Back,” and each actor was only given a few pages of the script to memorize at a time. When it came time to film the final scene, Prowse was also given alternate dialogue to deliver so the crew wouldn’t find out about the ultimate plot twist.
While George Lucas had originally told Prowse that his face and voice would appear on camera when Vader is unmasked at the end of “Return of the Jedi,” plans changed during production, and Sebastian Shaw filled the role instead.
