By “Star Wars” creator and filmmaker George Lucas is in Cannes this week to receive an honorary Palme d’Or to be presented to him at the festival’s closing ceremony on Saturday.
Lucas’ award is for his contributions to cinema from the franchises he created to the founding of Lucasfilm, LucasArts, VFX giant Industrial Light and Magic, and cinema audio THX.
Speaking with Variety about his work over the years ahead of that honor, Lucas talked about some of the negative criticism he’s received for his work over the years – particularly in “Star Wars”. He says:
“They would say, ‘It’s all white men’. Most of the people are aliens! The idea is you’re supposed to accept people for what they are… the idea is all people are equal.”
He adds that the only discrimination in the “Star Wars” universe was against robots, saying that was done because: “people are always discriminating against something and sooner or later”.
One of the criticisms he strongly disagreed with were people slamming the depiction of women in the films, saying:
“Who do you think the heroes are in these stories? What do you think Princess Leia was? She’s the head of the rebellion. She’s the one that’s taking this young kid who doesn’t know anything and this boisterous, I-know-everything guy who can’t do anything and trying to save the rebellion with these clowns …
And it’s the same thing with Queen Amidala. You can’t just put a woman in pants and expect her to be a hero. They can wear dresses, they can wear whatever they want. It’s their brains and their ability to think and plan and be logistical. That’s what the hero is.”
Lucas’ first film “THX-1138” premiered at Cannes and he’s since returned to the festival multiple times with various works – though not last year when “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” premiered.
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