Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1983: Ian McDiarmid in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Ian McDiarmid did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.

Return of the Jedi is of course the uneven finale to the original Star Wars trilogy, this as it features some proper closure to the films, with some notable heights but also a few, then, nadirs that were a preview of some problems to come.

Now for the review of this performance I would ask that we all journey back to May of 1983 when this film premiered, and forget all that came after, for the moment. The only thing we knew about the Emperor was he was the even greater evil behind seemingly greatest evil of Darth Vader. A force we only saw through a hologram in the previous film, where other than his weird fish eyes, seemed like a general evil British sort. Well this time we see him in the flesh, played now by Ian McDiarmid, who was unknown and around 39 years old as this ancient evil. Now let's forget about the past, and say this is a character who became an iconic character in Star Wars, but just general, particularly as the manipulative evil draped in a black cloak. I will say if just ole' fish eyes had been the Emperor I doubt that would've been the case, as what McDiarmid he does is craft an original character. This is seen from his first scene where he arrives on the incomplete new death star, where we barely see his face however two elements of the essential impact of the character still resonate. That being the guttural voice McDiarmid fashion that both eliminates his actual age, and grants the character a needed idiosyncrasy. This is as obviously it would be hard to counter the sort of booming dominance of Vader, as offered by James Earl Jones, so McDiarmid wisely subverts that with a more snakelike, yet as incisive voice that seems as match for Vader, almost through how different it is. Of course, also unforgettable is his laugh at the end of the scene, where he marks the occasion of his plan to destroy the rebels and turn Luke Skywalker to their side. A cackle of McDiarmid's that just seems perfect in its sheer unadulterated evil, the laugh of a man of whose actions are not of some duty, deranged philosophy or some other compromise, no just of evil. McDiarmid's performance is not subtle, well it is if you compare it to the places he went in the later prequels, in that he essentially creates the character who is the pure evil, to be compared to Darth Vader, who in this film, has become the conflicted evil. This comes to the head when Luke surrenders himself to try to save Vader, leading, himself, Vader and the Emperor together in the Emperor's throne room. This sequence isolated is the climax of the trilogy and the highlight of this film, a highlight of the trilogy as well. McDiarmid is unquestionably part of this, as his way of delivering every line, with that certain vile oozing way of speaking makes each of lines memorable almost by the virtue of that. McDiarmid to his credit doesn't say every line the same either, as his way of switching the type of evil of his lines is key to making the Emperor a memorable villain. I have particular affection for his trolling way of saying "I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operation when your friend arrive". More focused upon however is his attempt to allure Luke in with his almost sexual way of speaking Luke's "hate" and his need to strike him down. This in particular his face of feeling Luke's anger, that is let's say euphoric to be as classy as possible. This in McDiarmid does effectively create the sort strange power of the Emperor even as he sits in his chair as basically breathing corpse. McDiarmid does though capture a certain magnetism in that unabashed evil, that he portrays as something that seems to be make a man both dying, yet quite satisfied with one's self. That only changes when Luke obviously will be defiant to the end leaving the Emperor to use his lighting force powers to try to kill him. There McDiarmid is effective in sort of showing just the pure fiendish killer in his mix of glee and hate as unleashes the fury, and the best moment being his devious smile as McDiarmid coldly notes to Luke "You Will die". With this McDiarmid delivers a successful performance which makes a character worthy to be noted as the greater behind seemingly that greatest evil. McDiarmid properly doesn't bring any shades of grey, making the Emperor a demonic fiend as he should be. In doing this though he crafts a unique and memorable character. Any character as earnestly imitated as he, must be remarked as a success, and that is in McDiarmid's performance. His whole creation is a riff on something we'd seen before, but in a new way. McDiarmid made an undeniable impact, that would go on to be used, and eventually exploited when the series went on.