While they certainly didn't know it at the time, an October interview the late Irvin Kershner provided to Vanity Fair sadly turned out to be his last. Vanity Fair's PR sent over the interview preview below, but make sure to follow the link to the full read which touches on everything from Empire to Return of the Jedi to CGI to Carrie Fisher's "sick" days and more.


"Last month Irvin Kershner spoke to VanityFair.com’s Mike Ryan. It was to be the director’s last interview.

Ryan and Kershner, who died last Saturday at the age of 87, discussed a wide array of topics, ranging from the alternative reality of a Kershner-directed Return of the Jedi, the most difficult Empire Strikes Back scene to shoot, the challenge of working with Yoda, the news of Star Wars being released in 3-D, and why a cartoon rat may be the most important movie character of the last ten years.

Read the full interview here: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/10/irvin-kershner.html

Kershner on Empire’s critics:
“I think the critics felt that they were going to see an extension of Star Wars. In other words, they wanted another Star Wars. I decided that the potential was much greater than a rerun of Star Wars. When I finally accepted the assignment, I knew that it was going to be a dark film, with more depth to the characters than in the first film. It took a few years for the critics to catch up with the film and to see it as a fairy tale rather than a comic book.”

On Turning Down Jedi:
“After working for two years and nine months doing Empire, and having it take so much out of my life and having given me so much, I felt that it was a complete experience and it was time to move on.”

On GCI vs. Models:
“We were working before CGI came into perfection when we made Empire. Now almost every film—even realistic ones—rely on some kind of CG effects. CGI can be used effectively as a powerful cinematic tool, but I had no experience with it at all. Industrial Light and Magic did such an incredible job translating the shots. I can’t see how CGI could have made it better, except that it could have cut down on the shooting time.”

On Carrie Fisher:
Carrie was very young and had not done that much work, but she was very, very bright. I possibly didn’t give her the time I should have—I was thinking of so many things—but I didn’t want to mess with her instincts because she seemed to be an intuitive actress. And she would get into a scene remarkably well so I decided to leave her alone and give her as little instruction as possible. I think it worked—her performance was wonderful.