Listen to the Voice of Darth Maul Amusingly Slam THE PHANTOM MENACE

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When we first heard that George Lucas was making a trilogy of Star Wars prequel films that would tell the story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, we were all excited as hell! Even the trailers that we saw for Star Wars: Episode IV - The Phantom Menace got us all pumped up for the new trilogy! Little did we know that it would turn out to be a trainwreck.

During a recent episode of Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, actor Peter Serafinowicz, who voiced the Sith warrior Darth Maul in the film, showed up to talk about his experiences with the film. He shared his experience's of being a Star Wars fan; landing the role of Darth Maul in the film; what it was like working with Lucas; being excited for the movie after seeing the trailer; and ultimately his complete disappointment in The Phantom Menace after he paid a thousand dollars to attend the premiere to see it. One of the many things that he brought up was how he thought the film was completely racist, saying:

"It reminds me of, if you’re watching Channel 4 during the day and there’s an old black-and-white film on, and someone’s in blackface, and they just bought this film for eight pounds to show and nobody’s checked it. It was like, the most racist film of the twentieth century!"

The actor recalled that most of the audience felt the same way he did and that they were just as perplexed as he was over the poor quality of the film, the shitty dialogue, and the boring story. 

Serafinowicz went on to say that the Star Wars gig was one of the worst-paying jobs he ever had. At one point, he got to interview Terrence Stamp, who played Chancellor Valorum in The Phantom Menace. It was there he learned that he wasn’t the only actor that was paid crap on the film. Stamp said that he agreed to play the role for reduced pay under the promise that Lucas would give him a gift after filming. That gift turned out to be a Phantom Menace stencil set for kids.

This is an extremely entertaining interview that you have to listen to, and you can do so in the embed below.

The Phantom Menace was the greatest disappointment since, well, anything, ever. Peter Serafinowicz voiced Darth Maul in the film. He talks about his experiences, and that moment in the cinema when you realised the film was a total disaster.