In an interview with The Guardian, Anthony Daniels voiced his dislike for the secrecy around Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens:
“The secrecy has been beyond ludicrous, for heaven’s sake, it’s a movie. When I got the script, it was typed in black on paper of the deepest red so you couldn’t photocopy it. I got a hangover just reading it.”
Disney even made him take down what he thought was an innocent tweet:
“I said that I’d met so-and-so. An actor who plays a … thing in the film. A character. Immediately I received a message from Disney: ‘Remove the tweet! You’re not allowed to say that!’ Honestly. It’s a kind of Kremlin attitude. Look, I know perfectly well not to tell you now what I’m giving you for a Christmas present because it would spoil the surprise. And these films are all about opening the box on Christmas Day.”
Not everything he had to say about the new film was negative, mind you. He praised J.J. Abrams’ return to practical filming, versus George Lucas’ all digital approach with the prequels:
“It became clear early on that with JJ we were getting back to the old-fashioned kind of film-making. We have walls. Actual sets! All right, so you might not have a view out of the window, but you have a window.”
Over all, it seems Daniels hasn’t quite adjusted to filmmaking in the post-digital world. A flip comment or a random set pic can result in a shit storm of rumors these days, which can rase havoc for a studio. But he’s right about practical versus digital. Lucas’ insistence on the actors working in a completely green screen environment showed exactly how unconcerned he was with performances. That and his terribly written dialogue.