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

Dream casting the Star Wars saga: Ralph Fiennes as Governor Wilhuff Tarkin

Darth Vader may have killed a bunch of children in Revenge of the Sith, but even he didn’t blow up a whole planet. In Star Wars, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin (also known as Grand Moff Tarkin) uses the power of the Death Star to obliterate the planet of Alderaan, committing genocide on an entire population. This makes him one very bad dude.

Among other qualifications, Ralph Fiennes has played a number of characters who know a thing or two about genocide. He played sadistic Nazi commander Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List and later brought his considerable talents to the role of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films. Fiennes is actually a very versatile actor, but he plays cold and creepy extremely well and would kill it as an Imperial officer so merciless and removed from the responsibility that he’ll murder millions of people with the push of a button.

The only problem I see with this casting choice is that, at 51, Fiennes doesn’t yet have the distinctive, almost skeletal facial features actor Peter Cushing did when he filmed Star Wars (Cushing was 74 when the movie came out). Those features gave Tarkin an especially menacing aura, but Fiennes’ acting ability should make up for it. Also, there’s always makeup—a few age lines are probably nothing next to whatever prosthetics he wore to play Voldemort.

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