Count Dooku Laments State of Hollywood Acting

Count Dooku, a.k.a. Christopher Lee, laments that Hollywood actors and actresses are now being chosen based on looks instead of their acting chops.

Movie bosses prize beauty and youth over acting experience, with often disastrous results, he said.

In an interview for Terry Wogan's new TV chat show, Lee said: "The problem today, and I think it's a very dangerous one for the people concerned, is that there are quite large numbers of very young men and women - boys and girls to me - from 18 to 30, and they are playing very large parts in huge films and they simply, through no fault of their own, don't have the background and the experience and the knowledge to pull if off.

Two points:

1) This is Christopher Lee we're talking about. Not Alec Guiness or even Ian McKellen. The guy starred in a ton of films, including the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is why most folks know him today, but he's one of the silver screen's baddest of bad guys (which is why he got those plum roles in the trilogies). And he was a bad guy in some really bad movies, although his role as Scaramanga notwithstanding.

2) Have things really changed all that much from the 1940s or 1960s or 1980s? Producers and the studios all want fresh faces, young folks with great looks, and acting has been secondary. If a person could act, it was a bonus.

I think Lee is a good actor, and most actors today don't have the gravitas that Lee brings to the screen, but that's the way it's been all through the history of Hollywood.