Widely regarded as the world’s biggest movie franchise, it’s strange to think that Star Wars started life as a low budget 1977 fantasy science fiction drama.
Made for $11 million all those years ago, that first movie ended up raking in $775.4 million worldwide, spawning a further two sequels, a prequel trilogy and a whole glut of new movies following Disney’s acquisition of the franchise.
Much of that has to do with the iconic and eclectic characters presented throughout the movies. Characters that you could not only root for but ones that would probably kick your butt if you talked back to them.
There’s Harrison Ford’s gun-toting, wise-cracking, space smuggler Han Solo and Mark Hamill’s earnest but determined Jedi-in-training Luke Skywalker, for starters.
Throw in Carrie Fisher’s fiercely independent Princess Leia and you had a series of protagonists who you felt could handle themselves in any given situation – and that’s just the good guys.
In Darth Vader alone, Star Wars boasts arguably cinema’s biggest awesome villain and someone capable of striking fear into almost any Star Wars fan with the sound of his breathing alone.
Even the prequel movies, Jar-Jar Binks and all, boasted their fair share of kick-butt characters, with Darth Maul the most obvious example. However, just because a character or actor comes across as a tough guy in the big screen doesn’t necessarily mean they should be feared in real life.
In fact, some of these actor types aren’t all that badass at all once the cameras stop rolling.
Here are the 13 Star Wars Stars Who Are Legitimately Tough (And 12 Who Are Just Tough On Screen).
Tough: David Prowse
His distinctive English accent (Bristolian to be precise) may have prevented him from voicing the part of Darth Vader but the man behind that iconic mask was more than a worthy match for the Sith Lord.
As a towering presence on the screen, David Prowse was also something of a colossus when it came to overcoming adversity. Very much a graduate from the school of hard knocks, Prowse grew up with ambitions of becoming a rugby player until a freak knee problem ended those hopes.
Rugby is a pretty tough game in itself (basically American Football without the body armor) but, undeterred, he decided to pursue another sport a few years later: bodybuilding.
It may seem like a lot of greased-up, muscle-bound guys drenched in baby oil, but bodybuilding requires an incredible level of commitment. Blood, sweat, and tears are a necessary component– and Prowse didn’t just dabble in bodybuilding either: at one point he was among the very best.
In the three years from 1962 onwards, the six-foot-seven-inch bohemoth was crowned British Heavyweight Weightlifting Champion. He also represented England as an athlete at the Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia.
From here, he went on to rub shoulders with the likes of Lou Ferrigno and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Mr. Universe contest.
Heck, this guy used to perform a special one-man show under the stage name Jack The Ripper that involved him ripping up phone books. Whatever his differences with Lucas might be, one thing is undeniable: Prowse is one tough guy.
Not Tough: Carrie Fisher
Fisher’s difficult upbringing is well documented. It started at an early age when her father, Eddie Fisher, left her mother Debbie Reynolds with Carrie and her younger brother Todd to be with Elizabeth Taylor.
They spent much of their subsequent childhood in the company of their mother, something Carrie found difficult to deal with – especially out in public.
“I overheard people saying, ‘She thinks she’s so great because she’s Debbie Reynolds’ daughter!’ And I didn’t like it; it made me different from other people and I wanted to be the same,” she told the New York Times.
Damaged by her mother’s fame, Fisher had similar issues with her father, who had deserted his family. It created a strange dynamic, where Carrie became obsessed with impressing him.
“I started reading really early,” Fisher recalled The Los Angeles Times in 2008. “I wanted to impress my father, who is unimpressable … My family called me ‘the bookworm’ and they didn’t say it in a nice way. I fell in love with words.”
Though Fisher’s family dynamic did inadvertently lay the foundations for her successful acting career, in reality, it also created the vulnerable character.
Carrie struggled with bipolar disorder and drug issues in her later years. She overcame these issues eventually though. Carrie Fisher wasn’t tough in the traditional sense – but she was a fighter.
Tough: Liam Neeson
It took Star Wars fans nine years to discover how much of an awesome character Neeson could be on the big screen. Easily dispatched by Darth Maul and his double-ended lightsaber when he played Qui-Gon-Jinn in The Phantom Menace back in 1999, it wouldn’t be until 2008 and Taken that fans would feel the full force of the Northern Irishman.
However, anyone who knew Neeson from an early age would have known the truth: he was as tough as they come.
Growing up in Northern Ireland, the actor spent his formative years boxing. Boxing takes fitness, focus and a lot of discipline.
More significantly, it requires getting punched in the face repeatedly. Though Neeson had ambitions of making it as a professional, his first defeat in the ring proved to be his undoing.
“I didn’t get knocked out, but I was beat and I came out of the ring and my father was with me and he said, ‘OK son, go and get changed,’ and I looked at him and I thought, ‘Changed… What’s he talking about?’” he told Irish Central.
“It was very scary and it lasted about 10 minutes. I literally didn’t know if I was a human being, and I thought, ‘That’s it,’” he said.
Despite hanging up his gloves, Neeson has maintained a keen interest in the sport and has maintained a reputation as someone who had a lot of potential as a fighter in his younger years.
Not Tough: Oscar Isaac
It shouldn’t come as a massive surprise to learn that the Julliard-trained Isaac isn’t exactly the toughest cookie in the box. Born in his mother’s native Guatemala, Isaac actually grew up in Miami where he enjoyed a pretty good time of things.
The man behind Rebel Alliance ruffian Poe Dameron is more than capable of coming off as something of a rebel, though – he was expelled from school at a young age, for example.
That doesn’t tell the entire story, though. For one thing, Isaac was attending a swanky private school at the time and, secondly, he got expelled for the most ridiculous reason.
“I’d petted some animals I wasn’t supposed to pet,” he told Details magazine, via E! “The school was built around this guy’s ranch, and there was a big wall, and we never knew what was on the other side. Me and my friend jumped over and found all these exotic animals—guard emus and the craziest tiny little beavers. We just started petting them all. Why wouldn’t you? But the guy complained.”
Though Isaac insists other incidents involving fire extinguishes and graffiti also played a part, it will still go down as the silliest sounding way to earn a reputation as a bad boy of sorts.
Tough: Harrison Ford
Han Solo has always been a man of action. In the early part of his career, before he got his big break with Star Wars, for example, Ford kept the wolves from the door by working as a professional carpenter.
The confidence to take up a profession that requires the use of dangerous tools day in, day out, is impressive enough but what makes Ford’s efforts so much more impressive is the fact he was entirely self-taught.
However, the thing that really separates Ford from the boys is his love of flying. Not only is flying an extremely dangerous hobby to take up, but its one Ford has also learned firsthand can be incredibly dangerous.
He’s learned that over the course of a series of crashes and mid-air near misses.
A pilot since taking it up as a hobby of sorts in the 1960s, Ford most recently made the headlines in February 2017, when he mistakenly landed on a taxiway at John Wayne Airport, coming perilously close to hitting an American Airlines 737 plane that was using the runway at the time.
Ford had been directed to land his single-engine Husky on an adjacent runway but missed the mark. It almost ended in disaster, but Ford kept his cool throughout. He’s been a hero too, once rescuing a kid who got separated from his group in Yellowstone Park.
Ford rescued him by helicopter. Now, if that doesn’t sound like Han Solo, nothing does
Not Tough: Woody Harrelson
Though he plays serial killers and hard-boiled detectives with aplomb, Harrelson happens to be a pretty mellowed out kind of guy. This is surprising when you consider his background.
His parents split when he was still a child and took wildly diverging paths from there. While his mother immersed herself in religion as a Presbyterian, his dad was in and out of jail before Harrelson learned the grim truth: he was a contract assassin for hire.
Charles V. Harrelson was twice jailed for claiming lives, the second time landing two life sentences for the first demise of an American judge in the 20th century. He even claimed to have been involved in the passing of John F. Kennedy.
It’s hardly a surprise to learn Woody took his own, more peaceful path. As a long-time devil’s lettuce advocate who recently quit smoking but remains fully supportive of its use, Harrelson also happens to be an environmental activist.
So much so that, in October 2009, he was handed an honorary degree by York University for his contribution to environmental education, sustainability, and activism. He’s mellowed out even further from the party animal he once was in the ’90s too.
Once asked by Vulture to talk about the biggest misconception people have about him, he said. “They think I’m a party animal, which … I am a party animal. I mean, that might be one thing… But on the other hand, I haven’t … I’m now extremely moderate.” Message received, Woody.
Tough: Christopher Lee
“When the Second World War finished I was 23 and already I had seen enough horror to last me a lifetime,” the late actor Sir Christopher Lee once told The Telegraph. He wasn’t exagerating.
Born in 1922 and educated privately, Lee joined the Royal Air Force in 1940, just prior to the Second World War.
Capable of speaking several languages, he also worked in several secretive military roles in the years that followed. Though Lee was always keen to downplay his role in the conflict, reports suggest he played a role in the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in North Africa in 1941, sneaking behind enemy lines to destroy enemy aircraft and supplies.
His languages skills also saw him conducting special missions across Europe, tracking down Nazi criminals.
Earning the nickname Duke or Spy, Lee saw the horror of the Second World War left behind first hand and was almost killed on two separate occasions, contracting malaria along the way.
Though historian Gavin Mortimer has disputed some of these claims, Lee’s reluctance to talk and Mortimer’s own admission that the actor still played an important part in the war effort, means the man behind the villainous Count Dooku gets the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Not Tough: Samuel L. Jackson
He played Mace Windu, the second most powerful Jedi after Yoda, but Jackson has tended to let his words, rather than his lightsaber, do the talking in real-life. That’s not to say the Pulp Fiction star wasn’t a badass, per se. Especially in his younger years.
Back then, he was more of a politically-minded, though. In 1969, Jackson even got himself expelled from the historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
Jackson landed himself in serious trouble after locking several of the college’s board members in a building for two whole days. He was protesting the school’s curriculum at the time and the overall governance of the institution.
Jackson was a very active participant in the civil rights movement at the time, frequently attending rallies in the 1960s and showing strong support for Martin Luther King Jr. When King passed away, Jackson attended his funeral as an usher and went straight from there to Memphis for an equal rights march that further radicalised his view of the US.
The result was the Morehouse stand-off, with Jackson one of several radical students who held the college’s board against their will. They wanted, among other things, more black people on the governing board of their institution.
Though Morehouse relented to their demands, Jackson was expelled for his actions. Not tough, perhaps, but undoubtedly badass.
Tough: Adam Driver
Driver may come off as the most petulant Sith to ever grace a galaxy far, far away but, as it turns out the actor behind Kylo Ren is actually a surprisingly tough guy in real life. It all dates back to his formative years when Driver found himself at something of a personal crossroads in his life.
Living with his mother and stepfather’s house in Indiana, Driver had just been rejected by Juilliard drama school when 9/11 happened.
Watching those scenes unfold, Driver revealed in a Ted Talk years later that he felt a sudden “overwhelming sense of duty.” He was feeling “generally pissed off” at the time and lacking confidence. So he did something unexpected: he joined the Marines.
Signing up seemed to be the answer to his problems, with Driver heading off for two years of training. A physically and mentally demanding experience, Driver learned the necessary discipline and focus that ultimately helped him become the actor he is today.
He also emerged from the experience a hell of a lot tougher than the average ordinary joe. Driver never saw active duty though – he was discharged just before his unit got shipped out to Iraq after picking up a bad injury while out mountain biking.
The actor still regards the experience as invaluable.
Not Tough: Natalie Portman
Portman didn’t get much of an opportunity to show Padmé Amidala’s tough side, save for a couple of scenes in which she fired a blaster in the general direction of some unseen foe. This was a real waste, considering the fact Portman has shown herself a capable and versatile action star in the years since.
Instead, much of Padmé’s screen time in the Star Wars franchise involved looking either Queen like or incredibly pensive while gazing out across some form of balcony.
It’s not a role or performance anyone looks back on fondly – including Portman. Her character still kicks butt ,though, however briefly we may see her do it – and that’s still a stark contrast to Portman in real life.
Portman is a seriously smart woman. She’s the first Harvard alum to win an Academy Award and has twice been published in scientific journals.
She can also speak six different languages and took graduate courses at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
When Portman enrolled at Harvard she did so under the name Natalie Herschlag, her birth name, to keep under the radar. Her work stood out, though, with several professors labeling her an exceptional student. So she’s not tough, but she’s basically a genius.
Tough: Ray Park
Darth Maul was possibly the coolest thing to come out of the quagmire that was The Phantom Menace. Some of the credit for that has to go to Ray Park. While Peter Serafinowicz provided the voice of the popular Star Wars villain, it’s Park who ended up embodying him on the screen.
What many fans may not realize, however, is that Park pretty much landed the gig off the back of being tough.
Born and raised in London, Park began studying martial arts from the astonishing age of just seven. Having started out training in Chinese Norther Shaolin Kung Fu, Park had also learned kickboxing, wushi, and taekwondo by the tender age of 14.
By 16, he was competing and winning Great Britain’s Martial Arts National Championship, embarking on a series of tournaments around the world.
By 1998, he had begun working as a stunt man and ended up being cast by George Lucas during pre-production. Lucas was looking for actors who were exceptionally skilled with weapons to double for the film’s various Sith and Jedi characters during fight scenes.
However, Park’s performance of his acrobatic wushu skills with a cudgel and sword was so impressive, it landed him the part of Darth Maul. Being tough basically helped Park land the role of a lifetime.
Not Tough: Benicio del Toro
Del Toro may walk the walk and talk the talk of a tough guy, but in reality, he’s enjoyed a way more sheltered existence than some would otherwise assume.
Born to two lawyer parents in Puerto Rico in 1967, Del Toro grew up in Pennsylvania, where he developed an early interest in basketball and acting. Though he had a keen interest in the arts, Del Toro actually embarked on an altogether different career as a young man.
Initially, it looked like he would be following in his family’s footsteps, after winning a place at the University of California in San Diego.
Del Toro originally enrolled to study business but ended up changing subjects after winning a big part in an on-campus play. In order to perform, he had to declare himself a drama student.
He did this, much to the chagrin of his family, who were convinced he would never make it as an actor. Del Toro was undeterred though, moving to New York after graduation to continue his theatre studies.
He eventually won a scholarship to study at the Stella Adler Conservatory where he stayed for three years before embarking on a fully-fledged acting career.
It’s not exactly a rags-to-riches story, is it? More a riches to even bigger riches story and definitely not the origins of an actual tough guy.
Tough: Alec Guinness
The man behind Obi-Wan Kenobi was every bit as tough as his on-screen persona. Guinness served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve service, in the Second World War.
As an officer on a troop landing craft, he was involved in several important missions including the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.
He also took in the US, Italy and the former Yugoslavia during his time in the forces but, like Christopher Lee, has always downplayed his role in the biggest global conflict the world has ever witnessed.
Recalling his experience in his autobiography, Guinness said: “When, nowadays, I am asked what I consider the best performance I have given, I reply, ‘That of a very inefficient, undistinguished, junior officer in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. It also proved to be the longest-running show I have ever been in.’”
To emerge from this kind of conflict unscathed is a pretty impressive achievement and one that makes Guinness just as tough as Obi-Wan.
Particularly his incarnation of the character, who had a pretty easy time of things compared to Ewan McGregor’s younger version.
However, while McGregor may have been given more opportunities to shine on the action front, Guinness is the only genuine tough guy of the pair.
Not Tough: Ben Mendelsohn
Ben Mendelsohn has made a habit of turning in sensational performances as some of the most unscrupulous villains to ever grace the big screen. It all started with the acclaimed Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom and continued on into films like The Dark Knight Rises, Black Sea, and Ready Player One.
Sandwiched somewhere in between all that is his memorable turn as the white-caped Star Wars villain Orson Krennic in Rogue One. It’s another suitably despicable turn, but one that betrays Mendelsohn’s softer, real-life persona.
The son of distinguished Neuroscientist Fred Mendelsohn and his nurse mother Carole, Mendelsohn spent much of his childhood traveling the world for his father’s work.
When his parents divorced, he returned to Australia and took up acting, mainly because he had a knack for reciting lines and thought it was fun.
Though Mendelsohn’s initial success in his homeland with The Year My Voice Broke and The Big Steal, brought added pressure and some hedonistic experiences in his younger years, he’s very much moved on from all that now.
Though the years prior to his career renaissance were spent washing dishes and taking up menial jobs, Mendelsohn has stayed on track. He’s not all that tough, as a result, but he’s a fine actor.
Tough: Joonas Suotamo
The situation that led to Suotamo being cast as Peter Mayhew’s stand-in as Chewbacca may be the very definition of fortuitous
. A good enough basketball player to end up at Penn State University, the 6’11” Finn had already given up hope of making it as a professional by the time fate handed him his chance.
It came during a film class (Suotamo majored in film) that featured a guest lecture from Gerry Abrams, the TV producer father of one J.J. Abrams.
In a weird kind of way, it was Suotamo’s toughness that earned him his chance. With Mayhew struggling to meet the physical demands of the role of Chewbacca on The Force Awakens, JJ was on the hunt for an actor to help fill the role.
Suddenly, Gerry recalled his encounter with the very tall, suitably athletic man in his film class, whom he felt had a sense of Chewie’s odd mannerisms.
JJ Abrams was shocked but nevertheless happy to give Suotamo, who has designs on an acting career, his big break. Suddenly all those countless hours of training and effort were about to pay off.
It was a long and difficult road but somehow the Fin was living the dream and, after seeing his sports career go up in smoke, few could begrudge him
Not Tough: Jeremy Bulloch
Bulloch had an absolute blast during his time on Star Wars and is likely the envy of Star Wars fan boys the world over. After all, he did play Boba Fett, arguably the coolest character in the entire franchise.
As tough, no-nonsense bounty hunter, Boba Fett’s role in the movies is short and pretty sweet. In fact, his total screen time across two roles amount to a total of six minutes and 32 seconds.
Even so, he makes quite the impression, with Bulloch taking inspiration from Clint Eastwood with his performance.
“He [Boba Fett] reminds me of Eastwood in a Fistful of Dollars. I thought ‘the less I do, the stronger it will be,” he told iNews a few years back. His low-key performance added an extra layer of toughness to the character – but Bulloch was no dirty harry.
In fact, he wasn’t even that keen on auditioning for the role, having been cast in a stage play. Asn avid thespian from an early age, ultimately it was Bulloch’s half-brother who persuaded him to audition for the role.
“I knew nothing about the first film, but I thought if the suit fits I might as well do it,” Bulloch reflected.
Bulloch might have looked the part but he was a big softie underneath, even ruining one take on the Empire Strikes Back after apologizing to Darth Vader actor David Prowse for stepping on his cloak.
Tough: Paul Bettany
Dryden Vos cuts a pretty formidable figure in Solo, thanks to the casting of Bettany in the role. As versatile an actor as they come, the Englishman first grabbed the public’s attention with a suitably psychotic performance in Gangster No.1, which charts one man’s rise up the London criminal underworld.
Bettany may have come from sheltered stock – his mother and father worked in the theatre and as drama teachers – but he’s gone through his fair share of difficult experiences – the kind of experiences that toughen you up more than most.
When Bettany was 16, his eight-year-old brother passed away due to tragic circumstances. In the aftermath, he dropped out of school, left home, and began to sleep rough in London, occasionally staying with his sister in her boarding house or at the city’s various shelters.
“That was a huge period of time for me. I was not in my best mind. I was grieving, I was not well,” Bettany wrote in Big Issue. “I never thought of myself as homeless and I wouldn’t want to overstate that but it absolutely felt that my safety and situation were precarious.”
Bettany busked for a total of two years before he got a grant that allowed him to go back to school to study acting. The experience undoubtedly changed him though.
Not Tough: Peter Mayhew
The gentle giant underneath all of Chewbacca’s hair, Mayhew’s story is an extraordinary one. Standing tall at 7’3”, Mayhew was first spotted working as a hospital orderly in London, where his picture ended up being used in a local newspaper story about people with huge feet.
The picture was spotted by the producers of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. They were looking for someone very tall to play the part of the minotaur in the film and soon set their eyes on Mayhew.
That performance ended up catching the eye of George Lucas and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mayhew’s astonishing height hasn’t ever held him back in life, but it’s undoubtedly difficult to live with. The actor was actually born with a connective tissue disorder known as Marfan syndrome.
It causes people to be born with longer arms and fingers but also eye problems and scoliosis. Worse still, it can cause life-threatening conditions like aortic expansion, which can impede the way the heart works.
In more recent years, Mayhew has struggled to walk, using a wheelchair to get himself from A to B and sitting for long periods between takes on set.
It’s part of the reason why Joonas Suotamo was drafted in for some of the more physical scenes involving Chewie.
Tough: Mads Mikkelsen
Much like his Rogue One co-star Ben Mendelsohn, Mikkelsen has carved out a reputation as one of Hollywood’s go-to villains.
However, the Dane is so much more than just a menacing face – he’s actually pretty tough in real-life too.
Mikkelsen only really got into acting after turning 30. Prior to that, he was busy enjoying a similarly theatrical but somewhat more strenuous career as a professional dancer.
“I was a gymnast, and - for strange reasons – I became a dancer for 10 years. And through that, I found my way to acting,” he told The Independent. “I was in love with the dancing more than I was with the aesthetic.”
Very much an athlete in his youth, Mikkelsen’s gymnastic skills were parlayed into a stint at the Balettakademien ballet academy in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Though there will undoubtedly be those who view dancing and gymnastics as evidence of him being “soft” rather than “tough,” the fact of the matter is that both require elite-level athleticism, focus, and fitness.
He’s flexible, agile and most likely very, very strong. Mikkelsen knows his way around a Pommel Horse, he knows his way around a Pirouette and he’d probably more than capable of kicking all of our butts as a result.
Not Tough: Mark Hamill
The beating heart of the original Star Wars trilogy, fans got to see Luke Skywalker go from naïve farm boy to full-fledged Jedi over the course of those three films.
By the end, he has truly mastered the ways of the Force and conquered all those against him. The less said about where we find Luke come the start of The Last Jedi, the better.
Let’s just agree that he knows his way around a lightsabre and can now probably handle himself in a Mos Eisley bar fight.
This is probably more than you can say for Mark Hamill. Growing up in California as one of seven children, Hamill’s father, former US Navy Captain William Thomas Hamill, ran a tight ship.
As Roman Catholic and avid Republican, he kept Mark on the straight and narrow as he pursued his career in acting. He kind of made him a bit of a coward too, though.
What other conclusion can you reach after it was discovered that Hamill has been known to use a wheelchair to avoid avid Star Wars fans and autograph hunters?
Hamill was filmed slumped in a wheelchair in JFK Airport back in late 2017 but later took to Twitter to insist it was just a ploy to throw off autograph hunters. It seems like a pretty pathetic way to avoid them though, right?
