bits of behind-the-scenes star wars trivia i’ve picked up over the years
Overly Devoted Archivist
anthony daniels and kenny baker (c3po and r2d2) mutually loathe each other and haven’t seen each other for years, not even on the tfa set. occasionally they snipe at each other in interviews [x]
natalie portman and keira knightley looked (and were dressed) so alike on the set of the phantom menace that keira’s own mother couldn’t tell them apart at first [x]
warwick davis was 11 years old when he played wicket. he only got the job because kenny baker (who was meant to play him) was ill that day [x]
and mark hamill, eternal pure cinnamon roll, welcomed him to the set by buying him all the star wars toys he didn’t have [x]
nute gunray was (probably) named after newt gingrich and ronald reagan (gunray = raygun = reagan) because george lucas wanted to give the finger to both i guess [x]
nicolas cage enjoyed hayden christensen’s acting in star wars and praised his performance [x]
peter cushing’s feet were made so uncomfortable by tarkin’s too-small military boots that he ended up doing most of his scenes in his slippers [x]
after having his darth vader voice dubbed over with james earl jones’s, dave prowse publicly claimed to be a victim of ‘reverse racism’ [x]
chewbacca was modelled after lucas’s dog. that dog was called ‘indiana’ and indiana jones was also named after him. i hope lucas paid that dog royalties [x]
samuel l jackson has ‘bad motherfucker’ engraved on the side of his purple lightsaber [x]
perhaps unsurprisingly considering the ‘reverse racism’ thing, dave prowse is banned from official star wars conventions. might also be because he leaked rotj’s ending to a newspaper [x]
steven spielberg’s e.t. species are part of the star wars universe. their leader is called ‘grebleips’ which is ‘spielberg’ spelled backwards [x]
ray winstone was considered for the role of bail organa, but showed up drunk to the audition. unsurprisingly he didn’t get it [x]
more practical miniature effects were made for each one of the prequels than for the entire original trilogy [x]
carrie fisher fought with harrison ford about how much dialogue she should have in the ‘jabba’s palace’ scene. it ended with her saying ‘why can’t I talk, suddenly? because I’m in a bikini?’ which makes me love her all the more [x]
