How did you get the part of the Stormtrooper victim of the Obi-Wan’s Jedi Mind Trick?

I was at the hotel having arrived from London several days early for the filming of the scenes for my character Laze (The Fixer) Loneozner. I wasn’t scheduled to work until later in the week.

The crazy thing was; having lived in England for a number of years, the idea of getting some sun was way too attractive. The sun in Tunsia mixed with the wind means you can burn really fast and I did. So I was taking the opportunity to lick my wounds and stay in doors figuring I wouldn’t be filming for at least two more days. Wrong. The production manager shows up from the set looking for me. George wants to see you on the set. Okay. We drive out to the set and I go over to talk to George. He takes me aside and asks if I can do him a favor and put the uniform on and play the scene they had set up for with Mark and Alec Guinness, as there was a problem or something…

“No one will know, you’ll have this uniform on.”

In my mind I’m going, “Play a scene with Alec Guinness, yeah, are you kidding?”

I go, “Sure no problem.” So he hands me a script, shows me the scene and I look over the lines while they are fitting the uniform, which was made for a smaller guy, and is playing hell with my sun burn. Having trained in theater, the show must go on. When the costume was finally in place, I lumbered over to the land speeder; the Stormtrooper costume has to be one of the coolest to look at, but it was like wearing a suit of medieval armor and 82 degrees. Everything worked out, we got the scene in a few takes and whenever I would run into Alec Guinness years later in England working at the BBC or Ealing Studios, he would always stop and have a chat with me. For me, as an actor and man, he was a true Jedi.

May 18th, 2007

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