Though Walsman finished principal photography over a year ago down in Fox Studios Australia, she again donned the armor, guns and lycra and stepped into character for pick-up shots supervised by ILM. "It's been surreal," she confides. "I was like, 'Dude... I don't even know if I look completely different. What's happening? What do you mean you've got to shoot still. It's been a year!' But it wasn't hard, because everyone here is so friendly and so nice. You never feel like you've disappeared, even if you haven't heard from them for ages. You get here, and it's like you're back with family."
Walsman shot a couple of scenes on blue-filled environments. While in Australia, she shared screen time with Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor. This time, she performed solo. "For the pick ups, it was me and Jango's head-on-a-stick," she laughs. "That's the first time I did it without a person. When I was in Sydney, it was always with Hayden, or Ewan and Hayden. I'm a huge fan of Ewan McGregor, so that was a bit nerve-wracking. Hayden's new on the scene. He's a great guy; I really like him."
In Star Wars, bounty hunters are tight-lipped, and Zam is no exception. But despite her laconic nature, Walsman had to stop into Skywalker Sound in Northern California for looping duty. "Maybe some lines may not have been picked up properly in the filming process, so you redo your lines without being shot on camera. It's purely vocal. You might put in grunts and groans, or your mouth might have moved [on camera] at a certain point and you didn't hear anything, so you might put in a breath. There's a lot running and a lot of grunting and a lot of groaning. Which is always a bit funny -- me standing in a room with a microphone, and George Lucas saying 'okay, now sound like you're in pain.' Urgghhhh!"
As for what the future holds, the actress said she's really not prepared for any fallout from her role. After given a peek at artist Jan Duursema's artwork of Zam Wesell in the upcoming Attack of the Clones comics adaptation, it seemed a bit more real for Walsman. Or at least, a bit more surreal. "That's so cool. That's like, you know, the old school cool," she says.
This story originally appeared in issue #44 of the StarWars.com Homing Beacon email newsletter.
