[2] When Marcia's grandfather died, her mother moved to an apartment nearby, and she found work as a clerk at an insurance agency.
[2] She returned to North Hollywood to finish high school and enrolled in chemistry courses at Los Angeles City College while working in a mortgage-banking firm.
[12] When principal photography began on The Rain People, Lucas simultaneously begun shooting a behind-the-scenes documentary short titled Filmmaker (1968).
Back in California, Marcia had accepted an offer to work on Medium Cool (1969) when George had recommended her as an assistant editor for Barry Malkin on The Rain People.
[14] Shortly after, Coppola had established a multi-picture deal with his production company American Zoetrope and Warner Bros. Their first project was THX 1138 (1971) for which Marcia served as an assistant editor.
[16] For the next six months, Marcia edited American Graffiti alongside her husband and sound editor Walter Murch to its contractual runtime of 110 minutes.
After American Graffiti was released, Martin Scorsese asked Marcia to edit Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), his first studio film.
"[18] As Marcia was editing the film in Los Angeles, George joined her and sequestered himself in a hotel room as he wrote the first draft for Star Wars (1977).
[19] In his fourth draft of Star Wars, George originally had written for Obi-Wan Kenobi to survive his lightsaber duel with Darth Vader by retreating through a blast door that would slam shut behind him.
[20] Before Star Wars entered post-production, George did not consider that Marcia would work on it as she expected to give birth after editing Taxi Driver (1976), but the pregnancy was unsuccessful.
"[2] As Marcia edited the Death Star assault, Lucas brought in editor Richard Chew to restructure the rough cut.
[31] In 1967, Marcia met George Lucas while he was attending film school at the University of Southern California when they both served as apprentice editors on Journey to the Pacific under Verna Fields.
Due to her husband's commitments to the Star Wars films and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Marcia grew impatient in her marriage as she blamed his workaholism and emotional blockage.
[33] Marcia later married Tom Rodrigues, a stained glass artist who worked as a production manager at Skywalker Ranch from 1980 to 1983, whom she met before divorcing George.
"[40] In J. W. Rinzler's posthumous final book, Howard Kazanjian: A Producer's Life, Lucas criticized the later Star Wars films.
She revealed that upon seeing The Phantom Menace, she "cried because [she] didn't think it was very good," particularly criticizing the age gap between romantic leads Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala.
[41] About the sequel trilogy, she stated that Kathleen Kennedy and J. J. Abrams "don't get it," saying that she was furious at the deaths of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, as well as the lack of an explanation for Rey's powers.