George Lucas Calls Disney “White Slavers” in Charlie Rose interview

George Lucas has criticized the latest installment of “Star Wars,” the series he created, in an interview with Charlie Rose, describing the film as too “retro” for his taste and jokingly comparing the Walt Disney Company, which bought the rights to the franchise in 2012, to “white slavers” who had bought his children.

The hourlong interview, broadcast on Dec. 25 and released online this week, focused on Mr. Lucas’s legacy, which was celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honors this month. But he was harsh in criticizing the film industry for focusing on profit over storytelling.

At one point he said that filmmakers in the Soviet Union had more freedom than their counterparts in Hollywood, who, he maintained, “have to adhere to a very narrow line of commercialism.”

Mr. Lucas appeared particularly unhappy with the direction the “Star Wars” franchise has taken since he sold the rights to it, along with Lucasfilm, his company, to Disney for $4 billion. He compared the sale to a breakup and a divorce.

“These are my kids. All the Star Wars films,” he said. “I love them, I created them, I’m very intimately involved in them.”

He added, trailing off with a laugh: “And I sold them to the white slavers that take these things and. …”

Mr. Lucas said that he decided to sell his company in part because his filmmaking interests had changed and that the more experimental movies he wanted to make would not be financially successful enough to ensure the health of the company and the well-being of its employees.

Still, he said he had begun working on another “Star Wars” film before the sale, including preparing story treatments and “working with a writer.” But, he said, Disney was not “that keen to have me involved.”

“They decided they didn’t want to use those stories,” he said. “They decided they were going to do their own thing. So I decided, ‘Fine.’ ”

The film that Disney made, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” has grossed more than $1 billion worldwide since its release on Dec. 18 and received mostly positive reviews from critics.

But not from Mr. Lucas. On Mr. Rose’s show, he criticized the producers and writers of the latest film for emphasizing familiar elements of his previous work — some of which he said had issues — over innovation and storytelling of their own.

“The first three movies had all kinds of issues,” he said of the original trilogy, which was released between 1977 and 1983. “They looked at the stories and said, ‘We want to make something for the fans.’ All I wanted to do was tell a story of what happened. It started here, and it went there.”

“They wanted to do a retro movie,” he continued. “I don’t like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different, make them completely different with different planets, different spaceships, to make it new.”

Getting over “Star Wars” is like getting over a lost love, Mr. Lucas said. He told Mr. Rose that he tried to approach it the way one would approach the end of a relationship, by focusing on the future instead of the past.

“You have to put it behind you, and it’s a very, very, very hard thing to do,” he said. “But you have to just cut it off and say, ‘O.K., end of ballgame, I have to move on.’ And everything in your body says, ‘Don’t, you can’t.’”

On Thursday, Mr. Lucas apologized for his “white slavers” remark and backtracked on his criticism of Disney.

“I misspoke and used a very inappropriate analogy and for that I apologize,” he said in a statement released to several trade publications.

“I am thrilled that Disney has the franchise and is moving it in such exciting directions in film, television and the parks. Most of all I’m blown away with the record breaking blockbuster success of the new movie and am very proud of J.J. and Kathy,” he said, referring to J. J. Abrams, the “Force Awakens” director, and Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm’s president.

december 2015

[CmogVT]

Only watched 15 minutes and I find it really interesting how Charlie is really trying to get George to boast about himself. But George is being very humble in my eyes. Love it.

[CrazyBear]

Have you heard the tragedy of George Lucas The Wise? It's not a story Disney would tell you

[whitecrow]

I don't care what anybody says about George Lucas. I like him; always will.

[ghambino]

George Lucas is a very humble man. I love it. We need more people like him.

[scrappyclimber]

Love how he doesn’t care about all his achievements. “I was a good dad”. Great man

[renues]

I like that George doesn't care about awards. He gets that it's all about politics and getting attention. Charlie was angry with how dismissive he was.

[jasonblack]

"what do you want the first line of your obituary to say?"
"I was a great dad"
*applauds silently*

[thatsmorelikeittt]

I love how humble George is and it’s killing Charlie. George is just a normal guy who did the impossible at the time and accidentally hit the motherload

[MegaChris]

This feels more like an interrogation than an interview.

[backcenter]

Amazing how we sit here in 2019 and realize that he was 100% correct.

[jeremysennett]

Watching George's reservation and calmness to Charlie's emotional intensity was very sobering. I have a greater appreciation for him now in several ways.

[gojirajenkins]

When George said " He was a great Dad". I choked up because we all want to be the best Dad ever. George is the most human of us all

[penya]

Goerge Lucas: starts to develop an interesting topic of conversation

Rose: ok let’s change the subject

[Felix-igpc]

This is the most disrespected man in movie history. And the worst thing is that he wasn't only disrespected by critics and other media, he was disrespected massively by his own fans. I hope he knows that there are still a lot of people who love him for pouring his heart and soul into the movies we watched growing up and that we respect him for being who he is.

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

After seeing what Disney did the sequels, I can 100% understand where Lucas is coming from. Star Wars thrived because Lucas went against all the Hollywood culture. He didn't care about the money, the corporations, the pointless red tape, the bureaucracy. Lucas just wanted to make a good movie born form nothing but pure imagination that would touch the hearts of audiences everywhere and he succeeded.

But everything Disney did was the exact opposite of Lucas. They are a soulless cooperation who were bureaucratic to the core. They didn't care about the story, the character, the legacy, the plan, they just cared about the money and their movies are everything Lucas's Star Wars were not. Even those who criticize the prequels can at least admit they had more heart that all the sequels combined.

Man, I feel so bad for George. Star Wars was his baby and the ruined it just to make a quick buck. If I hated the Sequels as much as I did, I can only image how Lucas feels about it.

[thedokkodoka]

A timeline:

0:11 "You have every honor that a man could have." George: We just wanted to make cool movies and impress each other
2:47 Arts and artists have always been innovative - artistic problems drive technological change
5:36 Directors are evil emperors with less money and less casualties
9:00 What George's obituary will say
10:28 Not everything can be accomplished because the technology or something else limits the reality of creators
11:48 Medals and honors vs "awwws" and dropping jaws
17:17 George talks the lack of freedom to make unpopular movies under "commercialism" and the great freedom of movie makers in the USSR
18:40 Charlie Rose trying to get George in line, but George still criticizes capitalist movie making
24:45 Star Wars as a movie on mythology
26:07 George being humble on Star Wars
26:59 George on the most fun movie to make by him
28:13 The cutting and reducing of an idea into a movie that works
29:42 Technology and imagination
31:50 Where did the idea of the Force come from?
32:48 Religions and life force (God?)
33:48 Star Wars changing the capitalist movie industry
34:59 Good and evil changes in the movie industry
35:22 "People tend to overdo it" - Everyone making terrible starship movies after Star Wars
36:00 George Lucas starts an epic rant of 18 minutes against big business (Disney), tech fetish, dull stories

[Mothman]

Watching Charlie Rose froth at the mouth because George Lucas doesn't really care he got an award from Washington is highly entertaining.

[sokandueler]

“Because you have worn all these hats - filmmaker, director, writer, innovator - what do you want the first line of your obituary to say?”

“I was a great dad.”

I love this man.

[Julieglam]

He has stayed true to what HIS vision of filmmaking is. Studios don't like that, they never have. They only care about the money, NOT the art form. The people who run the studios have no friggin clue about what it means to be a visionary or an artist. I love that he blazes his own trail and sees that in order to get the films he wants made he has to do it on his own. Very intelligent man. He doesn't spew BS like so many others in the business of filmmaking do incessantly. Just the fact that he doesn't give a shit about awards speaks to that.

[telallproductions]

He was in the prime of his career and took 15 years off of making movies to be a dad. Awesome man!