10 Movie Actors Who Only Played By Their Own Rules
2. Alec Guinness - Only Agreeing To Do Star Wars After His Specific Conditions Were Met
Long before the galaxy far, far away was an all-conquering multi-billion dollar franchise and one of the most important series in all of cinema, Sir Alec Guinness saw something in George Lucas' brainchild. But he was only willing to don the now-famous cloak of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi if a few of his conditions were met.
On top of being excused from the arduous task of promoting Star Wars: A New Hope, the Oscar winning thespian convinced Lucas and co to pay him 2.25% of the one fifth gross royalties paid to the galaxy's creator.
In the end, despite Guinness often chastising the original film's "rubbish" writing and even branding the filming process as "tedious to a degree", A New Hope went on to be a global success and earned the star a boat-load of money and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Yet, things could have been even better for the wise old space wizard, as it later came to light that the producers behind the film had actually screwed the actor out of an additional .25% - which had been verbally agreed on between Guinness and Lucas.
It may not sound like a lot, but when you take into account that this space opera monster has earned the Guinness estate over $80 million (and counting), that extra quarter percent starts to look like a rather large figure.
Still, $80 million isn't too bad a payday for some "fairytale rubbish", I suppose.