No love lost

LONDON — On-screen, Star Wars robots C-3PO and R2-D2 had a somewhat tempestuous relationship. But underneath it all, it was clear the shiny, delightfully camp humanoid interpreter and the beeping, oddly charismatic tin can were firm friends. Remove the metal suits, however, and it’s a different matter.

Despite being the only two actors to have appeared in all six existing Star Wars movies — the pair are also set to star in JJ Abrams’s forthcoming The Force Awakens — 69-year-old Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and Kenny Baker (R2-D2), 81, famously just don’t like each other very much.

Through the years, the two actors have been repeatedly sniping at each other in interviews. While Baker is responsible for the majority of the insults, Daniels — isn’t above the occasional sly dig.

Baker has often said Daniels was stand-offish, refusing to mix with the rest of the Star Wars cast.

“Anthony doesn’t mix at all — he keeps himself to himself,” he told Hollywood.com, when asked about his relationship with his droid co-star in 2005. ”He never wants to have a drink with any of us. Once when I said hello to him, he just turned his back on me and said, ‘Can’t you see I’m having a conversation?’ I was blazing with rage. It was the rudest thing anyone had ever done to me. I was furious. It was unbelievable.”

In 2008, Baker and Daniels were both interviewed for the TV documentary Bring Back Star Wars, in which presenter Justin Lee Collins attempted to reunite some of the original cast, including Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams and Mark Hamill. Baker was one of only three cast members who made it to a London reunion: The others were David Prowse, who wears the Darth Vader suit, and Jeremy Bulloch, who plays Boba Fett (although Fisher did tape a video message). However, before the event, when asked whether or not he would be attending, Baker said: “It depends. If you invite his lordship, the one with the golden balls. If he comes, I won’t be there.”

Still, Baker insisted that he doesn’t hate Daniels. “The so-called feud has been blown out of all proportion and I absolutely detested the Justin Lee Collins Bring Back Star Wars programme where it was clear that Collins was out to sensationalise the situation,” Baker said in a 2011 interview.

“I maintain that I don’t hate Daniels,” he continued, before quickly adding: “I just don’t like him and have never understood what his problem is. Other than Daniels thinks he was the greatest gift to George Lucas and I was merely a nobody who operated a robot’s controls and didn’t contribute anything from an acting perspective.”

That same year, Daniels opted to downplay his co-star’s contribution to the film, telling The Mirror: “I never saw him. I mean, R2-D2 doesn’t even speak. He might as well be a bucket.”

But that’s all in the past: What about the present? In an interview earlier this week, Daniels again implied that, when it came to making Star Wars, poor Baker didn’t actually do very much, telling The Sun: “He’s not actually on set. I haven’t seen him for years. His name is on the credits as a sort of … I don’t know, a good luck charm, a courtesy. He’s a talisman.”

“He’s been saying unpleasant things about me. I just don’t comment,” he added. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH