Secrets of the Force

by Edward Gross

  DAVE FILONI

  We would sit in a room for two weeks straight—me, George, and the writers—and we would hash out all the stories, all twenty-six episodes of a season, in two weeks. I think we had to do about three episodes a day. We had a whiteboard and wrote everything down on a whiteboard. Sometimes George would leave to go do something else, and the writers and I would keep writing on the whiteboard—and then George would come back in and read it and take his finger and erase. It was just really fun. We all stayed at the ranch during that time, so there would be some evenings where it would spill over. It was fun for him—I think it was fun for him to be basically teaching us Star Wars every day.

  GEORGE LUCAS

  My whole life I’ve heard, “Well, you can’t do that.” And, Dave had to put up with the same things that everybody at ILM had to put up with—you know, Dennis Muren and John Knoll and all them—they all had to put up with me. I would come in in the morning and say, “Well, we’re going to do this, this, and this,” and their jaws would drop and go, “He’s not really serious…” And I’d say, “We’ll do it!” I pushed them through it. And they came through. A lot of the things we did had never been done before and that scares everybody. They said, “We don’t know how to do this.” And I’d say, “Well, we’ll figure it out!” With ILM we went from old-fashioned special effects to digital effects and created the digital cinema. It was the same thing with animation, especially with The Clone Wars. We set out to make a feature-quality TV show, and I think we succeeded. The lighting, the characters, the animation was all a feature-level quality, and we did it on a TV budget. We were able to tell stories and expand the universe, and bring in great characters like Ahsoka, that we would never have been able to have.

  It really came out of the idea that there’s a lot of stories there, and I’d like to tell those stories, but would never be able to put them in a theater because they are more interesting as a long form than as a short form. That’s why I experimented in television. I wanted to be able to play with those stories and do things that nobody would ever do.

  DAVE FILONI

  The TV series let us do something unique which was, we were on all the time, week-to-week. We were able to give fans a Star Wars storytelling experience every week. There’s stuff that we shot that never made it into the show at all. I try to never include stuff that you wouldn’t see in the movies. I’m fully aware that there were kids who’d never seen Revenge of the Sith. Nor would you expect them to. It’s a very intense movie. So that clearly expresses my problem—I’ve got Attack of the Clones on one side, and I’ve got Revenge of the Sith, which is a complete downfall of the good guys. So I can’t go about this narrative like, “And everything was bunny rabbits until right up before then.” So it’s a hard place to be.

  Making the films, George had so many ideas, and he knew that he was focused on the Anakin Skywalker story for the films—and he wanted to explore all these other characters and create new characters. And look at Anakin sometimes in more of a deft way than he had in the films—different personalities of him.

  GEORGE LUCAS

  The Clone Wars is like a footnote to the live-action features. The features are Anakin Skywalker’s story. So, when you go between Episode II and Episode III, it’s like there’s a little asterisk that says, “More about the Clone Wars, the animated series.” But it doesn’t really have anything to do with Anakin’s story, about his fall to the dark side. In the animated series, Anakin is simply a normal person. It’s consistent with the live-action films, but in the movies, you never see Anakin as a normal person. He’s always struggling. So this gives us a chance to broaden and show that, “Anakin was a regular guy,” just like he was in Episode I.

  DAVE FILONI

  We had to stay true to the spirit of Star Wars and the look that had been established in the movies. There was fantastic work done by production designers like John Barry, Norman Reynolds, and Gavin Bocquet, and it was our job to reflect that, but through animation. But The Clone Wars shows us more of the galaxy than we ever saw in the live-action films, so we had to forge plenty of new ground, as well. We wanted to create something unique and fun. The movies are so recognizable, and we wanted to capture that flavor, but we also wanted our series characters to live on their own. With all those years of history, there were a lot of expectations that came with a new installment, and we wanted to be clear that this was going to be different from what had come before. Many of the backgrounds look painted, while the characters and physical objects look almost like they have been created by hand. Working in computer animation, it’s easy to make everything look clean, but imperfection is far more interesting.

  CATHERINE WINDER

  (executive producer, Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

  Since the earliest days, animation has been produced using two-dimensional storyboards to plan out the action. With The Clone Wars, George Lucas wanted us to try something totally new, a process he had utilized extensively on the live-action movies.

  DAVE FILONI

  This is an enormously vast galaxy, and the Clone Wars affect almost every corner of it. We could finally show the adventure, heroism, treachery, and intrigue that was happening throughout the conflict. Now that Star Wars is no longer constrained by the Skywalker saga, the possibilities are as limitless as the universe itself. The Clone Wars are a time of enormous struggle and also great heroism. As a longtime Star Wars fan, it was exciting to be able to bring these stories to life, stories we’ve only wondered about. We learned just why the Clone Wars becomes the stuff of legend in the Star Wars galaxy.

  ASHLEY ECKSTEIN

  (voice actress, “Ahsoka Tano,” Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

  Dave is honestly the best director I’ve ever worked with, because he gets to know each of us individually. He doesn’t have one directing style, he directs for the actor. So he knows exactly what to say to get us in the right emotion, to get us in the right headspace, to say the right things. Many directors have the one style, and it either works for you or it doesn’t, but that’s not Dave. Every actor is different, and there’s a different approach to every actor. That’s really hard. Literally, the best director I’ve ever worked with.

  DAVE FILONI

  It’s easy to be a good director when you have great people. And I’ve been surrounded by great people. To me, it’s a simple formula. I don’t have to do many things or struggle, because I know what these guys are capable of. And that makes my life infinitely easier in all capacities. It’s my responsibility to know the story, to know the characters, and communicate that to them—but as actors, they have to become that person and embody that role. I respect that. I see it as a shared collaboration to bring to the screen.

  JAMES ARNOLD TAYLOR

  (voice actor, “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

  I have always wanted to be a voice actor, pretty much since I was four years old. I knew I wanted to do voices in cartoons, TV, and radio. I did little radio shows with my friends creating sound effects. When I was sixteen, I started as a stand-up comedian and I always did voices like Marty McFly and Doc Brown. Then I got into radio a year later and became a DJ. I taught myself how to work with all the equipment by staying over late at night and watching all the DJs working. I started to make my own shows and gave them to the program director. One day they asked me if I wanted to do my own show, because the overnight DJ didn’t show up. So I ended up doing a show and from there on I went on and the rest is history, as they say. I actually did over eight thousand comedy bits that I wrote, voiced, produced, and directed for the Premiere Radio Network over the course of twelve years. From there on I moved into voice acting, getting an agent, and getting in cartoon work. I knew from a very young age that that’s what I wanted to do. I loved watching all those greats like Mel Blanc, Don Messick, and Daws Butler, as well as the new breed like Jim Cummings, Jess Harnell, and Billy West. I’ve always been inspired by them and knew that this was what I wanted to do.

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  Taylor, as it turns out, was friends with Collette Sunderman, voice director of The Clone Wars, which got him the audition for the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, in which he did his best to capture the essence of Ewan McGregor’s take on the role in live-action.

  JAMES ARNOLD TAYLOR

  Collette thought it was a perfect match. Her words, not mine! I always study the actor’s voice for voice matching. I’ve studied Ewan’s voice more than anybody but I also studied Alec Guinness. I wanted my Obi-Wan to be a combination of both. I feel I have the ability to do that since I don’t have to look like them, but just to sound like them. I try [with Alec Guinness’s voice] “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for” and [with Ewan McGregor’s voice] “May the Force be with you,” and combine them both so you get [with his own Obi-Wan voice] “My Obi-Wan Kenobi.” The trick is not to do a voice characterization, but to be able to step in seamlessly and be the person when they are not available. I’ve had the honor to be Obi-Wan for so many years and have voiced him more than anybody else. Both George Lucas and Dave Filoni said, “This is your role now, so take it and do with it as you would.” So I don’t have to worry about sounding exactly like Ewan or Alec.

  MATT LANTER

  (voice actor, “Anakin Skywalker,” Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

  I did some background extra work for a film called Bobby Jones that shot in Atlanta. After falling in love with the magic of it, I decided to finish out my semester at UGA, save up some money, then packed up my car with what I had and drove out to L.A. to make a career. It was a standard voice audition for a project that I knew nothing about, just that it was Star Wars something. Dave Filoni was there, as well as Catherine Winder, and they asked me to read the copy as a combination of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

  Of course, I watched all the prequel films to gather what I could about Anakin, but I’m not trying to copy a voice performance in any way. George and Dave and I have all chatted about how this Anakin is a bit different than what we have seen in the films and I feel I have the liberty to extend that into voice quality as well. I was cast with my own spin on the character, not as a voice double, so it’s actually really nice not having that pressure like a few of my other castmates.

  DAVE FILONI

  All the kids who have watched The Clone Wars have a really good sense of who Anakin Skywalker is. When I was a kid, and watching A New Hope, I had no clue. When Obi-Wan says, “Vader betrayed and murdered your father,” I was like, “Wow, that sucks for Luke.” But these kids now, if you play A New Hope, that’s how they find out their hero dies and Vader killed him? It’s totally different for them.

  I love Matt. Matt came in and looped the first several episodes that we did. We had a different actor as Anakin, and we changed out and brought Matt in. So I had to do actual auditioning for Anakin, and Matt came in. I had Matt come in with Ashley and Cat, and I was really paying attention to what Matt was doing when he walked into the room. I don’t know why this was important, but I felt very strongly that whoever was playing Anakin Skywalker, it wasn’t just the voice—they had to embody what I always thought Anakin Skywalker was when I was growing up. This guy that everybody liked. You have to have a likability to Anakin to understand when he falls apart, and he thinks it’s doing the right thing, it’s that much more devastating, because he’s trying to hold on to everything so tightly, and thinks he’s doing good—except he’s doing evil. And Matt, when he walked in, he’s just that likable person. He is.

  MATT LANTER

  It’s fun for me to be able to perform the whole spectrum of Anakin over the course of The Clone Wars. I love when The Clone Wars started, he was a little more swashbuckling and innocent and everybody’s hero. I love that part of him, but it doesn’t have a lot of give and take. It’s a fun challenge to smoothly take him in that direction. It’s fun for us as fans to see those times where he dips. And that’s great, because we know it’s coming.

  DAVE FILONI

  The point of Anakin Skywalker’s story is that we are all making tough decisions every day—as Anakin Skywalker does. We start out our day, we don’t intend to turn to the dark side, but we so quickly make choices that tunnel us down into the darkness. Now I’ve had a bad day, now I’ve had a good day. When do you feel bad? When you make choices and you feel angry, maybe have road rage—and when you feel anger, hate, you feel bad. When you feel good, you do something selfless, give someone something that’s meaningful to them, don’t you feel better? That’s kind of the whole point of Star Wars. Either be selfless or selfish. This is what George spoke about the most—selfish/selfless. This will lift you up, this will bring you down. And that’s the Force in a nutshell.

  TOM KANE

  (voice actor, “Yoda,” Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

  I got started at Lucasfilm just doing miscellaneous small parts for their video games. I guess I was actually on the very first they ever did, it was called The Dig, I think. Just goofing around I would read other parts to show off. One day they were doing some TIE Fighter game. There were the voices of Yoda and C-3PO, I read them and they hired me to do them. As far as Yoda is concerned, I didn’t work on being Yoda. I saw the movies fifty-three times so the voice was very much in my head. Everybody tries to do Yoda, not just voice-overs, but everybody. I was doing stuff for LucasArts and I was going around reading Yoda lines and what I didn’t know was that Frank Oz was directing a movie. They recorded it and played it for George and I’ve been Yoda ever since. I have never met Frank Oz. I once saw him at a recording studio, but didn’t have the guts to come up and say anything.

  CATHERINE TABER

  (voice actor, “Padmé Amidala,” Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

  I naturally have a voice similar in tone to Natalie’s, and I certainly have watched her performance from the films many times. I also studied the wealth of data on Padmé and her history at the Star Wars online database, but, after that, Dave was really great about letting me just play Padmé as I see her. Whether you are doing theater, such as a Shakespearean piece, or film or television, I believe when you take on a character it’s important to make it your own, and not just try and copy another actor’s performance. I feel honored to be the one bringing Padmé to life in all her new trials and adventures.

  DEE BRADLEY BAKER

  (voice actor, “Captain Rex,” “Fives,” “Commander Cody,” and others, Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

  I was called to audition for this “unnamed” project. Had to voice match the clones, they liked me, I booked it. I’d already worked with director Dave Filoni on Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender television series—really proud of that show—as well as with the incomparable voice director Andrea Romano, who was helping cast Clone Wars at the time. They knew and trusted my acting ability and I gave them what they needed, I guess. Couldn’t believe it. I’d never done anything so “normal.” Most of my roles were either cartoony or creature-oriented up to that point. This was a whole new thing, plus it was dear to me, as I really loved Star Wars as a kid.

  I got specifics from Dave Filoni, plus the scripts were well written and show the way. It’s specific, but I wouldn’t call it “strict.” Also, we get a drawing of the character to get a sense of the size, attitude, etc. Dave is supportive and trusts us, yet has a specific idea of the feel of what the character needs to be. From that, we are free to find it with imagination.

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  If The Clone Wars is to be remembered for one thing, it’s the introduction of the character of Ahsoka Tano to the Star Wars canon. Although fans didn’t embrace the character initially, Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan has gone on to be considered a fan favorite. Initially portrayed by Ashley Eckstein in the animated Clone Wars, Rebels, and Forces of Destiny, with Rosario Dawson carrying on the role in live-action with appearances in The Mandalorian and its subsequent spin-off, Ahsoka. With Ahsoka’s popularity, Ashley Eckstein founded the Her Universe clothing line, and became a major ambassador to promote female voices and representation in
geek culture.

  ASHLEY ECKSTEIN

  Matt Lanter and I were so lucky, because we had both come from the live-action world and were fairly new to voice-over. This was my first big job. I walked into the studio and it’s Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kane, James Arnold Taylor, and I very much felt like a Padawan. Life imitates art.

  HENRY GILROY

  A lot of times actors come in and they’re not really familiar with all of what preceded before. So I think for Ashley, she came in and had seen the movies, but didn’t know all of it. So we did one of these things where we used fake names when we were casting it, “You’re going to do duh-duh-duh to Starkiller,” or whatever. We definitely played that. So when we told her she got the part and was going to kind of be the star of the show, she was like, “Oh, cool!” She didn’t really realize that part of that was kind of awesome—she could grow into the role.