50 Roles for 50 Actors: Dream casting the Star Wars saga

Dream casting the Star Wars saga: Charles Dance as Count Dooku

Okay, so Jackson wasn’t the only big-name actor the producers cast in a secondary role. They pulled out the big guns when they got acting legend Christopher Lee (Saruman in The Lord of the Rings, Dracula in a series of Hammer films from the ’60s and ’70s) to play Count Dooku, aka Darth Tyranus, aka a very bad man. Lee brought his booming voice and considerable screen presence to the prequels, and replacing him won’t be easy. Charles Dance might just do the trick.

Dance has been crushing it for decades, but modern audiences probably know him best as Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones, where his implacable demeanor intimidated everyone from the characters to the audience members. If Charles Dance came at me with a lightsaber and a disapproving scowl on his face, I’d do what he said.

Dance has a deep voice. He has the don’t-mess-with-me demeanor. He even has the hairline, and maybe even a few costumes leftover from Game of Thrones that would work for Star Wars with a little tailoring. I’m not sure Dance could bring the bone-dry humor to the role that Lee did, but I’m sure he’d bring more than enough to get the job done.

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