Evil Windu
When you have no peripheral vision, limited mobility, and bright lights shining in your eyes, walking with a tray of drinks can be terrifying. Not that Anthony Daniels was scared, but I found myself nervous for him as he carried out this task today.
C-3PO was on the call sheet, serving a function that is more in line with his protocol droid origins that some of the dangerous shenanigans he gets into in the saga. He is serving drinks to a gathering of Senators. There is some doubt as to whether the droid can pull it off -- John Knoll and Rob Coleman observe carefully just in case they may need to use the CG double.
It's not just the drink-serving, but shuffling around the seated Senators, and not colliding with the low glass table in the center of the set. In the rehearsal take, I found myself holding my breath. But Anthony Daniels did it without a Peter Sellers-esque gaff. He was as graceful as Threepio ever is. And Daniels did it again. And again. And again, until they had all the takes they needed.
The Senators included many new cast members -- Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma, Chris Kirby, Warren Owens, Bai Ling, as well as a new blue faced female Senator played by a cameo who has appeared in both Episodes I and II. Genevieve is perfect. She looks the part, what with the white robes and the red hair, and she sounds it too. I can just hear her voice quote lines from Jedi, but since no Bothans were harmed in the making of this picture, that wouldn't really apply.
Standing over this meeting is Bail Organa, but it's not Jimmy Smits. Jimmy isn't due to arrive until later this month, but this scene required Bail.
"So, you're gonna Sio Bibble him in, right?" I ask the ILM guys. I'm referring to Sio Bibble's appearance in Episode II. Though it looks like he's there with the rest of cast in in Caserta, actor Oliver Ford Davies wasn't actually available at the time. He was shot on bluescreen and digitally composited afterwards. On set, actor Graeme Blundell read his lines so that his co-stars would have something to react to.
In Episode III, there will be a lot of speaking roles that won't actually be on set, like Yoda, battle droids, and other computer-generated characters. Other productions often use script assistants to read these lines, and they are very rarely trained actors. For Episode III, the plan is to use Duncan Young as the voice you'll never see, and quite likely, never hear.
I didn't include him in the latest casting announcements because, technically, he's part of the crew. But he is an actor. He's appeared on stage in productions of Peer Gynt, , Twelfth Night and Guys and Dolls. He's done Australian television, such as "Water Rats," "Qantum," "State Coroner" and "Farscape." He's appeared in films such as Magic Hour, The Problem with Venice, and Charades.
Now, he'll be providing the on-set voice for a variety of characters in Episode III, but he's not cast as the final voice actor for any of those characters. Though, as of now, those voice roles are currently not cast, and one of them is fairly sizable.
But Duncan is an all-purpose player. Instead of providing voice today, he appears in costume (not the final Bail Organa costume, mind you) and with makeup to approximate Jimmy Smits. This is to allow over-the-shoulder shots of Bail when he's not the main focus. Of course, for shots when he's front-and-center, it'll be up to ILM to composite Smits into frame.
C-3PO was on the call sheet, serving a function that is more in line with his protocol droid origins that some of the dangerous shenanigans he gets into in the saga. He is serving drinks to a gathering of Senators. There is some doubt as to whether the droid can pull it off -- John Knoll and Rob Coleman observe carefully just in case they may need to use the CG double.
It's not just the drink-serving, but shuffling around the seated Senators, and not colliding with the low glass table in the center of the set. In the rehearsal take, I found myself holding my breath. But Anthony Daniels did it without a Peter Sellers-esque gaff. He was as graceful as Threepio ever is. And Daniels did it again. And again. And again, until they had all the takes they needed.
The Senators included many new cast members -- Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma, Chris Kirby, Warren Owens, Bai Ling, as well as a new blue faced female Senator played by a cameo who has appeared in both Episodes I and II. Genevieve is perfect. She looks the part, what with the white robes and the red hair, and she sounds it too. I can just hear her voice quote lines from Jedi, but since no Bothans were harmed in the making of this picture, that wouldn't really apply.
Standing over this meeting is Bail Organa, but it's not Jimmy Smits. Jimmy isn't due to arrive until later this month, but this scene required Bail.
"So, you're gonna Sio Bibble him in, right?" I ask the ILM guys. I'm referring to Sio Bibble's appearance in Episode II. Though it looks like he's there with the rest of cast in in Caserta, actor Oliver Ford Davies wasn't actually available at the time. He was shot on bluescreen and digitally composited afterwards. On set, actor Graeme Blundell read his lines so that his co-stars would have something to react to.
In Episode III, there will be a lot of speaking roles that won't actually be on set, like Yoda, battle droids, and other computer-generated characters. Other productions often use script assistants to read these lines, and they are very rarely trained actors. For Episode III, the plan is to use Duncan Young as the voice you'll never see, and quite likely, never hear.
I didn't include him in the latest casting announcements because, technically, he's part of the crew. But he is an actor. He's appeared on stage in productions of Peer Gynt, , Twelfth Night and Guys and Dolls. He's done Australian television, such as "Water Rats," "Qantum," "State Coroner" and "Farscape." He's appeared in films such as Magic Hour, The Problem with Venice, and Charades.
Now, he'll be providing the on-set voice for a variety of characters in Episode III, but he's not cast as the final voice actor for any of those characters. Though, as of now, those voice roles are currently not cast, and one of them is fairly sizable.
But Duncan is an all-purpose player. Instead of providing voice today, he appears in costume (not the final Bail Organa costume, mind you) and with makeup to approximate Jimmy Smits. This is to allow over-the-shoulder shots of Bail when he's not the main focus. Of course, for shots when he's front-and-center, it'll be up to ILM to composite Smits into frame.
