“Our most serious problem is, of course, the time that we have left to finish the picture,” Kurtz says. “We have a fixed release date and every day more we go into shooting takes away from postproduction time. And our postproduction time is very carefully calculated to be ready by that release date—we have no leeway on the other end.”
“Frank Oz had to keep reminding Kersh that it took a while to work the movements out,” says Brian Johnson.
“The pressure was extreme, because I was taking too much time, and the reason I was taking too much was this was the first time this has ever been done,” says Oz. “But I’m having a great time with Mark. We just clown around and talk about California food and how much we miss it.”
“As we were filming, I came to adore Yoda,” Kershner says. “He was completely real.”
“Frank Oz and his crew were there, but they’d be buried down underneath the ground,” says Hamill. “I had an earpiece, so I would hear, ‘Luke, many years have you …’ but if you turned your head the wrong way, you’d pick up Radio 1 and the Rolling Stones singing ‘Fool to Cry.’ I shouted, ‘Hey, I got the Stones,’ and Kersh goes, ‘Cut!’ And he’s way across the bog saying, ‘You know, if that happens again, just pretend you don’t hear it.’ ”
“The whole floor was about four feet off the ground, so I could be underneath and hold my hand up through a hole or whatever,” Oz says. “I remember Kersh would talk to me, but he wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to Yoda. So I’d say, ‘Kersh, I can’t hear you—I’m down here under the floor.’ ”
“I was the only one who could hear Yoda’s voice because I was wearing earphones,” Kershner says. “Mark couldn’t hear his voice. We’d rehearse it with a speaker so Mark could get the timing and then he’d have to do it blank with nothing coming out of Yoda’s mouth. He did a good job.”
“Yoda gave me no lines while we were shooting,” Hamill says. “For a number of reasons, the earpiece never worked, so it was abandoned. Frank was in a pit with the others and they were off at the end of cables and wires. So that whole relationship with Yoda had to be developed without dialogue.”
“Mark also acted major sequences with a tin bucket,” says Kershner. “I’d be standing beside that bucket off camera, going, ‘Squeak, squeak’ and ‘Beep, beep,’ and Mark had to be relating to that.”
“There were so many Artoo units and they all looked the same,” says Hamill. “It’s very confusing when you’re doing a scene to know if Kenny is inside or not. I remember several times saying hello to the radio-controlled robot and then noticing Kenny over in the corner sitting with a newspaper and drinking tea.”
“I found myself forgetting about Luke, who was standing there emoting all over the place, and watching the robot to see if its performance was going properly!” Kershner says. “That happened time and again, so I would have to pull myself back and concentrate on the actor. Without him, nothing was going to happen. But it’s hard to admit that my directing talent may be judged by the performance of an inanimate object.”
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A printed daily from mid-August 1979 of Luke on the Dagobah set with Yoda, voiced by Frank Oz (and puppeteered by Oz and his team).
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On the Star Wars Stage, the exterior of Yoda’s house: “Yoda’s house is perhaps a hangover from Tunisia, where there are some buildings that are built in this sort of way,” says Reynolds. “We’ve adapted it and molded it and changed it slightly. What you’re looking at really is an accumulation of a lot of talking with George Lucas and thinking and so on. It seems to be in character with the little man, with Yoda.”
Hamill poses with Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog; the former had made a surprise appearance the day before inside Yoda’s house, courtesy of Frank Oz (who had created the character for Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show).
Hamill on the camp site setup.
Frank Oz works with Yoda, as crew prepare for the shot (Frank’s sister, Jenny Oznowicz, was a production assistant at ILM).
Yoda waits for the cameras to roll.
R2-D2, Frank Oz (with Yoda puppet), Kershner, and Lucas on the Dagobah camp site set.
Kurtz, Lucas, and Kershner in conference as crew prepare for another shot on the Dagobah set.
SKYWALKER’S CHOICE
REPORT NOS. 114–119: MONDAY, AUGUST 13–SATURDAY, AUGUST 18: STAR WARS STAGE—EXT. BOG CLEARING, S368 [LUKE LEAVES DAGOBAH], 314 [“THAT IS WHY YOU FAILED”], 312 [“DO OR DO NOT”], S311 [LUKE TRIES TO RAISE X-WING], 359 [LUKE HAS VISION]
From Monday to Wednesday, August 15, Kershner and crew tackled scene S368—Luke’s decision to leave and Yoda’s revelation that “There is another.” Over the weekend, the night shift had moved the set around, taking the full-sized X-wing and placing it on the shore, though the scene of Yoda raising it from the swamp had not yet been filmed.
“We were able to cope by changing over and putting the fighter in overnight, taking the fighter out, then later putting one in water, and so on,” says Welch. “We were able to not ever disrupt the unit and kept them going by working late into the evening, until eleven o’clock, plus Saturdays and Sundays.”
“Overnight, the crew would move the trees, move the water, and set up for the next day’s shooting,” says Kershner. “It was so complicated because nothing whatsoever was shot in proper sequence.”
“We used thousands and thousands of turfs, turned upside down on the floor to create the ground, which worked very well for us, because we had to change the background for various sequences,” says Reynolds. “Because time was against us. The voice behind Yoda, Frank, he was with us for just a short period, so we had to exploit that time.”
“This is a film of life and death, of great urgency,” Kershner says. “There is a great deal at stake and as Shakespeare said, ‘Tell the story of a king or queen and the death of one of them is of great interest to everyone, including the chimney sweep.’ In this one, we’re dealing with kings and queens and emperors. Its philosophical content is talked about in this scene between Yoda and Luke. It is the great dilemma of the entire film. In making his decision to rescue his friends, Luke reveals his character flaw or his character strength. This element of ambiguity makes it very rich. His decision is a moral decision and a political decision: He leaves his training before he’s finished—at the expense of a greater vision for the good of all, let’s say. Yes, he’d love to save the entire galaxy from the Empire, but he feels it’s more important to save his friends at this moment.”
“It’s one of those things that’s risky in terms of storytelling,” says Lucas. “Basically, he screws up and everything turns bad because of his emotional decision, where he knows that he’s not ready but goes anyway. His attachment makes for a very selfish decision.”
“I was supposed to pick up this king snake at the moment Ben said, ‘You would become an agent of evil, like Lord Vader’—it was heavy symbolism,” says Hamill. “Well, this snake, which was as thick as my thigh, was shedding its skin, which made it blind; so every time I touched it, it would flinch. And they wanted the snake to writhe around, you see, but it was about the fourth take and he’d had enough. It whirled ‘round and bit me.”
“Sometimes under the lights they get very hot and they’re handled a lot, so it makes them a bit temperamental,” says Culling. “They can have a nip, but they certainly haven’t got great big teeth.”
“The trainer tried to tell me that it hadn’t bit me, that it was more of a nip than a bite, but I don’t really see the distinction,” says Hamill. “Those little snaky lips put me off the whole thing and I got crazy. But we had to do it four more times, so we went eight takes. Kersh would say, ‘Please, can you just do it one more time?’ ”
Oz pops up from his concealed hole where he and his team operated the Yoda puppet (with the aid of video monitors, which Maurice Arnold studies)
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Hamill and the snake that bit him when he had to remove it repeatedly, while filming, from the X-wing.
Kershner and Yoda puppeteer Kathy Mullen.
Kenny Baker (R2-D2) discusses a scene with Hamill and Kershner.
THE OMINOUS OTHER
“There is a strong emotional effect of saying goodbye to this little creature,” Kershner says. “Not only is Luke saying goodbye to Yoda, but the audience is saying goodbye to him. It’s toward the end of the picture, so you know you’re not going to be seeing him again, and it’s kind of sad because you like him. He’s an extraordinary man. To me, Yoda is a Zen master.”
“Kersh did a great job with Yoda,” Lucas says. “He never thought of him as a puppet. He had a real connection with Yoda and believed in him as a character and in what he was saying.”
“So I tried to heighten the emotion and the drama with lighting effects and the slight motions of Yoda,” Kershner says. “The wind comes on and the plane takes off, which you don’t see except in the light moving away—because the special effects had determined how I’d shoot the scene. I couldn’t move the camera; I couldn’t do anything because Ben will be added to the scene later. Also, we had terrific focus problems, because we were at a very low light level. I did about 16 or 17 takes, more than any scene I’ve done—with about 50 people with boots on, all hovering around a little board, with water running under our feet and mud all over the place.”
“It didn’t sit so well with me at first,” Hamill says of Yoda’s cryptic mention of “another.” “I told George that people would think I was pulling a $5 million holdout or something. But he said if anyone suggested that, he would tell them I wasn’t. I’ve never asked for exorbitant sums or script approval or anything, so I thought it made me look bad. But George insisted it had always been part of the storyline, though he never told me who it might be. Somebody suggested it might be the Princess, but I think that would be a letdown. She has too much power already. I mean, it’s like she’s the only woman in the galaxy. If you don’t hit it off with her, you become a monk.”
“Do you feel you, too, could be written out?” Arnold asks Hamill.
“Well, look at what’s happening to Harrison,” Hamill replies. “I think George is very clever in the sense that he’s not going to make any of us do another one in the series against our will. This is very classified information, but Harrison isn’t sure if he wants to do the next one, so they found a way of doing away with him and yet keep him. ‘He’s in a perfect state of hibernation,’ says Billy. So let’s hypothetically say that I gave them a lot of trouble and they didn’t want to use me—they could very easily discover a long-lost sister or brother of mine residing somewhere in another part of the galaxy, and then just refer to the fact that Luke is off searching for Harrison.”
“The problem with these kinds of movies is if you have a hero that can’t be killed, then where’s your drama?” Lucas says. “What I’ve done is I’ve said, ‘Well, this guy can be killed—don’t worry, he’s not the important one. There is another.’ It’s a cheap trick, but it works.”
Although Kershner was anticipating the insertion of Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan into Yoda’s farewell shot, his participation was still in doubt a day later. “The question, of course, is who will portray Ben Kenobi?” Arnold writes. “The distinguished actor, it seems, is recuperating from an eye operation. I am puzzled that it’s Sir Alec’s health that’s the issue because two weeks ago he led a protest march to 10 Downing Street to petition Prime Minister Thatcher to cut the newly imposed taxes on theater seats.”
“I spent last evening with Alec,” says Lucas. “I’ve had several meetings with him going over the part and the script, trying to get it cut down so there’s not that much strain on him because of his illness. I think we’ve worked it out; I think he’ll do the picture. I was very concerned that he be the one, because he is Ben Kenobi and I wanted to have the real thing.”
According to production’s 119th Progress Report, which also noted that Empire was 49 days over schedule, Hamill and Oz continued their scenes through Saturday, when the latter went on to fulfill another commitment after 12 days worked as Yoda.
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Hamill on the clever expendability of Star Wars characters, in conversation with Arnold, at Elstree Studios; Hamill, at one point, imitates the voice of Frank Oz as Yoda. (1979)
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Hamill with Yoda in Luke’s knapsack.
Lucas, who was now on set frequently.
Final frames of Yoda as lit by Kershner and Suschitzky, for the moment in which the audience says goodbye to the Jedi Master.
X-WING IN POSITION 2
REPORT NOS. 120–122: MONDAY, AUGUST 20–WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22: EXT. BOG SWAMP WITH X-WING, 271 [LUKE CLIMBS OUT OF COCKPIT], 272 [LUKE LOOKS FOR R2 IN SWAMP], 275 [R2 SPIT OUT]
Kershner directs Hamill on the now submerged X-wing.
After resting on Sunday, cast and crew met on the bog planet for the scene in which Luke steps from his vehicle into the swamp and R2 falls into the same. For Hamill, having only one day off was probably not enough of a break.
“I cannot leave the film at the studio,” he says. “I work in this factory and then I go home and constantly analyze what I did today and how I could have done it better. I also have this terrible habit: I can’t just read a scene. I always have to—even if I don’t read the whole script—I have to flip through from the very beginning, back to Hoth, back to the battle to see how the scene relates to the whole.”
After several weeks of existence, the bog swamp was now treacherous. “I have to say, you wouldn’t want to fall in that pool,” says Reynolds. “It’s full of all sorts of wildlife and bugs. It was absolutely foul after all those weeks.” (At least one crew member did fall in.)
“I told the trainers that in the future I’d like to work with the animals first, so I could get used to them,” says Hamill. “They asked me, ‘How do you feel about going into the water with an alligator?’ I mean, is that a trick question?”
Shortly afterward, while Hamill was in the studio cafeteria having a beer, two animal handlers entered carrying a six-foot-long alligator. The men nonchalantly walked over to the actor and set the reptile on his lap. “This is your co-star for the next scene,” they explained. “He won’t hurt you. Just pet him.”
“I could feel the muscles in the alligator’s stomach relax as I stroked it,” Hamill says. “But they didn’t even use it in the end, after they changed the script.”
For much of the week, Kershner and Hamill worked on Luke’s lines to Yoda. “They’d had to get rid of Frank so soon that we’d first done all of Yoda’s close-ups over my shoulder onto him,” Hamill says. “Now they’ve got the Moviola up there for reference and we’re backtracking; I’m doing scenes I did weeks ago and I’m trying to remember just how I positioned myself. So the last couple of days, the concentration has had to be so strong. One day, Kersh complained about my matching. That was sort of a blow to my professional pride, so I said, ‘Okay, if matching is what you want, matching is what you’ll get.’ And since then, he says I’ve improved 100 percent. Now I’m catching Kersh in matching mistakes—but see, Kersh knows. He’ll say, ‘Oh, well, it’s not important that we match that because I’m not going to use it anyway.’ ”
“I would say that Kersh responds well to pressure, especially when George is around,” says Hirsch. “As the schedule has become tighter, I don’t think the work has suffered. It may be that he feels that had he had more time, he could have done even better—but I think the material that’s been coming out lately has been, toward the end of the schedule, among the best stuff in the whole film.”
“If you’re going to make any picture, big or small, you’re going to reach a point where the pressure becomes excruciatingly intense,” Kershner says. “It’s a part of the game and the secret is to find techniques of living with it. I no longer get palpitations, boils, or stomach problems. I deal with it thr
ough deep breathing, by thinking certain thoughts, by closing my eyes and floating away for sometimes 30 seconds—which makes a huge difference. No matter how many people there are, no matter what the situation is around me, I find that I can rise above it, literally rise above it, as if I’m sitting up in a corner of the studio looking down at this thing: Look at all these men running around. Look at all this activity just to put a little image, a shadow, a little light pattern on a piece of film. And I almost chuckle to myself.”
“When I get home at night, it’s about nine o’clock,” Hamill sighs. “I drop through the front door and I’m asleep at 10:30. We don’t go out to dinner; we don’t see movies. It’s very difficult. Nathan’s last feeding is at like midnight, then the baby will sleep until five. But there were a couple nights, in fact last Sunday, when it’s all night long. Even though Marilou says, ‘Go sleep on the couch and forget about it,’ you still can’t get a good night’s sleep.”
The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Enhanced Edition) Page 41