Empire of Dreams

I’m watching a wonderful documentary on the making of the Star Wars series right now called Empire of Dreams. There’s so much stuff to say … but I just want to report two very funny things that Carrie Fisher said. In regards to the whole action-figure phenomenon, Carrie said, “We basically signed away the rights to our likenesses. So what that means is … every time I look in the mirror, I have to send George a couple of bucks.” The other funny thing she said was, “You know you’ve really made it when you become a Pez dispenser.”

More hilarious wonderful-ness:

Frank Oz talking about the whole Yoda experience. Really ground-breaking. They made it up as they went along. They would cut holes in the floor, and Frank would crouch down below, doing the puppetry. Humorously, though: the assistant director would come up to give him notes – like: “Look more towards the camera … turn right …” whatever … but the guy would speak directly to Yoda, as though Yoda were a real actor, and Frank, huddled beneath the floor, couldn’t hear a thing. Frank would yell up, “Hey! I’m down here! Can’t hear you!”

Why does that charm me so much??? An assistant director seriously giving notes to Yoda. Beautiful. The willing suspension of disbelief.

Another hilarious tidbit:

The animator was given the job to create Jabba the Hut. He was given some guidance: “He should be grotesque … really alien … kind of like Sidney Greenstreet.”

HA! That’s so awful!!! Jabba is based on Sidney Greenstreet?

Another tidbit:

Carrie Fisher (and I have tried to emulate her timing): “Yes, I got to kill Jabba the Hut, and that was great, but I was more concerned about the slave girl outfit and … what I was going to do.” Long pause. “About exercise.”

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16 Responses to Empire of Dreams

  1. Ann Marie says:

    I *love* this special. I have it Tivo’d and it’s fascinating. Especially all the stuff about the first (3rd) episode even getting filmed. Did you see the part with the screen tests? William Katt as Luke? Cindy Williams as Leia? Are you kidding me? And also how George just had Harrison Ford just there to read along during auditions and in the end he winds up getting the part. Carrie Fischer is just incredible, though wasn’t she totally coked out during Jedi?

  2. mere says:

    I hope they show this again. :(
    What channel was it on??

  3. red says:

    mere – i think it was on A and E.

  4. red says:

    Ann – William Katt!! I know! And Kurt Russell as Han Solo – so great!!!

  5. Betsy says:

    Last night Chelsea was babysitting – I woke up at 1am and she wasn’t home yet. I got a parental knot in my gut and couldn’t fall asleep again so I flipped on the TV and in that haze of worry and exhaustion, I remember listening to the creation of Jabba – it’s funny you should post this today.

  6. Tommy says:

    I saw a bit of the show, mostly the Yoda bits you talked about.

    It reminded me of the thing with the muppets on Sesame Street, where even though the kids (and the adult guests and even the adult actors on the show) can see the puppeteers behind the puppets, they all still interact with the puppets as though they were the living breathing things….

  7. Kathy says:

    I saw that last night, too! The part I found particularly enlightening was when Harrison Ford was discussing how George Lucas has little to no patience with the acting process. “‘It’s all there on the page, just do that!’ The thing George doesn’t understand is that sometimes you can’t just do that. It doesn’t work that way.”
    Harrison was tippy-toeing around this observation, too, like he didn’t want to hurt George’s feelings; like he was still dependent upon George for a paycheck.

  8. red says:

    Kathy – hahaha Yes!! I loved that part too!

    Well, apparently Harrison said at one point during filming:

    “George, you can write this shit, but you can’t say it.”

    hahahaha

  9. Kathy says:

    Oh, I missed that bit! Damnit. (We were flipping back and forth between A&E and The Usual Suspects on AMC.) It’s so true, though. Lucas sucks at writing dialogue. He’s very good at coming up with the storyline and the background, etc., but his writing is wooden. There’s just no getting around it. I thank God he hired Lawrence Kasdan to write Raiders.

    And Harrison saved George’s bacon with the “I know.” bit in Empire.

  10. Alex Nunez says:

    Just an FYI, Empire of Dreams is included on the Special Features disk in the SW Trilogy DVD box set.

    As if getting the films on DVD wasn’t enough to begin with, you get the definitive documentary to boot!

  11. peteb says:

    It’s “the” classic Harrison Ford quote, sheila.

    And I could listen to Carrie Fisher talk about SW endlessly.. She is sooo over that role. Marvellously so. But, every interview still, up it pops.. and you can see her eyes roll. heh.

    “About exercise” = “Time to start hitting the gym”

  12. red says:

    peteb – I know. That’s the joke. slave girl outfit = must start exercising. did you think I didn’t get that?

    Then of course there is the infamous moment where her boobs had to be taped down in Star Wars. Her comment: Apparently there must be no jiggling in the Empire.

    You just can’t win with this pesky female body. Something’s always wrong with it, no matter what.

  13. peteb says:

    Ah.. I should have been a bit [ok, a lot] clearer with that reference.

    I was thinking about a previous post.. there was a mention of Nic Cage worrying about how long he had to prepare for certain scenes in Con Air?

  14. red says:

    oh my god, peteb, okay – I get it now. But good Lord. Do you have a memory of every post I’ve written in your head?? Please don’t scare me like that.

    I swear to God – the second I write a post and put it up, it pretty much leaves my brain completely.

  15. peteb says:

    It’s just my magpie mind picking out a shiny line that I’ve read and hoarding it away.

    If only I had some control over that process..

  16. red says:

    Magpie mind!!! hahaha I like that.

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