The accounts on how Alec Guinness regarded the movie and his work on it vary greatly. He frequently recalled the experience of making the movie as a bad one, and consistently claimed that it was his idea to have his character killed off in the first movie, so as to limit his involvement and make sure he "wouldn't have to carry on saying these rubbish lines." He later mentioned to "shrivel up" each time someone mentioned the movie. In one particularly infamous incident, a young boy, asking for his autograph, proudly told him he had seen the movie over a hundred times, and Guinness gave it to him after promising to never watch it again. He also claimed to throw away all Star Wars related fan mail without even opening it (a logical paradox, making it likely that this is not true, as his journals report what some of this mail said in detail), because he hated the fact that he would be most remembered as Obi-Wan Kenobi, despite other roles which he held in much higher regard. Contrary to all this, George Lucas has said he made the decision to kill off Kenobi, since the character had no part to play in the movie's finale, and deserved a memorable exit. According to George Lucas, Guinness was "less than happy" that his character was dying earlier than expected, and even appeared to enjoy his time on-set. Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher have always stated how patient and helpful Guinness was on the set, and praised his professionalism and respectfulness to all cast and crew members. While Guinness made no secret that he disliked the dialogue in Lucas' script, he claimed that he accepted the role for two reasons: 1) He was an admirer of Lucas' previous movie, American Graffiti (1973) and 2) The narrative compelled him to read the whole script through to the end, in spite of not liking the dialogue, and not being a fan of science fiction. Of the final movie, he remarked that he found it "staggering as spectacle and technically brilliant, exciting, very noisy, and warmhearted. The battle scenes at the end go on for five minutes too long, and some of the dialogue is excruciating, and much of it is lost in noise, but it remains a vivid experience."

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