Scots born actor Ian McDiarmid could feel understandably aggrieved about the myth that grew up surrounding Darth Vader, proclaiming him to be the baddest of the bad.
A poster boy for irredeemable evil.
Because, technically, Darth was only a henchman. He was acting under orders and, therefore, it was his boss that was the most evil being in the galaxy.
McDiarmid, as the self proclaimed Emperor Palpatine, was a far more twisted force to be reckoned with - a career politician.
"I am worse than Satan," says McDiarmid gleefully.
"In the prequels I play a very straightforward politician. Charming, smiling, out for the good of the world and the universe. But underneath it all lurked this monster.
"It was very easy to build the character. I just looked in the newspapers."
Ian actually first played the Emperor in 1983's Return of the Jedi. Twenty years later he was invited to play the younger version of himself. A feat he was able to achieve thanks to the fact his face was virtually unrecognisable in the first film.
The key to the Emperor is his duplicitous nature. On the surface he is an ambitious yet respected elder statesman. When he allows his true nature to surface his face changes and sets into gargoyle like ugliness - an effect achieved by a prosthetic mask.
" George said that I should think of my eyes as his contact lenses, which was a great idea, and when I put on the mask I became him. That kind of schizophrenia is always fun to play.
"He is worse the the devil and certainly worse the Darth Vader."
The Shakesperean tragedy of it all appealed to McDiarmid, who is the Artistic Director of London's Almeda Theatre.
"You don't get parts like this every day," he admits. "I like the fact he doesn't have any psychological workings. He was spawned in Hell.
"However, in one scene he is shown attending the opera. So I like to think that his one redeeming feature is that he is a patron of the arts."
