Star Wars Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid ‘thought he’d gone much too far’ in Revenge of the Sith duel

28 April 2025

Ian McDiarmid “thought [he’d] gone too much too far” during his Palpatine vs Mace Windu duel in ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’.

Ian McDiarmid ‘thought [he’d] gone too much too far’ during his Palpatine vs Mace Windu duel in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

The 80-year-old actor – who has portrayed Emperor Palpatine in the sci-fi saga since 1983’s ‘Return of the Jedi’ – battled Jedi master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) during director George Lucas’ 2005 prequel blockbuster, though has now admitted he thought he had overdone it during the fight.

He told Variety: “I thought I’d gone much too far, and George said, ’No, no, you can go much further.’ It’s the moment when the monster becomes available and he is ecstatic with delight because he can lose the hypocritical face.

“When we were doing ‘The Phantom Menace’, George said, ‘You should think of your face as a carapace’ – as if we’d made me up, and underneath was the real person. That was great, because to believe that my own face and voice were utterly manufactured was a huge help.”

McDiarmid added he found playing Palpatine in ‘Revenge of the Sith’ to be “more satisfying”, as he got to work more closely with Anakin Skywalker actor Hayden Christensen and featured more in the story.

He said: “I had more to do in ‘Revenge of the Sith’ – I had more screen time, more time with Hayden – so that was more satisfying.

“I also had no idea that Palpatine would have power with a weapon, so to find that he was very good – to give my stunt double full credit – with a saber was interesting.”

Even so, McDiarmid recalled Palpatine’s arc from a scheming senator to the authoritarian galactic dictator “wasn’t mapped out at all” when he was brought back for the ‘Star Wars’ prequel trilogy with 1999’s…