Queried by The New York Times magazine about whether he had ever been “tempted to pick up the phone and pretend to be Darth Vader,” the actor reveals that he has unleashed THAT voice — on a CB radio.
But Jones eventually caused so much CB panic that he had to give up the game.
“I did that once when I was traveling cross-country. I used Darth as my handle on the CB radio. The truck drivers would really freak out — for them, it was Darth Vader. I had to stop doing that,” Jones told the Times magazine.
When CB radio was at its height, Betty Ford liked to chat with people under the handle “First Mama,” and Mel Blanc used the nicknames “Bugs” and “Daffy” to talk to delighted children.
Ironically, for his original Star Wars role Jones was only paid $7,000 for voiceover work. “[W]e did it in two-and-a-half hours,” Jones told THR in 2011. “I got paid seven thousand dollars for it. Nobody at that time knew that it would become a cult hit … I’m very happy to be a part of that cult, even though I didn’t get paid a lot for it.”
H/T: Hollywood Reporter
