During a conversation promoting his most recent Apple TV+ series, Slow Horses, actor Gary Oldman revealed in a Happy Sad Confused podcast chat that he had been initially meant to appear in the Star Wars prequels as the voice of General Grievous.
“Well, I did a voice for ‘Star Wars’…was it General Grievous?” Oldman said, unable to fully recall the name of the character at first. Oldman explained that ultimately, some of the Australian rules of union filmmaking, where the film was shot, prevented Lucas from using his voice. “What happened was something to do with union stuff and non-union stuff,” he said. “I was not going to be the poster boy for [breaking union rules].”
But to hear it from Oldman, he recorded his lines and spent time with George Lucas. “[Lucas] directed me the whole thing; yeah, he was terrific,” he said. “No regrets about that but the other stuff is rumors,” the actor said, dismissing his purported involvement in the more recent sequel trilogy.
General Grievous was voiced by Matthew Wood in the prequels and animated shows.
