The ‘other’ Star Wars universe

I was trolling (in the original sense of the word, long before it became connected with social media) through TV channels late the other night when I found “Elstree 1976” on Star World. I was about to switch when something one character said struck me: the movie—or documentary, to be exact—was actually about bit players on the original Star Wars movie.

Indeed, the movie was originally known to everyone as “The Star Wars,” and most of those who auditioned for the parts, actors from the UK, Canada and the US, thought it was a one-off “sci-fi” production. Such movies at the time, they conceded, didn’t exactly command big box-office returns or critical respect. And so, being the yeoman performers that they were, they didn’t attach too much importance to their participation in the film. One new arrival even recalls arriving at the Elstree Studios, where many of the scenes were filmed, and looking for director George Lucas. He asked someone standing off to one side to get him a cup of coffee. When “the guy” returned with the beverage, the actor asked again if he knew what Lucas looked like. And that’s when “the guy” smiled and shook his hand, saying, “I’m Lucas.”

The most significant performer interviewed for “Elstree 1976” is David Prowse, a former “Mr. Universe” aspirant who, muscular and standing at over six feet tall, embodied the imposing figure of Darth Vader. But after production finished in England, Lucas brought the negatives to Hollywood and while Prowse’s voice was used throughout the shoot, in the US it was “overdubbed” with the voice of James Earl Jones (speaking through a scuba mouthpiece, it turns out) which admittedly is the best-remembered feature of the most famous movie villain ever.

That just about sums up the fate and careers of the other bit players. A tale of missed opportunities and frustrated hopes. Of accepting one’s fate. Of sudden realization that one had taken part in a franchise which over five billion people on the planet have seen. Of having to stop a particular scene of the movie just so one’s family members could catch a glimpse of your one or two seconds of fame.

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Also beloved by fans is Jeremy Bullock, who played the bounty hunter Boba Fett, Paul Blake who played the “ill-fated bounty hunter” Greedo, and Laurie Goode who is, said a critic, “known to fans as that one Stormtrooper who bumps his head walking through a door.” The other “talking heads” played almost-invisible characters: aliens, Stormtroopers, droids, shown in footage in their almost imperceptible scenes.

But the film, said filmmaker Jon Spira, explores “the unexpected, and sometimes awkward, ways in which their brief involvement in George Lucas’ space opera has altered their lives.”

When shooting concluded, most of the actors who people Lucas’ universe went home to resume their day jobs or explored acting options. Prowse says his favorite role was not Darth Vader, but a “super hero” who led a TV campaign to instill road safety consciousness in British children. “By the time the campaign ended,” Prowse said with some pride, “the number of children dying in road accidents was halved.”

Blake resumed his career on stage but decries that when he dies, his tombstone will probably read: “Here lies Greedo,” “and that would be perfectly fine with me.”

For others, the road from “Star Wars” was not as smooth or easy. One went through fits of depression, another nursed a life-long grudge against the filmmakers, another tries to be philosophical about his fate: his scenes as Luke Skywalker’s academy best friend ended up on the cutting room floor.

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All of them, though, found, if not redemption then at least distraction, when they started frequenting fan conventions and discovered that, however obscure, their “Star Wars” connection merited them the attention of followers who surprisingly recognized them and wanted to know even the minutiae of their characters’ lives.

They may not have known, when they showed up for auditions, that a small role in a sci-fi movie would transform them into characters in a vast universe with a lasting legacy in the hearts of people of all ages.