Star Wars My Star Wars Experience

Lightsabre

I was an extra in the Special Edition of Star Wars A New Hope!

I have a good friend who worked at Industrial Light and Magic and when ILM needed some extras to film some new scenes, she called me. I was lucky enough to make the cutoff as all of the spots were gone within a few minutes.

On the big day, I drove to ILM in Marin and met my fellow extras. About half were ILM employees and the other half were friends like me. After checking in, we all waited in line for our costumes. I was too big to be a stormtrooper, so I was the "Leatherman." An interesting note for any wanna-be stormtroopers: you must be about 5' 8" and less than 160 pounds. You also can't sit down or go to the bathroom! It's no wonder the stormtroopers always loose! :-)

Later, we were all shuttled to the Marin wetlands for filming. I spent a day walking across sand with no guarantee that I would actually make it in the movie. But luckily, I did. Ironically, it was the very first scene that we filmed that day. Fortunately for me, I was close to the camera and facing it, as well. The scene I'm in is a brand new scene (as opposed to adding to an existing scene). It takes place right after the "these are not the 'droids you're looking for" scene and before the entire Cantina scene.

Actual Screen Shot Actual Screen Shot.
I'm in the lower left corner, facing the camera.

Behind the Scenes Behind the Scenes Shot
I don't know who this woman is (she just posed with me) but you can see her next to the landspeeder in the shot.

I was not paid for this (at least not with money) but the experience was priceless!

To date, I have now appeared in the following Star Wars related items:

Star Wars Star Wars
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