During the recent Indiana Comic Con, I attended the “A Long Time Ago in a Q & A Far, Far Away” panel featuring two stars from the Star Wars universe, Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine) and Ray Park (Darth Maul). There were no empty seats in the hall. Over the course of forty minutes, the duo answered questions from a moderator and fans.

Before he answered any questions, Ian, as Palpatine, growled, “Welcome to the Dark Side.”

The crowd roared. After the crowd settled, he recounted how the part of Palpatine came his way. He was working in theater when his agent called. The part came out of the blue. He went to a meeting with the director of Return of the Jedi, Richard Marquand, and George Lucas. On his way out, George said, “Nice nose,” to Ian. When he got back to his flat, his agent called and told him that he got the part. He accepted it after his agent told him that he would be playing “the Emperor of the Universe.”

Ray grew up loving action; his idols were Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, and Bruce Lee. He started studying martial arts around the age of seven. When Ray got called in for Phantom Menace, he hoped it was for a Jedi, but the Star Wars fan was stoked to be Darth Maul. For the look of Darth Maul, the makeup team tried a bald cap first, but it took over thirty minutes to get it on and glued. He figured he would be bald one day, so wanting to see if he had any scars on his head, Ray shaved his head. He ended up finding his shaved head liberating.

Makeup was a big part in creating the role of Palpatine for Ian. He confessed to not seeing The Empire Strikes Back before he got the role, so he didn’t know what the Emperor looked like. The first time Ian went in for makeup, the person suggested he go to sleep in the chair. Four hours later, Ian woke up, looked in the mirror, and screamed. He had found the Emperor. After Return of the Jedi, Ian thought he would never play Palpatine again, considering George Lucas told him that Palpatine was dead in all forms.

Thanks to technology, we got more Star Wars, and Ian was given a chance to explore more aspects of the role. As he read the script for The Phantom Menace, the character of Darth Sidious was more appealing than the ordinary politician, Senator Palpatine, the man playing a long, subtle game. He didn’t know they were the same man until the first day of filming with Ray. According to Ian, many of the actors didn’t realize he was both until the film was released.

Ray Park and Ian McDiarmid. Photo by Michelle Ealey

To prepare himself for the role, Ray regularly trained with the stunt crew for about twelve hours a day, living the dream of playing with lightsabers. The stunts set the foundation for Darth Maul, but working with Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson helped him find the character because his fellow actors brought their characters to the fights.

Darth Maul pacing up and down during the last battle was George’s idea. Liam sitting and meditating wasn’t in the script; it was done during rehearsal, so he wasn’t sure of what to do. Ray tried to get a little Jean-Claude Van Damme in there somewhere, so he did the splits. George called cut, not liking the splits. Ray admitted that he was showing off, not knowing if he would ever get to work in another movie again. George told him he wanted Maul to be more like a caged animal, like a tiger.

The duo took questions from the audience.

A young fan asked if they liked playing the bad guy. Ray confessed that he had to learn to like playing the villain. Ian said that playing someone who is just bad can be dull. With the Emperor, he tried finding some redeeming features, but he could only find one – Palpatine enjoyed the opera, so he had to be a patron of the arts.

Ian got asked which character, Rey or Kylo Ren, would the Emperor want to train. He decided to answer as diplomatically as possible. The Emperor would want a young, lively mind, with an innocence that he can work on to convert to the dark side.

Another fan asked Ian what the inspiration was for the voice of the Emperor. Ian was surprised that he had to work on the voice to make sure his voice wasn’t replaced, something George Lucas has done before. He was told that if he could get his voice close to Clive Revill, the original voice of the Emperor, then he could keep it. After he had seen the face of the Emperor, Ian thought he looked like a repellent toad, which became the starting point for finding the voice. Seeing a performance by a Japanese actor whose voice seemed to come from the stomach motivated Ian to try to do the same. He practiced getting his voice as deep as possible. During rerecording of the dialogue in postproduction, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were there, encouraging him. Spielberg said at one point, “Oh my God, you’re so evil.” Ian was please that his hard work got to stay in the film

And then I got to ask my question.

Me: I’m curious, what do you, my Emperor, think of the fan theory that Jar Jar Binks is some sort of Sith Lord?

Ian: I like Jar Jar. I really loved the actor who played him, Ahmed Best, a wonderful actor and a great original talent. I wish George had concentrated on Ahmed instead of making him the first digitized creature, but there was a whole section in Clones where the Emperor had reason to be grateful to the creature and George cut it, I think because he felt the fans had had enough of him, but I have affection for him, and I think George still does. But as to whether he engineered any plot or had any sort of interesting plan hatched for the Emperor is a little farfetched. But we shouldn’t be too cruel on him.

The Emperor has spoken. Jar Jar is just Jar Jar.