Sunday
Mirror 9th May 1999
Daddy Of Them All
George Lucas
is the driving force behind the higely successful Star Wars series of movies. He has
created a whole science fiction family...But his true devotion is reserved for his own
children.
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He is the
technical genius who gave life to the most famous virtual offspring in Hollywood history.
Star Wars creator George Lucas has devoted much of his career to nurturing the like of
Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and soon Anakin Skywalker, the mop-headed eight year-old in The
Phantom Menace who grows up to become the dreaded Darth Vader.
However, it is the
billionaire film-maker's real family that he cares about most, and they are the reason he
has taken 16 years to follow up his last Jedi classic. The only filming devoted single
father Lucas has done in the years leading up to the eagerly-awaited Star Wars prequel has
been home videos of his three children. |
Lucas put his career
in limbo after his daughter Amanda was born 17 years ago. He says the force hit him as he
cradled baby Amander in his arms. "When my daughter was 10 hours old and I held her
for the first time, it was like a bolt of lightening hit me, a transforming jot I'll never
forget," he says. "From that moment on, that became my firct priority. Until
then, I had loved movies most. After that, movies came second. I just simply said, 'OK,
I'm retiring.' put the making of movies on the side."
After his wife
Marcia Griffinm herself a film editor, left him for a man 10 years younger, Lucas went on
to adopt two more children; daughter Katie, now 11, and son Jett, aged six.
"My kids are
adopted. I chose to have them," says the 54-year-old film maker. "I'm Mr Mom,
but it's not that I didn't realise what I was getting myself into. I was already
successful when I started having kids and that put me in a place where I could enjoy the
pleasures of children." He adds: "There's no one I admire more than single
mothers, because they are real heroes. Children are the whole point of life. Even as I was
getting divorced, I decided that taking care of the kids was the most important thing I
could do. You have to open yourself up to it, but I don't think there is any greater
spiritual joy."
The fabulously
wealthy Star Wars genius bought the 3,000-acre Skywalker Ranch in Northern Califonia, and
also owns a huge 1860's Victorian house nearby, filled with state of the art labour saving
gadgets. From the start he was determined to play a hands-on role in bringing up his
growing young family. Lucas cooks breakfast for the children and drives them to school in
his top-of-the-range BMW. As well as that, he decided to finance the new Star Wars movie
with £80 million of his own money so that he could leave set when he wanted each day to
be with his children at dinnertime. He says "If I needed to, I could just says, 'It's
my money, I'm going home.'".
However, there is
still something missing from the life of the man who seems to have everything, and that's
a partner to share it with, "I have been very lucky with my kids, but unlucky in
love," he admits. "There's a lonely part to having kids alone. I don't have the
intimacy and the sharing that you can have in a marriage, but I have pretty much
everything else." "Even though society has shifted its view on single parents,
two parents are still agood idea. Without two, the emotional need is always there. You
don't have that level of sharing. But also, you don't have to compromise." "I'd
rather be married, but I'm not. As you grow up, you understand there is no such thing as a
perfect life." After his 14-year marriage ended in 1982, Lucas fell in love with
singer Linda Ronstdt, but that relationship broke up when she didn't want to marry him. |
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The only reason he
decided to make the new sci-fi epic was because he could involve the children. "I
brought them with me when I made the movie," he says. "They hung around on my
set. Katie was in the wardrobe department, Amanda was in the make-up department, Jett rode
the camara dolly every day. And he loved the special effects and things. So they could all
be a part of it." |