LONDON FILM AND COMIC CON - EARLS COURT, LONDON-SATURDAY 19TH AND SUNDAY 20TH JULY 2008
COMPILED BY SCOTT WELLER
Another great event that AFICIONADO
attended-with a nice INDIANA JONES flavour on Saturday. It was fun to meet
all the stars, all of whom were extremely friendly and enthusiastic.
Here’s some info I managed to find out
that you guys and gals might like. On a less positive note, one thing that was a shame is that a major official title like TITAN's STAR WARS INSIDER was once again not present at another fact-filled event with first time STAR WARS signees, whom could have interviewed by them in greater detail!
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| The woman who first kissed Han Solo: Jenny Cresswell. |
JENNY CRESSWELL (KNOWN AS
JENNY-THE CANTINA WOMAN WHO KISSED HAN SOLO IN THE FIRST STAR WARS’S DELETED
SCENES)
Now
living in the Isle of Wight, Jenny made her first convention appearance at LFCC
and was thrilled to be invited. She recalled being on the set of the first film
for several weeks, found the filming conditions in the cantina horrible as
there was a lot of smoke even when they started early at 5am in the morning.
Before STAR WARS, she appeared regularly as a hostess on the SALE OF THE
CENTURY quiz show for several years before being asked to meet Lucas for a role
in STAR WARS.
Asked if Harrison was a good kisser she couldn’t remember, though he was pleasant enough-not yet a big star. Mark Hamill was lovely and when Sir Alec Guinness came on set everyone was quiet. She recalled he had such a wonderful presence and was a very nice man to go with it.
Her costume was a brown suede jacket and she had brown
boots. Though she can’t remember costume reference photos being shot, they may
well have been and she’s sure that other photos of her on set do exist-she did
the film, as far as she is aware, before her stint during pretty much the whole
run of the second season of SPACE:1999 in which she played a Moonbase Alpha
Command Centre member-at the end of the season, when it looked like it would go
to a third, creator/producer Gerry Anderson offered Jenny a full time lead part
in the show but then a short time later the series was unexpectedly cancelled!
She had a terrific time working on SPACE: 1999 and enjoyed the variety of the episodes and all the different stories and designs and new things that had to be done on a weekly series-she was disappointed when the second series moved away from it’s adult/family mid evening Saturday time slot to a dreadful kiddie Sunday afternoon slot. She still has the security photo badge her character worn on her top during season two.
One episode of SPACE she found particularly memorable as the alien
shapeshifter character Maya (played by Catherine Schell) had to transform into
her, so she also had to play another version of her regular role-in a scene
which led to the character going crazy, which she found a challenge to film.
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| The alien citizens of Mos Eisley's streets. |
ANNETTE JONES (MOSEP THE CANTINA AND MOS EISLEY STREET
ALIEN-STAR WARS)
Another really nice, bubbly lady bursting with enthusiasm and
thoroughly enjoying her first STAR WARS signing. She was in her twenties when
she worked on the first film, and was contacted for a part through the agency
she was contracted with at the time-THE CENTRAL CASTING AGENCY in London. Did
two costume fittings for the character-she was the creature that had the red
beard whilst another actor (presumably Erica Simmons) played the one with the white
hair who can be seen walking about in the Mos Eisley street scenes. At the time
she was making STAR WARS she went out with one of the film crew and had a great
time. The costume took about an hour to put on and she recalls posing in the
costume with the Freeborn family for a group monster image. She doesn’t recall
ever taking the costume off whilst she was filming her scenes (which were over
a week on both the Mos Eisley street and in the Cantina) and may have eaten
food and had drinks whilst still wearing it. In the Cantina she sat next to a
friend of hers who played a crocodile-like creature.
Sadly she didn’t
really get to the meet the main actors-it wasn’t really encouraged-if they
talked to you it was fine but not really vice versa.
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| Saesee Tiin: a new Jedi for EPISODE ONE. Image: via TheRealGingerPrince. |
KHAN BONFILS (SAESEE
TIIN-EPISODE ONE)
His first convention, Khan was a very
friendly, quietly spoken man. His make-up for the character of Saesee Tiin for
EPISODE ONE only, took four to five hours at LEVEASDEN and normally took a
couple of hours to take off at the end of a days filming. There were other
generic scenes of the Jedi Council shot that never made the final cut. The
actor was on set for a week in total. He sat next to Yoda, which he thought was
very cool. At the moment, as well as auditioning for other roles, Khan has
taken up a music career. (Note: Khan was recently seen as playing one of the villainous Silva's henchmen in the 2012 James Bond movie SKYFALL.)
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| Eeth Koth (Hassani Shapi) makes his first appearance in EPISODE ONE. |
HASSANI SHAPI (EETH KOTH-EPISODE ONE ONLY)
A very friendly, enthusiastic man who had
driven down to the event just as he was completing filming in Birmingham for a
new drama. He recalls being on the EPISODE ONE set for three weeks filming his
scenes in the Jedi Council at LEAVESDEN. They filmed lots of generic footage of
the council members-close-ups, long shots, them with Neeson and McGregor, and
of course, Yoda. He liked McGregor and had some drinks with him-Ewan was very
gregarious and a party animal. Hassani very much liked working with
him.
JAY
BENEDICT (DEAK IN THE LOST ANCHORHEAD SCENES OF STAR WARS, AND NEWT’S FATHER IN
THE DELETED SCENES OF ALIENS).
A
refined looking man with the face you’ve seen on TV a lot but can never quite
work out in what, Benedict worked on the first STAR WARS film for 2-3 days.
Originally offered a day’s work on the film by his agent who told him it was
some kind of unusual space movie that he’d be working on. He went out for lunch
when filming began with Mark Hamill whom he liked a great deal, and recalled
that all through the lunch they had, which Benedict enjoyed, all Hamill could talk
about was the film he’d recently seen- ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEXT and about
how great Jack Nicholson was in it. He also recalled being on set, playing some
on some sort of electronic type pool table, meeting Koo Stark before she became
linked to Royalty, and being paid £75 for his work. He is still friends with
Garrick Hagon and has worked with him and his wife, Lisa on other
projects.
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| A Wampa is felled by Rebel forces in a deleted scene from EMPIRE. |
TERRY RICHARDS (THE ICONIC SWORDSMAN FROM RAIDERS, PLAYED THE WAMPA
IN EMPIRE’S DELETED ACTION SCENE AT ELSTREE)
Recalling his Tunisian action stint as the
swordsman, Terry recalls that in the film world that shot, the original plan for the Indy versus the Swordsman, was considered a “luxury” shot-one that could be
improvised and played around with: the script simply said of their
confrontation-“they fight”, though Richards thought the amount of stunt fighting
that could be done with a whip against a sword was quite limiting at the time.
STAR WARS-wise,
he only worked on THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. In 1979, Richards had the distinction of playing the Wampa snow
monster for interior action sequences of the Hoth Rebel base filmed at ELSTREE
STUDIOS. As Des Webb, the original actor who played the creature in the Finse
filming, was not a very strong man, it was decided that Richards would don the
creature costume for the scene where it bursts through a secluded cave corridor
and attacks Rebel officers. Richards recalled that the suit was a
nightmare-that he wore the stills previously by Webb in Norway and that the
interior of the mask was constructed almost like a scaffold with the actors jaw
rigged to mechanics that moved the creature jaw outside. The sequence saw him
having to throw Rebel soldiers around the set and at one point, the Wampa
costume was set on fire-Richard recalls the Rebels using a flame thrower like
weapon at the creature. Sadly, the resulting footage, shot over a week and supervised
by David Tomblin, never made the final cut of the film as the creature’s head
was seen to bobble too much when moving in the dailies. It just didn’t look
convincing enough and had to go…
In other stunt work, in the world of James Bond
look out for him in TOMORROW NEVER DIES-he’s the bearded bald guy that beats up
Pierce Brosnan in Elliot Carver’s studio at the beginning of the film.
SONNY CALDINEZ (MEAN MONGOLIAN ASSOCIATE TO TOHT IN RAIDERS OF THE
LOST ARK (SHOT FROM BEHIND BY MARION), AN ICE WARRIOR IN NUMEROUS EARLY DOCTOR
WHO TV SERIES EPISODES)
The actor, primarily known in science fiction circles for his work on
DOCTOR WHO, playing numerous Ice Warrior monsters across nearly nine years, and
working with three doctors-Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker),
Caldinez, who also played a mean Mongolian in the Ravenwood bar action scene in
RAIDERS, recalled that he originally went up for an interview to play Darth
Vader for STAR WARS in 1975-on the very same day that Dave Prowse had his in
London. They were both together in the corridor, and both had interviews with
Lucas, but in the end Prowse won the gig because he was taller. Caldinez has no
regrets about Prowse winning the part and thought he did a very good job.
Caldinez recalls he had an enjoyable time working on DOCTOR WHO over
that lengthy period from the mid sixties to the mid seventies-the fibre glass
Ice Warrior costume he inhabited in numerous stories was very uncomfortable and
he sweated buckets, but he enjoyed working with everybody-particularly citing
out Jon Pertwee as his favourite actor to play the Time Lord-for a such a
physical, active man who lived life to the full, Caldinez is still shocked that
a man as fit and vibrant as Pertwee died back in the mid nineties.
On
his stint on RAIDERS, Caldinez recalls that though Harrison Ford works with
snakes, he doesn’t like them as much as we would believe and didn’t enjoy
working on the Well of Souls set. In fact, the crew apparently played a
practical joke on Ford involving a box/crate of snakes during filming which
apparently had the actor hurrying off the set uncomfortably!!
MALCOLM WEAVER (MONGOLIAN BADDY WITH TOHT IN RAIDERS (THE
SMALLEST OF THE GROUP), STORMTROOPER IN RETURN OF THE JEDI, QUEEN ALIEN IN
ALIENS
Best known as one of the Death Star commanders killed by a Stormtrooper disguised Han Solo in STAR WARS-his blaster demise trimmed down from the 1997 SPECIAL EDITION onwards. Weaver, contrary to fan reports, revealed to me that he
didn’t take part in any of the RETURN OF THE JEDI Yuma action sequences (he
jokingly thought that he might have upset the stunt co-ordinator and that’s why
he never went out there with the rest of them!!), though be did play a
Stormtrooper for the movie-which he found very uncomfortable and not enjoyable
to work in at all. Sadly, due to the passage of time, there was very little
else about his work on the film that he could recall (and at one point he
mentioned a car accident that he had). He also couldn’t actually remember when
he filmed his scenes. Malcolm was one of the operators inside
the giant Alien Queen puppet built for live action filming at Pinewood for
James Cameron’s ALIENS (which he spent six weeks on). He was body casted for
that scene so that the part of the suit he was operating in fitted him
properly..
.
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| Dietrich (Wolf Kahler) is after Indiana Jones once again... |
WOLF KAHLER (DIETRICH IN RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK)
A very straightforward person, at his first signing event, he recalled
that he spent three months filming on RAIDERS. He only remembers one cut scene
with his character-that of his having an argument with Gruber. Of the kind of
work he does now, he’s very happy with what he does and loves playing German
characters of all kinds, especially fun nobility parts-especially the 1980’s
SHERLOCK HOLMES episode he did - A Scandal in Bohemia- working with Jeremy
Brett as Holmes and the lovely Gayle Hunnicut as Irene Adler-Kahler enjoyed
working on it and found the late Jeremy Brett, who many feel to be the
definitive actor to have played the part, to be a very dedicated and gracious
man on set.
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| Nick Gillard on the EPISODE I set with Ray Park. |
NICK GILLARD (STAR WARS
PREQUELS STUNT CO-ORDINATOR, A GERMAN IN INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE,
THE ALIEN QUEEN IN ALIENS, CIN DRALLIG IN REVENGE OF THE SITH)
As ever, a thoroughly nice chap, highly talkative and happily signing
and posing for photos with fans, he recalled that the original length of the
Anakin/ Obi-Wan duel filmed was fifteen minutes long, of which the original
version of the fight with stunt actors rehearsing the moves still exists
on tape. The fight was heavily re-edited in the final version and not all of it
made the final version, sadly- a shame as he thought the original version was one
of the proudest moments of his stunt career. He recently worked on the Angelina
Jolie adventure film WANTED (which he found a tough and thoroughly demanding
film to work on, and he hasn’t seen a full theatrical version of it, yet,
either!), and is currently back to doing stunts on TV-he is going to be
working on the new re-make of the highly popular British ITV series MINDER. He
was indeed asked by Mark Hamill, whom he had facial and physical similarities
to at the time, to be his double for RETURN OF THE JEDI. Though he was on set
in 1982, union regulations prevented him from doing this, despite Hamill’s
request, and Colin Skeaping stayed on as Hamill’s film/stunt
double.
Regarding future projects, Gillard's film directing debut as an
action director has not yet happened. Hayden Christensen has sadly pulled out
of the film he was to have done with both Gillard and Sam Jackson (though
Jackson is still keen to be involved with Gillard on the project if it
materializes).
Gillard also recalled his time operating the mammoth
Alien Queen prop for ALIENS-he was at the front end of the operation of the
creature, whilst Malcolm Weaver was handling another part of it.
DEEP ROY (YODA IN ONE SCENE FOR EMPIRE, NUMEROUS ALIEN PARTS IN
RETURN OF THE JEDI, THE OOMPA LUMPA IN TIM BURTON’S WILLY WONKA REMAKE)
His most recent acting job
has been spending nearly six weeks on the set of the new JJ Abraham’s top
secret STAR TREK movie re-vamp. He very much enjoyed working on it and was very
impressed with how it looked visually. Sadly, he couldn’t reveal much about the
plot but said that he is playing a goodie-an alien engineering assistant to
Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (being played by SPACED’s Simon
Pegg).
Deep Roy confirmed that he did indeed play Artoo for a couple of
scenes at ELSTREE, but he couldn’t remember if it was for EMPIRE or JEDI (or
both). He jokingly recalled that he only did it at times when Kenny Baker had
been drinking too much in the ELSTREE BAR (which is fast becoming a legend in
AFICIONADO circles with the amount of people who enjoyed being in it over the
years!!). Deep always reluctantly did those extra Artoo scenes as he didn’t
like robbing his friend Baker of the work.
BILL WESTON (IMPERIAL STORMTROOPER- STAR WARS, SOLDIER IN RAIDERS,
STUNTMAN ON NUMEROUS JAMES BONDS)
A
terrific guy, with a very good memory of the films he worked on, the stuntman
recalls that he played a Stormtrooper towards the end of shooting of the
original film (presumably he was referring to the Blockade Runner scenes)-and
that the first film was the only one he ended up working on. The Stormtrooper
outfit he wore was way too small and he only just fitted in it.
Bill was
involved in one of my all time favourite fight scenes in the James Bond 1987
film THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS-where he plays an agent who inadvertently walks into
one of the villains, Necros (as played by Andreas Wisnewski) who has
infiltrated a British safe house and has a brutal fight with him in a kitchen.
I complimented Weston on that-it’s a terrific sequence, and he recalled that he
was pretty much instrumental in working out the choreography of that sequence
on set, shot after much of the film’s beginning in Germany was in the can, and
in the way the burn make-ups would be done when the agent’s face is half
scorched on a cooker.
Additionally, the actor playing Necros was worried
about injuring Weston so the stunt man had to time the fight moves carefully to
make sure that the actor looked superior to him when filmed. Weston also has
another classic fight sequence in ea early episode of the BBC-1 1970’s/80’s
series BLAKE’S 7 (series one, episode two-SPACEFALL), in which he fights actor
Paul Darrow playing Avon. Weston was amused to hear from me that the fight from
that episode has sadly been cut over the years on it’s VHS release by the
BRITISH BOARD OF FILM CENSORS because there were several dangerous blows in the
fight that they were worried could be copied.
Weston also
appeared in RAIDERS, during the Tunisia filming and was the guy in the bike that
went over into the pond during the truck chase. He also recalls that the
compliment of soldiers getting into the truck at the beginning of the sequence
doesn’t match the amount eventually seen clambering on its exterior to get
Harrison Ford later in the action sequence!!!
As a working stuntman on
TITANIC, a joking Weston was very surprised that, with all the physical difficulties
imposed on both the main cast and crew, that no one ever shot James Cameron for
being so demanding and perfectionist- and aggressive- about
everything.
LYNNE HAZELDEN (X-WING PILOT-RETURN OF THE JEDI, ALSO APPEARED AS A
BACKGROUND ARTIST IN SEVERAL BONDS, AND SUPERMAN III)
A friend of Richard
Bonehill, who played numerous parts in two of the STAR WARS films, the charming, bouncy and enthusiastic actress humorously recalled that
a lot of extras that worked on films during her time as a background
artist on many big films, were actually criminals-not in a modern
gangster kind of way but more like shady Del Boy/ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES types
trying to sell stolen watches!
She was recalled back to the JEDI
filming for an insert scene showing her in her pilots gear (orange for X-wing)
dancing with an Ewok for the finale celebrations-sadly the footage never got
used, but a still photograph of that scene exists-an off-duty moment of the
actress with the little person playing the Ewok.
According to Lynne,
there were more female background extras on JEDI because the UK film/TV unions
lobbied the STAR WARS team for more women to be used in the movies. She didn’t
do any cockpit scenes for the movie-she has been mistaken by fans for another
actress who did them-it was just the scene in the briefing room.
That
scene was a challenge to film because you had to be very careful with eyelines
for filming, keeping in continuity and in the right positioning. There were
many takes done-she doesn’t remember if it was Marquand or David Tomblin who
directed her scenes.
The actress also played a fighter pilot for the
scene in the Rebel Hangar Bay, towards the end of JEDI’s UK filming, where she
accidentally got into trouble when she unintentionally walked over a line she
wasn’t supposed to when they were filming a scene that had some tricky
photography-it had taken a while to set the shooting of the scene up and
Harrison Ford gave the actress a bit of a grumpy look when it happened.
She got the role because she was told to go there and take part in it
by her agents/casting people-it was as simple as that-sometimes she would be
working back-to-back on films.
Her other appearances would include
SUPERMAN III, the James Bond film OCTOPUSSY (she was one of the circus audience
members) and DIE ANOTHER DAY (where she was part of a group attending the
outdoor launch of the villains space satellite in the arctic). On OCTOPUSSY,
the actress was thrilled when a still in costume Christopher Reeve popped in
one lunch time to visit the filming on the Bond set.
CARRIE HENN (NEWT IN
ALIENS)
The ex actress/co-star
of ALIENS was very polite, and revealed that she worked on the film for a
staggering nine months total (from filming to post-production). Her family was
living in England at the time the film was being made, as her father was a
military man stationed there. Sadly, she hasn’t seen much of Sigourney Weaver
in a while (though she did sit next to her at the ALIEN III premiere in the
US). As far as the aliens went, they weren’t really scary to work with-they
were just men in suits to her when she was little!!
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| The lovely Karen Allen poses for a publicity image for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. |
KAREN
ALLEN (MARION RAVENWOOD IN RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, AND INDIANA JONES AND THE
KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL)
What can I say..I always wanted to meet her. And
she is Marion Ravenwood- the moment
she gave me that smile-that warm, cheeky smile that comes naturally to her.
Karen was a real crowd pleaser-chatted and talked to people and signing
hundreds of autographs. I asked her, when she got the script for CRYSTAL SKULL,
if she had to make any changes or revisions in case there were any moments that
were out of character for Marion. She said there weren’t any and it was pretty
much as we saw in the film. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get to meet John Hurt or
get his autograph, but Karen’s will do for me!!
