George Lucas didn’t grow up dreaming about filmmaking and wasn’t exactly a model student. In fact, he was something of a rebel who cared only about driving fast cars. So, it’s no surprise that his mother didn’t think the future Star Wars creator would grow up to be successful.
In the second episode of the 2022 Disney Plus docuseries Light & Magic, George Lucas explained his troubling teenage years and how a near-fatal car accident changed everything.
Originally, Lucas discussed his love for driving cars and racing, saying he had “a strong interest in cruising,” which he later depicted in the hugely successful 1973 film American Graffiti – which helped him make Star Wars a lot better.
As a teenager, he actually wanted to be a mechanic or, at least, have a job where he could be around cars. It’s all he really cared about at the time. Lucas explained:
“Following the path that I was on, I was sort of flunking out of high school. My mother kept worrying about me. ‘He’s not going to amount to anything.’ My father kept saying, ‘He’s a late-bloomer. Don’t worry about it.’”
Then there was a pretty serious car accident that changed his life. Lucas details the story, saying, “I had a very little car. I was turning into my driveway on a country road and there was this guy – he was going about 90 miles an hour – I didn’t see him coming. I hear a horn honk and then I’m gone.”
He added that his car rolled several times, wrapped around a tree, and that when he woke up he was told by a nurse, “Don’t worry, you have all your arms and legs.”
He was later told that he was fortunate just to survive the accident. “Everybody kept saying, ‘You should be dead.’”
However, the accident made him realize that he should rethink his future. Lucas concluded, “That’s when I decided that, you know, maybe there’s a reason I’m here.”
Now what? His mother had told him he wouldn’t amount to anything. His father defended him and wanted him to manage a small business but Lucas had no desire to do that. His refusal led to a major argument with his parents. Lucas explained, “My father wanted me to go into the stationery business and run an office equipment store. They built it up for me to take over and I said, ‘I don’t want that. I’ll never work at a job where I have to do the same thing over and over again every day.’ It was probably the biggest disagreement we ever got into.”
He decided to go to college, took classes in social sciences, in psychology, and in anthropology. He had to read the book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, which he has often stated was a huge inspiration for the stories he would create. He loved mythology and then soon, filmmaking became his passion.
“It wasn’t until my junior year of college that I discovered film,” Lucas stated. “Ended up at USC. I instantly knew that this was for me. This was it.”
And thus his love of filmmaking was born.
Lucas doesn’t explain when his mom began to believe in him but it’s safe to say it was likely before Star Wars and it’s also safe to say that George did indeed amount to something.
