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The Lightsabre Interview Gerald Home
Welcome to
Lightsabre. Were excited to introduce
to you our latest Lightsabre guest, one of the men behind many masks in
Return of the Jedi and Mister Muscle himself, Gerald Home. Q - Gerald, welcome
to Lightsabre. A -
Thank you. It's great to talk to you
guys at last. Q Youve been in
numerous episodes of Casualty, Scarlet and Black, Spitting Image and Time
Gentlemen Please, and yet you are internationally best known for your roles
as Tessek and the Mon Calamarian officer in Return of the Jedi. How do you feel about that? A
It's better to be known
for these characters, than not to be known at all! Seriously, it's a thrill
to feel the fans' appreciation still, after all these years. And I have to
say - it's because of the fans that I am known for these characters at
all; they tracked me down, suggested me for the convention circuit, built my
website - everything in fact. If it wasn't for the fans, none of what's
happening for me now would be happening. Q As an
accomplished puppeteer you must have been in your element on the set of Jedi,
a film populated by puppets and masked actors. Given the amount of non-human characters on
the set, how smooth a shoot did you find Jedi? A
Everything connected with ROTJ ran as smooth as
clockwork; nothing was left to chance; everyone knew exactly what he / she was doing. Having said that, the Jabba's Palace set was
surprisingly small and it became very, very hot and stuffy once all the
performers, extras, crew, technicians etc arrived, lights were switched on
and smoke guns activated. It needed enormous concentration not to keel over
or even fall asleep, as a result of the sauna-like conditions. Several of the
little guys did faint, and I can understand why, but nothing held up the
running of this well-oiled machine. Richard Marquand was a fairly quiet, calm
director, and his led to a stress-free atmosphere on set. And of course
it was joy to watch all these incredible puppet and mask characters being
brought to life. Q - Tell us something
of your career. How did you begin in
entertainment and what led you to where you are today? A
I began acting while I was at university in
Australia, where I lived for 10 years when we emigrated there from N. Ireland
in 1967. After I graduated, I spent 3 years as an actor / teacher, then came to London to study at The Drama Studio. I have
been here ever since. A mime teacher I had at drama school formed her own
company, and I was part of that for a while after leaving drama school. We
toured Europe with a couple of shows and met many other mime performers along
the way. I left the company when I started getting very good Equity work. I
did many shoes with Polka Theatre, which is where I learned my puppetry
skills - glove, rod, string, shadow - we used all kinds of puppets. Then I
got a very good agent and he got me into NO SEX PLEASE - WE'RE BRITISH at the
Strand Theatre in the West End. This was the World's Longest-running Comedy
and I was in it for 13 months. I loved it. Shortly after I left it I got a
call from a mime director called Desmond Jones - one of the other mimes I had
met in my mime-company days. He said he was putting together a group of
people to audition for the new Star Wars film - REVENGE of the Jedi. Those chosen
would play various mask characters. The brief was that they were looking for
performers who could move well, and act without words, purely with their
bodies. Nine of us were finally chosen, credited in the film as Mime Artists,
though we came from vastly different backgrounds - some dancers, circus
performers, puppeteers, street mimes, a couple of actors like myself who had
learned mime and puppetry. Since ROTJ,
I have worked pretty regularly, touch wood, in all areas of the entertainment
industry, mostly acting, but occasionally doing puppetry jobs and jobs that
require, if not mime skills, then acute awareness of the body. Q What has it been
like to be a part of the Star Wars phenomenon? A-
When we
auditioned for ROTJ, we were told that, if cast, we would be heavily featured
in all the Jabba scenes. So when we 9 eventually started rehearsals, we
worked out lots and lots of "business" to be used in the film. Of
course, once the set filled up with the people I mentioned before, we 9 kind
of got lost in the crowd. We were very well taken care of, but I have to say
- we were all very disappointed that we weren't used the way we thought we
would be. And when we saw the finished film and saw our characters fade into
the background, well, it was another huge disappointment. So it is especially
rewarding now to find that the fans understand all this and still find
something to celebrate in the work we did on the film. The appreciation feels
doubly sweet because it is coming after all these years. And of course it now
feels fantastic to be part of this, as you say, phenomenon.
Q I would imagine
that you were one of the few cast members to be on both the Jabbas court set
and the Headquarters Frigate set. How
different were they to work on, and how difficult was it to see anything at
all out of those eyes? A
And don't forget the Sail Barge scenes. All totally
different. Jabba's Palace - hot, cramped, stuffy. Sail
Barge - less hot; fewer people. I could only see out of the bottom of the
nose in Tessek's mask, so I had to think of that as a kind of
"blind" part, working out distances, how many steps to the left, to
the right, etc. before each take. And my own eyes were way below Tessek's
eyes, so I always had to hold his head in a certain way, so it seemed as if I
was actually looking out of his eyes........if you see what I mean! Plus, I
was strapped into Tessek's mask. The Mon Calamari Officer mask was lighter,
easier to see out of and easier to put on and take off. Q Your two Return of
the Jedi characters,
while appearing to be totally unrelated, have actually turned out to be from
the same planet of Mon Calamari, and by all accounts the races hate each
other. Were you aware of this at the
time? A
Excellent question. No, I wasn't aware. I only knew
Squid Head was a Bad Guy and the Mon Cal a Good Guy! It was only a couple of
years ago when fans tracked me down that I learned all about the name
"Tessek", the new action figures of my 2 characters - and the fact
that Tessek didn't die in ROTJ! I also learned that he was Jabba's accountant
and had been embezzling Jabba's money. Also, I now know that the Quarren and
Mon Cals did share the same homeworld, having come to mutually-beneficial
working arrangements. Q What would you
change about your Star Wars experience if you could go back and do it again? A
It would have been nice if our characters had been
featured more. And I wish I had been photographed with Tessek's head off!
Maybe I was and maybe those photos will turn up one day.
Q You have had a
wide and varied career, ranging from working with the Royal Shakespeare Company to appearing in A
Midsummer Nights Dream and Alice in Wonderland. And also famously as the original Mister
Muscle! How much fun was that, to be
at the forefront of a major advertising campaign? A
I
adored my time as Mr Muscle. Sometimes people think I am a very serious
person. Maybe they think this because I take my work extremely seriously. But
I'm not a serious person, far from it. So the character of Mr Muscle fitted
me like a glove: I can be very accident-prone, just like him, and I can get
myself into unbelievable situations, just like him. I made many of those
commercials, over 9 years, and they were shown as far away as New Zealand. I
loved being "the face" of the product. And I loved the way people
reacted to me when they recognized me......always with warmth and a smile. Q Theres talk of a Star Wars TV series. Would you be interested in a role,
recreating perhaps one of your earlier characters or as someone entirely new? A
Of course I'd be interested, though preferably as a
new character. Q - What do you
foresee in the future for yourself? A
Ah, where would we all be if we could see the
future...? Who knows.......? Q A quick question
about our site, Lightsabre. Any
comments? A
Your site is filled with mind-blowing
inventiveness! I mean that; such creativity stuns me. Role-playing,
games.....these are all new areas to me, and I wouldn't say I'm sure how they
all work. I recently did some panels and Q & A sessions with Star Wars
author Troy Denning. Till I met him, I had no idea there was such an Extended
Universe of material. I couldn't believe the questions fans asked him and I
learned a lot from them and from Troy. Lightsabre is in that same mould, part
of this Parallel Star Wars Universe I'm now inhabiting! Q - It's been a great
interview, and thanks for being our guest on Lightsabre. Just one final question. Tessek, the Mon Calamari and Mister Muscle are
scrubbing a dirty sink using only a scouring pad. Mister Muscle has the technique, Tessek
uses his tentacles and the Mon Cal his flippered hands. Who cleans the sink quickest? A Thanks
very much Lightsabre. I've enjoyed it too, but I have to tell
you.........you've got Tessek wrong: cleaning sinks is for lesser creatures -
he would NEVER touch a scouring pad, nor scrub anything dirty; in fact, the
only laundering he ever did was money-laundering Jabba's millions. |
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