George Lucas’ daughter put an end to Joseph Fiennes’ Star Wars dream

Joseph Fiennes missed out on a lead role in Star Wars because George Lucas’ young daughter didn’t like him.
Shakespeare in Love star Joseph aced his way through numerous auditions to play Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel trilogy, but ultimately lost out to Ewan McGregor.
Explaining why he was overlooked, Joseph told The Wrap that the casting decision was out of his hands, regardless of how well he performed in the screen test.
“I auditioned for a great director,” he recalled. “It was whittled down after many auditions to myself and another fine actor who I was at that time at drama school with.
“(At my final audition I met the director’s) lovely, delightful child. Must’ve been around age five – and he introduced me, ‘this is Joe and he’s quite possibly Obi-Wan Kenobi. His daughter turned around and said ‘I don’t like this guy. He’s weird. I don’t like him.’ And that’s how my audition went.”
Ewan first starred as the legendary Jedi Master in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and voiced the character in box office smash Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.
Meanwhile, Kurt Russell also reflected on missing out on a part in the original Star Wars movie, Episode IV – A New Hope, as the film celebrates its 40th anniversary on Thursday (25May17).
He’d auditioned for the roles of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, with the parts eventually going to Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford respectively.
“I didn’t have any idea what I was talking about,” Kurt laughed to USA Today of his audition tape.
“I was actually in the final running, but I needed to give an answer to ABC to do a Western show so I asked George (Lucas) ‘Do you think you’re going to use me?’ He said, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to put you with him, or him with those two guys together.’ I got to go to work so I did the Western.”