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The Lightsabre Interview Peter Mayhew
Welcome to
Lightsabre. Wookies could not contain
the thrill we have right now as we welcome our latest guest, Peter Mayhew A – Hi Mark Q –Hi Peter, how you
doing? A -
I’m fine, how are you sir? Q – Not too bad, looking forward to this interview. A – Right, let’s get on with it. Q – You’ve been on an
amazing ride since 1976, finishing with Revenge of the Sith. Could you sum up what that adventure has
meant to you? A – It’s been a life-changing ride, mostly good. It’s given me the opportunity to do a lot of things that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do, a lot of travel and meet a lot of people.
Q - Which of the six
films stands out as your personal favourite, and why? A –
Empire Strikes Back, definitely. The
whole thing, with all the main characters.
Empire brought the characters to life.
Q - Tell us something
of your career. How did you get into
acting? A –
The Guinness Book of Records were looking for people with big feet, and that
led to an article which led to a producer looking for an actor to play a
Minotaur in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, (with) Ray Harryhausen, and I
played the Minotaur. Then, you meet
other people on the film, and Star Wars was coming along and my name got put
up for it and (I) went up and saw George and the rest is history. Q – And you’re glad that all happened? A – Oh yeah, definitely. It seemed a little bit strange at the time
but I’m glad it happened, yeah. Q – Being seven foot
two inches tall you must have had some difficulties over the years with your
height. Tell us a bit about the
challenges of being so tall. A- Yeah, well first of all clothes and shoes over the years have been quite a challenge. General travelling around, travelling on planes
and things like this. Just the general
thing of growing up, but obviously it depends on where you live, what is
available. Obviously in America there
are a lot of bigger guys, therefore you have more opportunity of big clothes
and big shoes. Q – Were you ever any good at basketball? A – No.
(Laughs) Q – It’s been in the
news that you’ve got American citizenship.
When did that happen, was it yesterday? A – Yeah, if you’d phoned me yesterday we’d have been
right in the middle of the ceremony. Q - You’re now a
naturalised American and live in Texas, which is a gorgeous part of the
world. Your wife is from Texas I
believe? A –
Yeah, she’s from Texas. Q – Do you miss Britain? A – Not really because we go back fairly often, a
couple of times a year, so I think we’ve got the best of both worlds. We’re in beautiful Texas and London,
England is not that far away. We go
back there probably two or three times a year. Q – Did you catch any of the bad weather that’s hit the States? A – No, we’re in northern Texas but the full hurricanes
and stuff were way down south, three, four, five hundred miles away. We’ve got an evacuee problem. Q – As you know
Chewie met his end in the novel Vector Prime.
How did you feel about that? As
noble an end as it was, were you saddened by it, or do you think Chewie will
return? A –
Well just remember the novels have nothing to do with the movies, right? So I’m sad that Chewie is not around in the
novels anymore, but who knew that Chewie was going to come back in Episode
III? I think he will come back at some
stage. Somewhere down the timeline
they will decide, “Hmm, ok, we need Chewie back.” Q – Well, I hope he comes back. A – (Laughs)
Q – Being back in the
suit after so many years, on the set of a Star Wars film must have been quite
an experience. A – We had a great time, because you know where we
shot was mainly in Australia, so we went down there. Because obviously Chewie is a lot younger
and therefore you have to have a different suit. So we went down there for costume
fittings. It was wonderful to meet all
the other actors and be almost like the grand master, (laughs) being looked
up by other actors and people like that, it was a wonderful experience. Q - How different was
George this final time round? On the
original three it seemed very pressurised, how was
he this time? A –
George is George. I’ve known him since
the start and he didn’t seem that much different. George will stand around, give orders and
things appear. You know, George is
very relaxed. When things are going
wrong George will stand there and go “Hmm, we’ll do it this way, we’ll do it
that way.” Q – We often see you
with the Men Behind the Masks but have you managed to keep in touch with any
of your other original trilogy colleagues? A – Well, as you say we do the convention circuit,
therefore we do keep in contact. It’s
mainly Kenny (Baker, R2-D2), Jeremy (Bulloch, Boba Fett), Dave (Prowse, Darth
Vader), and all major characters.
Occasionally you’ll get some of the little guys come out. It’s nice to be able to keep in
contact. It’s like you look on the
websites and see who’s coming and you think great,
that’s going to be a good weekend, we’ll be able to catch up on all the news
we haven’t heard, all the gossip that’s going around the UK. Q – Do you get to many conventions? A – Well we do about 25 a year. Mainly in the States. We’re going to Sweden in a couple of weeks,
in England probably not till after the new year. Q – There are rumours
of a Star Wars television series. If
George asked you, would you be interested in a role? A – Of
course, of course. Anything to do with
Chewie I will be interested in. Q – Would you be interested in a role that wasn’t Chewie, in
something different? A – Probably, it all depends what it is. I don’t know, I’d
have to look at it and consider it.
It’s a question that you’ve got to have all the things about the
character, what it can do, how you can work it, that sort of thing before you
can make a decision like that. Q – What interests
and hobbies do you have outside of the movie world? A –
Looking after the family, we’ve got dogs, cats and kids, (laughs), so life is
fairly busy. Because we’re on the road
so much we enjoy the seclusion of our house and we just carry on virtually
moving from convention to convention, getting ready, going out and doing
it. So we don’t really have time for
hobbies. Q – How long have you lived in Texas? A – About six years.
When I got married. Q – Chewbacca is a
loyal, faithful and fierce friend, someone we all wish we could
befriend. In a brief sentence, how
would you sum him up? A –
He’s a cuddly teddy bear. Cuddly teddy
bear with a protective sense of loyalty. Q – Was there anything that Chewie didn’t get to do in the films
that you wish he had? A – Not really, I don’t think so. I think with George and us all thinking about it Chewie covered everything.
Q – A mischievous question for you. A – Go on. Q – What are your memories of the Star Wars Holiday
Special? A – It was a great movie. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It was one of those things that came along,
you did it and you bitched about it, what was going wrong, but all in all I
had a great time. It was interesting
to see how other peoples perception of what the
Wookie family were like. The best part
was working with Art Carney. He played
Trader Dan, wonderful character. Q – I think it has its place in Star Wars like everything else. A – Yeah. I
don’t understand why certain people don’t like that particular video. Q – You think it should be released like everything else? A – Well, we’ll leave it at that I think.
Q - It's been a great
interview, and thanks for being our guest on Lightsabre. Just one final question. Chewbacca, Lieutenant Worf from Star Trek
and Dargo from Farscape are locked in a room and on a table in the centre is
a chocolate cake. Who would win
the fight for the cake, and how? A – It
would be Chewie. He would wind the
other two up, get them fighting and grab the chocolate cake. Because their egos would take (laughs). Q – That’s brilliant! A – When I read it I thought “Get those two wound up,
and then Chewie goes in and grabs the cake!”
Q – I like that! That’s
fantastic, thanks very much Peter. A – Pleasure, bye, bye. Q - You take care. A - And you mate. |
