The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Enhanced Edition)

by Rinzler, J. W.

  Ford: “What’s the plan now, pal?”

  Kershner: “What are you up to?” Let’s do it cliché; it’s much better. “What are you up to now, buddy?”

  Ford: [laughs] “What are you up to, buddy?”

  Kershner: You’re going to be a guinea pig.

  Ford: Lando says something about, “They think you’ll be a lot easier to transport frozen,” or whatever it is. My hands are chained behind me, right?

  Kershner: Yeah.

  Ford: Just bind them like that, in the front. They’ve got to take the bindings off in front when they put me up on the thing, because my hands are like this [mimes the final look of the Carbon Freezing monolith].

  Kershner: Yeah, that’s right.

  Ford: I have to come in with the manacles on. Now, that will give me the idea that something’s up. They’re coming in dressed the same way.

  Kershner: I don’t think they should be. You’re the only one who should be manacled.

  Ford: I’m coming in different than anybody’s seen me before, manacled like this.

  Kershner: I think you should be manacled and they take them off when they send you into the pit. (“When I had to do the carbonite casting, months before I shot the sequence, the guy was lying there all rigid—acting frozen,” says Kershner. “So I said to myself, Gee, something’s wrong with it. If he dropped down into the pit, something would come in and go shoom-kaang! And what would his first reaction naturally be? Probably to raise his hands up to protect himself; he would shout or gasp. Later, when I cast Harrison’s face, I said, ‘I want the exact moment you realize that it’s actually happening, and you’ve got to try to stop it!’ ”)

  Ford: I should be manacled because the—it won’t stop the love scene. I don’t have to put my arms around her to kiss her. It’s got to be rough, brisk, and over with.

  Kershner: Absolutely. I don’t intend to screw around.

  Ford: All I’ll have to do is shake the guy off who’s holding me and then Billy can say, “It’s alright.” Then I can walk over to him and the whole scene with him would be this: “Save your strength for another time, Chewie.”

  Kershner: “When the odds are better,” yeah. That’s alright.

  Ford: “When times are better.” But this part here … [refers to Leia–Han dialogue] … I’d just as soon …

  Kershner: No, no, no, I’m not going to do that.

  Ford: Yeah.

  Kershner: I’m not going to do it. [pause] “I wish I could have told you before.”

  Ford: I think she ought to just say, “I love you,” as I’m passing by her.

  Kershner: “I love you.” “Just remember that, because I’ll be back.”

  Ford: No, I—

  Kershner: Yeah, I’m just saying how it would go—

  Ford: If she said, “I love you,” I could say very nicely, “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, I’ll be back.” (“I think of myself as an assistant storyteller and the obligation is to find out what the story is before you have to tell it,” Ford says. “I don’t want to just make a director happy. I mean, clearly they give you the money to make the director happy. But I think that the best way to make him happy is to make myself happy with what I’m doing, to do the very best I can.”)

  Audio element not supported.

  At Elstree Studios, Harrison Ford is in conversation with Alan Arnold, who wonders if Solo is a cardboard character. Ford doesn’t think so. (1979)

  (2:13)

  Costume continuity Polaroids.

  Costume continuity Polaroids.

  Watts and Reynolds work with Kershner as he blocks out shots with the aid of a maquette of “medical,” the film’s last set, and a view finder.

  A maquette of the gantry and pinnacle enabled the director to plan setups on that set.

  Ford and Kershner on the Carbon Freezing Chamber set; they would also discuss Solo’s dialogue in great detail while sequestered in the director’s trailer.

  Kershner: Yeah, you’ve got to say, “I’ll be back.”

  Ford: [laughs] But if she says, “I love you,” and I say, “I know,” it’s beautiful and it’s acceptable and it’s funny.

  Kershner: [laughs] Right. Okay. Now, I only have one big problem here.

  Ford: But I also have to say to her, “Don’t worry about this,” in some way.

  Kershner: No, you can’t. You can’t because you don’t know whether this is the end or not.

  Ford: The point is: I’m not worried about myself anymore; I’m worried about her.

  Kershner: You know what? I may keep Vader out of there until the end. After all this stuff is over, Vader comes in. He walks right in and all he says is, “Put him in the Carbon Freezing Chamber.”

  Ford: That’s beautiful, you could start—

  Kershner: Why should he be watching all this crap going on? He shouldn’t even be there.

  Ford: Yeah, but this is it. He’s there because he’s telling Boba Fett—

  Kershner: Then he’s got to watch all this stuff.

  Ford: He could walk away.

  Kershner: No, he couldn’t. [laughs] There’s no place to walk to. I’m really stuck there. See, I hate a scene where the bad guy waits and finally says, “Enough of this horseshit, now let’s get on with it.” That’s really what the scene is.

  Ford: I’m coming right back. I’m getting a cup of coffee. [Ford exits.]

  Kershner: [sighs, resumes writing, slowly speaks dialogue out loud] Group comes in, stops near Lando. Four troopers bring them in. “What if he doesn’t survive?” Han looks to Vader. [Ford returns.] Okay, I’ve got something interesting. “We’ll compensate you.” Now we cut back. “What’s up, pal?” or “buddy.”

  Ford: “Pal.”

  Kershner: “What’s up, pal?” That’s nice and it’s ironic. And he says uh …

  Ford: How about “hero”?

  Kershner: No, you’ve already done that.

  Ford: Why do they have to watch?

  Kershner: So that you’ll behave. It’s sadistic. No, you see, the problem here is, I’ve got a two-part harmony going.

  Ford: What would be great, I’ll tell you what …

  Kershner: Leia: “Why? Why?”

  Ford: … if Chewie takes Leia, then turns her against him, puts his arms around her, doesn’t let her watch, you know what I mean?

  Kershner: That’s not bad; that’s interesting. But there’s something powerful about her face while she’s watching you disappear.

  Ford: Oh no, I don’t mean that she doesn’t watch.

  Kershner: If he hugs her at the end …

  Ford: I just can’t see that they would stand there and watch. Best friends watching the execution. It doesn’t happen … You don’t watch something like that.

  Kershner: I think they have to.

  Ford: I think you can’t say to Chewie, “I’ll be back,” or anything like that.

  Kershner: No, no, no, no, you can’t.

  Ford: How about if I say to him, “Save your strength. I’ll be alright. Look afte her,” you know what I mean?

  Kershner: “Look after her.” Right. [A crew member enters the room and delivers some food, and Kershner thanks them.] “Look after her.” Chewie barks dolefully.

  Ford: And as I turn, she can say, sotto voce … “I love you.”

  Kershner: [continues to speak slowly what he’s writing down] Leia: “I love you.” And Han says, “I know.”

  Ford: Yeah.

  Kershner: “Yeah, I know. I’ll be back.” The kiss. Walks onto platform. [Puts pen down.] Better scene. (“If you’ve had some good writing, the actors can rarely improve on the writing,” says Kershner. “What they can do is loosen up the dialogue—find the true meaning, the right emphasis and phrasing of the words through improvisation.”)

  Ford: Now, how can we stage the kiss so it works? If they already have me by the arms—you know how short she is. If they have me by the arms and they’re pulling me back, you know what I’m saying?

  Kershner: I’m goin
g to get this typed up.

  Ford: Great.

  Kershner: And give it to Lando [Billy Dee Williams].

  Ford: But look, see, if I’m standing here talking to her like this, and Vader says, “Put him in the Carbon Freeze,” and the two guys come up and pull me back by my arms like this, right? [Ford mimes the scene for Kershner.]

  Kershner works on script revisions.

  Kershner: Yeah. Alright, let me go get this—I’ll be right back—I want to continue. [Kershner exits and finds Billy Dee Williams.] I’ve got some changes. I’ve been working on the scene all night and I’m just going to get it typed up, unless you don’t need it typed, unless you want to write it in.

  Billy Dee Williams: I will.

  Kershner: I’m doing something more interesting. So what happens is, as they come down toward you, Han says to you, “What’s up, pal?” Meaning “pal” in a very derogatory way, and you say, “You’re being put into carbon freeze,” very softly to him.

  Williams: You know, I had that thought yesterday, that’s when I figured I’d—

  Kershner: Right, right, then Han says, “Then why are they here?” Because he’s concerned about Leia and Chewie, right? And so are you. That’s what’s interesting. “Then why are they here?” And you say, “To keep you polite,” which is ironic, you know? She says, “You know that could kill him”—as if you’re responsible. And you say, “I’m powerless.” It’s between these old friends who are really suffering. You’re suffering, he’s suffering, Leia’s suffering, you understand? The scene looked good, by the way. I saw it already, what we shot yesterday.

  Williams: You don’t think it’s giving away something too soon?

  Kershner: No, no, no. It’s not giving anything away.

  Williams: I mean, Lando’s unpredictable—that was the whole point, wasn’t it? I mean, you don’t really know where he’s coming from. (“Billy is a man who likes precision and he’ll do something 150 times,” says Kershner. “It doesn’t matter to him, just so you’re moving toward an objective which is clear. It makes it very easy to work with him. When he first arrived, I felt he had sort of a star complex. But I now realize that I was wrong. It was simply that he works a certain way and once he began to see the way we were working, he loosened up and began to enter the spirit of the production.”)

  Kershner: Yeah, that’s right. But you’ve already had the jail scene. It’s very good. [Kershner calls out across the stage] Kay! [Script continuity Kay Rawlings comes over.] Kay, could you type up these two pages and make a couple of copies? The master’s being set up, which is the entrance. They’re ready?

  Ford: [calling over to Kershner] Are you going back to the trailer?

  Kershner: I’m going back to get my stuff. [to Williams, as Ford exits] How would you like to stand next to your best friend while they’re sending him to his death?

  Williams: There was a different point of view about this character before, wasn’t there?

  Kershner: It’s all changed, yeah. He’s much more interesting, I think. Much more interesting. [to a stagehand] If you’re going down, could you give this to Harrison, please? Thank you. [Sighs, long pause, as he starts the blocking; a few minutes later, Kershner walks over to Carrie Fisher.]

  Carrie Fisher: Hi.

  Kershner: Hi. I’ve just changed the scene.

  Fisher: I know, Harrison told me.

  Kershner: Yeah, I just changed it because I had a million ways to go and nothing was really good because it didn’t answer one important thing: Why you are here to watch it. Why not just get him out of jail and just do it? It doesn’t make sense, does it?

  Fisher: No.

  Kershner, Williams, and Tomblin.

  Kershner: Well, there’s only one reason, and they do it when they take people to executions in order to keep you from fighting, from making a mess, from trying to take certain people with you. Vader doesn’t want any problems.

  Fisher: Okay.

  Kershner: Meanwhile, Han says, “What’s up, pal?” very sarcastically. Lando says, “You’re being put in a carbon freeze,” and he feels miserable about that. He’s beginning to feel powerless. “And why are they here?” And Lando says, “To keep you polite.” And you say, “You know, that could kill him.” See, the whole scene was based on ignorance before and I want it to be based on knowledge.

  Fisher: No declaring, no kissing? (“Special effects gave Harrison a very good mouth,” Fisher says. “He’s very good at kissing. All actors have the opportunity of taking kissing lessons at drama school. Naturally, we all choose to do so. Harrison by the way doesn’t like screen kissing at all and, right before, he told me he’d done a screen kiss where he’d put oysters in his mouth and slipped them to the other person.”)

  Kershner: Oh sure, all that continues, the kissing, everything. This is just the beginning of the scene that changes. I’m just getting everybody their pages.

  [The stage continues to be prepped for the rehearsal.]

  Fisher: You wrote this other part without me.

  Kershner: No, no, no, it’s just the first piece.

  Fisher: There’s nothing Leia can bargain for. There’s nothing I can do.

  Kershner: That’s why you’re all here, to make Han realize that there’s nothing that he can do, that you’re all powerless.

  Fisher: Well, it doesn’t keep me from like—I could slap Lando or something, I don’t know. How near is he to me?

  Kershner: He’s right next to you.

  Fisher: Could I slap him?

  Kershner: [pause] Let’s see. “To keep you polite.” “You bastard!” is really what you would say, “You bastard!” but you can’t say that.

  Fisher: Do I have to be polite? I could just have the bad manners to slap him.

  Kershner: You look up at him and you just haul off and slap him? Now, you could grab Han. You don’t want to let him go.

  Fisher: No, I don’t want to let him go.

  Williams, Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), and Kershner (with walkie-talkie) block out a shot (in background is Milton Johns as Vader’s Aide).

  Kershner: Yeah, immediately two stormtroopers come and start pulling you away and that’s when Chewbacca goes crazy. Yeah, that’s good. I think you would grab him and not let him go. It’s got to be physical action. Lines don’t do it.

  Fisher: I know.

  Kershner: Alright, so let’s say you slap him, because you don’t know what the hell he’s doing.

  Fisher: I just think he’s scum. I wouldn’t even dignify him with any kind of conversation at all. If he’s stupid enough to buy anything that Vader said and thought that he was going to get what he wanted.

  Kershner: He believed him.

  Fisher: Clearly, Vader has a reputation, but Lando thinks he’s the one man who Vader is going to make a partner out of. He’s got to be an asshole. I would just have more contempt for him.

  Kershner: Okay, so you would slap him? You’re not punching him, are you?

  Fisher: I’d do as much as I could before they pulled me off of him.

  Kershner: Okay, okay, alright. Billy! [to Fisher] This is the most difficult scene I have in the film. I’ve been going crazy. [to Williams] Look, we’re trying to come to a conclusion. I’m going around, looking at each person’s point of view here, right? I’ve got Boba Fett’s, I’ve got Vader’s, I’ve got Han’s. I know what Chewie’s is. I’m trying to get what hers is. Vader is suckering you in and you’re buying it. So she has absolute contempt for you now, which is maintained right through the choking scene, right? She’ll attack you, you see? And at that point, the two guards come in and pull her off, you see.

  Fisher: Pull me off before I actually knee you.

  Williams: The only thing I feel about that is I’ve been attacked so much in this movie.

  Kershner: That’s what’s good. See, then, there’s redemption. If you don’t go to the bottom—

  Fisher: No, basically all I’ll do is a girl attack. I just slap you.

  Kershner: But it’s inte
resting.

  Fisher: You can slap me back.

  Kershner: No, no, he wouldn’t do that.

  Williams: I don’t want to do that, I don’t think so.

  Kershner: When you finally quiet her down, Lando says, “I’m powerless.”

  Fisher: It should be mean.

  Kershner: “I’m powerless, you bitch!” That’s the whole point, see, the line is not neutral, “I’m powerless”—it’s [angry whisper] “I’m powerless.”

  Williams: It’s an impossible situation.

  Kershner: Let’s try it. It’s the only way we’ll know.

  [Suddenly Fisher gives Williams quite a powerful whack.]

  Williams: Don’t hit me like that!

  Fisher: Did it hurt?

  Williams: Of course it hurt.

  Fisher: I’m sorry. How do you hit someone?

  Williams: I’ll just stop you. If you want to hit me, fake it. You know how to fake a hit.

  Fisher: [laughs] But really grab me.

  Williams: I’ll grab you, don’t worry. [They rehearse it.]

  Kershner: Okay, alright, so we’ll try that. We’ll see if that works.

  [Later: It is 12:50 PM, and they’re nearly ready for a take.]

  Ford: Did you change this [referring to new typed pages]?

  Kershner: Yeah, I think it sounds better if he says, “Make you behave.”

  Ford: Nobody told me this.

  Kershner: I’m going to do a rehearsal now. I’m gonna do it.

  Ford: Okay. [Kershner calls for Fisher.]

  Kershner: Carrie, what’s going to happen is, Boba Fett says to Vader, and you can hear it, “What if he doesn’t survive? He’s worth a lot to me.” “The Empire will compensate you for the loss. Put him in.” That’s the first you really know of the danger. You say, “No!” I think that there has to be a reaction on your part and then Chewie goes crazy. So I’ve reversed the whole thing.