Secrets of the Force

by Edward Gross

  PETER BEALE

  Initially we thought that R2-D2 would be all mechanical, and when we started doing some early interface between the special effects people pressing buttons and the actors, it just didn’t work. There was something missing, and I don’t remember whose idea it was to get a midget, a small person, but we did put one inside, and Kenny Baker brought us spontaneousness and interactivity that we could get from a mechanical person.

  KENNY BAKER

  (actor, “R2-D2”)

  They offered me the part, but when I work I have to consider my partner. We had been together for fifteen years. At the same time, we were due to appear on the British talent TV show Opportunity Knocks and we were convinced stardom was just around the corner. We didn’t want to commit ourselves to a film for six months when we could anticipate a lot of lucrative bookings. I turned the film down four times for that reason. Les Dilley, production designer John Barry’s assistant, persuaded me to do it. My partner played one of the Jawas who collected the robots for scrap metal.

  * * *

  Being contained in the R2-D2 shell certainly presented some challenges, though Baker was more than able to navigate the exigencies of it.

  KENNY BAKER

  The head was on a swivel, like a ring on the top that was loose with holes in it so that the spikes on the helmet could slot in. The whole thing moved on graphite. It wasn’t fixed, though. If I moved it around quickly, it would lift off. That’s why I wasn’t in the robot when it fell over in the desert. It was really cramped inside. My elbows were stuck to my sides and I had two grab handles in front of me and two switches, one for lights and one for the motors to power the lights. There was so much buzzing and whirring going on that when Lucas yelled “Cut!,” I went on until someone hit me on the head with a hammer to stop me.

  * * *

  With his crisp English accent, it seemed inevitable that Anthony Daniels would have a career as a voice actor. Daniels was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, the son of a plastics company executive. He was educated at Giggleswick School and studied law for two years at university before dropping out to participate in amateur dramatics and attend Rose Bruford College. After leaving school in 1974, Daniels worked on BBC Radio and for the National Theatre of Great Britain at the Young Vic. It was during his time in the theater that he was invited to meet director George Lucas, who was casting for Star Wars. Daniels at first turned down the interview but was persuaded by his agent to meet Lucas.

  PETER BEALE

  There had been robots in films before. There had been, of course, the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. There had been The Day the Earth Stood Still, and my favorite at the time, Fritz Lang’s Maria from Metropolis. She’s remarkably like C-3PO in many ways. The clever one was Kubrick with HAL 9000. What did HAL look like in 2001? An eye. He was very clever, he only ever had the eye and the voice. He didn’t have this problem. In thinking about the solution, I called up Cambridge University and asked the engineering department and was surprised and pleased to find that they had a robotic department. I discussed it with them and sent them a few pages of the script, and sent them the artwork. A few days later they called back and were very excited. “Yes, we can do this.” I said, “Great!,” and they said, “Three years, five million dollars.” So that wasn’t an option.

  RALPH MCQUARRIE

  George brought a photograph of the female robot from Metropolis and said he’d like Threepio to look like that, except to make him a boy. There’s a lot of similarity in my early sketches, but those were George’s instructions. I had a feeling that Threepio should be more elegant and smoothly sculptural, but the truth is he wouldn’t have been able to move. The joints and everything had to be solved so he could move. [Production designer] John Barry, George, and I had a meeting where John looked at my early sketches. In a few minutes, he’d drawn on a little pad the look of Threepio’s head with the big round eyes. It did have a sort of humorous aspect, and I thought that was very successful.

  PETER BEALE

  It was pretty clear to me that the option for a humanoid robot was going to be a man or a woman in suits. I felt it was very important that we didn’t go back to that obvious thing. Thinking about it, I thought to myself, we need somebody who is ultra-thin, who, when we sculpture the suit, looks natural size. That was the first thing. The second thing I thought of was, well, maybe we need not an actor, maybe we need a dancer, but then I thought a dancer would bring a fluidity, but robots of what we knew about them—because, again, there weren’t very many around—weren’t going to be fluid, so I thought of Marcel Marceau. I’m a great fan of his and I had seen him recently, he’s famous for his window mime, where he’s touching the window. I had read that he had trained some English actors, he had an acting school or a mime school, so I penciled in a very thin mime actor to look for that role. Anthony Daniels turned up and he immediately did the window thing. That’s it, that’s what I’m thinking, and so Anthony was cast.

  ANTHONY DANIELS

  (actor, “C-3PO”)

  It’s quite amazing to have survived everything, all nine Star Wars films. But also looking at all the elements that have come together, to be a part of the things that I’ve been a part of, starting with George Lucas and his ingenuity and imagination to create the whole thing in the first place. And then to end up with his apprentice, if you like, J.J. Abrams, who has taken that wonderful gift and just run with it in the most exciting way. Plus all the bits in between.

  Over all those years, C-3PO remains C-3PO; nobody has really messed with him, except for J.J. and that red arm in The Force Awakens. The character is kind of a given. Through it all, it’s been an honor to be in all of these films. Even if I didn’t have that much to do, at least C-3PO was there. And so was I. I am hugely lucky and strangely lucky to have been given a part where it doesn’t matter how aged I’m becoming—and believe me, that’s happening on a daily basis. Yet through it all C-3PO retains that very handsome face that we remember from all these years. He’s quite lucky, that one.

  * * *

  Casting on the original Star Wars was arduous enough, but the fact that the film would be shooting in England presented additional challenges for the American cast.

  PETER BEALE

  We had a problem with the casting. We obviously had other actors: Peter Cushing, etc. But to get a work permit for an American actor at that time was very, very difficult. The fact is that Equity had to agree. You informed Equity what you were doing and they would always resist. When I tried to get a work permit for Gregory Peck on The Omen, they argued against him coming in. We basically said we’re not making the film without him, it’s your choice. Eventually, we got it. You can imagine if I would have gone to Equity and said, “We’re employing three unknown actors in the lead roles, and we’ve got in minor roles Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, etc.,” I would have had absolutely zero chance of getting a work permit. So I have to confess, first time in public, that I cheated them a little bit. I created a cast list headed by Dave Prowse, Peter Cushing, Sir Alec Guinness, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and down at the bottom, the minor roles were the three American actors.

  * * *

  Beale took approximately four weeks to complete a budget and a schedule for the film, wary that the budget might not be enough to complete the ambitious production.

  PETER BEALE

  At Fox, I was paranoid about taking on a film that everybody said was unmakeable, but Laddie said, “Look, if it can be made, you could probably do it. Can you look and see if you can find out?” I was very lucky, because with the script came six pieces of artwork from this man, Ralph McQuarrie. Every visual in Star Wars was conceived and drawn by this man. Absolute genius. The first six pieces of artwork came with the script, and without it, I couldn’t have possibly done my job. I started to do a breakdown and the breakdown falls into two components. The first component is you have to imagine and list in great detail everything that’s going to be in front of the camera lens. It is before comp
uters, so it was a manual job. You had to make long lists and put them into the various categories of props, sets, wardrobes, actors, etc. Effectively you have to direct the film in your own imagination and list it out. Then you have to list everything that you’re going to need to take the photographs, starting with the lens, the camera equipment, the camera crew, sound, lighting, lighting crew, grips, props, electrical, insurance, studio, transport, etc. You end up with a very detailed breakdown, and from that you develop an initial schedule, shooting schedule, and from that, you can forecast and do an initial rough budget.

  * * *

  During the process Beale realized one of the major problems was going to be the size of the sets, which he viewed as “enormous.” McQuarrie’s paintings certainly conveyed that. For instance, the suggestion for the Millennium Falcon was so large that there wasn’t a stage available to build that or the Death Star sets in it.

  PETER BEALE

  It was quite clear we were going to have to use mattes. We were going to have to use small floor ground sections and stuff. This set, for the end sequence, was the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Enormous problem. Not to discuss the number of people in it. In England, we’ve always had great art direction, but the art direction often falls into one of two camps. Either great artists and not very practical, or very practical and not great artists. We were lucky that we have a few that combine the two. Elliot Scott was one of those. A long, long history and he came in and he went through everything, took about a week, made some very important suggestions and improvements. At that point, I felt, yes, the film could be made. I called up Alan Ladd, my boss, and said, “I think we can make the film, but before we go to the next step, I need to have George Lucas and Gary Kurtz in London and really go through it with them in detail.” They turned up and we set up an office for them in Soho Square.

  I said to them, “I want to read the script line by line.” George was very surprised. He said, “Well, that’s not what executives normally do. In fact, we don’t normally do that even with the heads of departments in America.” I said, “The only way I can help you make the film you want is I have to understand everything inside your brain.” He wasn’t particularly happy about it to begin with, but we spent about two weeks going through the script, line by line, until I really understood, and we made alterations to the way I suggested we go about making the film. I said, “Unfortunately, I’ve worked in the desert, understood the desert. If we have an actor in some form of suit in the desert, there is no way he or she can stay in the suit for more than about an hour of the time. They’ll have to be taken out, they’ll have to be cooled down, you’ll need at least two people, just to dress C-3PO. Then, not only dress, but also maintain the costume, because you’re bound to get damages and scratching.” That’s just one. Remember, we also had R2-D2 and at that point, we didn’t know if we were going to have somebody inside it, or if it was going to be all mechanical (that came later), but we knew that if it was going to be mechanical, probably two people. There were about twenty other robots that had to be managed, and not only the robots, but we had the land cruiser. I had guessed that we would have some form of cantilever system to have it hovering in the air and photograph it, so you couldn’t see the cantilever, which is what of course happened. To physically get that structure into the desert needed a truck, lots of people to lift it, to manage it, etc. No small thing. That’s on top of special effects or smoke.

  ROBERT WATTS

  (UK unit production manager, Star Wars)

  In 1971, I was at MGM Studios in Culver City wrapping up my work as production manager on a film called The Wrath of God, starring Robert Mitchum and Rita Hayworth, which was her last film, when a producer called into my office. He wanted to know about filming in England. His name was Gary Kurtz and he was preparing American Graffiti with George Lucas. About a year later he contacted me in the UK to ask for a résumé. I sent it and heard nothing. Some three years later I was working on a film in Greece called Skyriders for 20th Century Fox, when the head of Fox London, Peter Beale, called me and said they wanted me in London for a day to meet Gary Kurtz. I flew to London and the next day met Gary at Fox in Soho Square. Peter had lined up a bunch of production managers/supervisors to meet Gary. I got the job and I reckon it was because I had met Gary those years earlier.

  PETER BEALE

  Tony [Anthony] Waye was our first assistant director. The first assistant director really sets the tone on the set. If you asked me what the assistant director’s real job is, it is to create a zone of tranquility around the director and the actors, so that all the other activity is minor, and the actors and the director can create this magic, this chemistry. Tony was brilliant at that. He went on to become an executive producer on the Bond films.

  The casting of a crew on a film is as important as the casting of the actors. My biggest concern was the art director. I wanted Elliot Scott. I introduced him to George and George said, “Look, we’re young and we’d like somebody younger.” Elliot was an amazing eccentric. He lived in a house with only electricity in one room so he could have music. He believed electricity made you crazy. He wore open sandals all year round in England. He slept in the garden most of the year. Absolute genius. Wonderful man. Didn’t get him. My next choice was Terry Marsh. I invited him to join us for dinner and we discovered that George, who is an absolute genius, has a shyness that at times is painful. On this particular night he was absolutely shy, he wouldn’t say a word. At the end of the evening, Terry said, on the way out, “I’m sorry, Peter. I can’t do the film with somebody who can’t talk to me.” I said, “It’s going to be a great film.” “Sorry, Peter.” I told George and he said, “Well, this is impossible. You’re 20th Century Fox. If you tell a technician you’re employing them, they’ve got to work.” I said, “It doesn’t work that way in England. In England, the technicians actually choose the films they want to work on, especially somebody of that level.”

  GEORGE LUCAS

  The trouble with the future in most futurist movies is that it always looks new and clean and shiny. What is required for true credibility is a used future. The Apollo capsules were instructive in that regard. By the time the astronauts returned from the moon, you had the impression the capsules were littered with weightless candy wrappers and old Tang jars, no more exotic than the family station wagon.

  PETER BEALE

  [John Barry] was recommended as production designer and he agreed that he would meet with George. And this time I said to George, “You’ve got to talk,” and he did and John was hired. And he did an amazing job.

  JOHN BARRY

  (production designer, Star Wars)

  George wanted to make it look like it’s shot on location on your average everyday Death Star or Mos Eisley Spaceport or local cantina.

  * * *

  Handling costumes was John Mollo, who would go on to win the Academy Award for both Star Wars and Gandhi, which he worked on for director Richard Attenborough in 1982.

  JOHN MOLLO

  (costume designer, Star Wars)

  I started working on films as a historical adviser with particular attention to military costumes. My interest in the latter meant that I took a lot of trouble to make sure they were correct and worn properly. My first five films were therefore historical, but during the shooting, I learned a lot about how the costume department functioned. Sometime after the last of these films, a costume designer friend of mine was asked to do the costumes for Star Wars. She had already accepted another job and kindly offered to recommend me in her place. As I had nothing on at the time, I said yes and was almost immediately asked to meet the director, which I did, and got the job.

  * * *

  As Mollo explains, when he began work on Star Wars, he’d never actually seen a science fiction film, which required a great deal of research on his part.

  JOHN MOLLO

  As far as the costumes were concerned, a lot of work had been done in the States and I was given drawings of some of their i
deas. These gave me the general idea, but the meetings I had with George Lucas gave me a much better idea of what he wanted, which he summarized by saying that he didn’t want anyone to notice the costumes. By this, of course, he meant that he wanted the costumes to look real. In fact, we worked very closely together. He would state what he wanted, I would make drawings of his and my ideas, and we discussed the results, making enormous progress in this rather simple manner.

  GEORGE LUCAS

  We were trying to get a cohesive reality. But since the film is a fairy tale, I still wanted it to have an ethereal quality, yet be well-composed and also have an alien look. I visualized an extremely bizarre, Gregg Toland–like surreal look with strange over-exposed colors, a lot of shadows, a lot of hot areas. I wanted the seeming contradiction of strange graphics of fantasy combined with the feel of a documentary.