The king of film! Legendary actor James Earl Jones sat down with Us Weekly Video to reminisce about all his incredible movies from the last six decades of his career, from The Lion King to Field of Dreams and beyond.
Surprisingly, the 85-year-old shared that his favorite thing about the 1989 Oscar-nominated baseball drama, which also starred Kevin Costner, was that it actually kind of stunk! “What was great about Field of Dreams was the smell of pig manure,” he joked. “Wow, that is strong.”
The Emmy and Tony award–winning actor, who teamed up with Janssen Pharmaceuticals to help Americans manage their type 2 diabetes, also touched on his voice roles, such as Mufasa in The Lion King and Darth Vader in the Star Wars series. Jones tells Us people still come up to him on the street and ask him to say his iconic line from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, “No, I am your father.”
Although he will happily oblige these days, that wasn’t always the case. “There was a time I wasn’t allowed to,” Jones tells Us of repeating one of cinema’s famous quotes. “[Director and creator] George Lucas is very careful about the stuff he wrote. I can’t just carelessly [say it].”
Another important lesson we can learn from Jones: Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to film roles. “You can have 14 lines and be a great star,” he says of his 1993 Sandlot character, the feared neighbor Mr. Mertle.
Watch the video above to hear about all of Jones’ blockbuster films, his favorite line of all time and the surprising thing he hopes to do next!
