Anthony Daniels makes C-3PO anxious, officious and vulnerable without a face that can change expression. We admire the precision of the voice and movement, even when the film around him disappoints.
Fi1m perspective
C-3PO's face stays fixed while Anthony Daniels makes him fret. His mime training helps him get feeling through the restrictive gold suit, with voice and movement doing work that another actor could leave to a glance. The anxiety makes the insistence on correct behaviour tolerable: we can recognise someone frightened beneath it. He established the performance in Star Wars (1977), returning in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). That one character has come to define his screen career.
In George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), Daniels supplies the voice of the incomplete C-3PO. We warmed to that fretful voice because it makes the droid seem vulnerable, rather than merely there to explain something. Lucas spends too long explaining things elsewhere, and the racing and lightsaber fighting are much livelier than the people. Daniels offers a modest pleasure within a film we find mixed, though his contribution cannot make its faults easier to overlook. The design and music deserve a livelier film too, and an actor cannot supply the interest missing from the writing.
Prime Suspect (1991) gives him a different job, as a pathologist in an absorbing police drama. Helen Mirren's difficult, compelling Jane Tennison is at its centre, and the acting keeps us interested in the people even when later cases press their social concerns too hard. We would recommend the programme readily, while keeping Daniels's credit in proportion: this is chiefly Mirren's evening. His occasional screen work outside Star Wars leaves C-3PO as the part on which a judgement of his acting largely has to rest.
He was still playing the droid in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), more than four decades after the first film. Keeping that voice and those physical restrictions expressive is an achievement, even if familiarity can make the fussing wear thin. We value Daniels most when the anxiety makes the robot feel vulnerable; the officiousness alone would soon become tiresome. Start with Star Wars (1977), and notice how much he communicates without being able to raise an eyebrow.
Biography
Anthony Daniels is an English actor and mime artist. He trained at Rose Bruford College and began his career in theatre.
He is best known for portraying C-3PO in the Star Wars films, appearing in every theatrical entry in the Skywalker saga from Star Wars (1977) to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), as well as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). He voiced the character in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). Daniels has also appeared in British television, including as a pathologist in Prime Suspect (1991). He published the memoir I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story in 2019.
