Naberrie Family Reunion

By Pablo Hidalgo

It's the risk any supporting actor runs: ending up on the cutting room floor. It's especially true in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, which has a more fluid and organic production process than most films. Even after principal photography has commenced, elements of the story are still being developed, and director George Lucas, true to his documentarian roots, distills and assembles the finished movie from the pieces he has gathered.

Every movie has cut scenes, since you always shoot more than you need. Star Wars film production is far better documented than most movies, so even without the advent of DVDs and their popular deleted scenes, fans are well versed in what was missing from the final cut of a Star Wars film. In Episode II, characters like Sola, Jobal and Ruwee Naberrie may not have been found in the theater, but fans knew of them thanks to novelization, spin-off products, and coverage of the casting and filming of these roles here on starwars.com.

Graeme Blundell and Claudia Karvan can now properly say they're in Attack of the Clones, thanks to last fall's DVD release. The deleted scenes include a Naberrie family reunion of sorts, as Padmé's relatives are finally revealed.

"When I finally saw it, it was a trip down memory lane," says Karvan, who played Padmé's older sister, Sola. "It was exciting to see it on DVD, because all the dots were joined in." She had donned the Naboo gown in 2000, and had since moved on to many other projects, but Star Wars remains an attention-getter.

"I've been acting in Australia since I was about eight, and have done many films. Because I had one day on Star Wars, though, suddenly every single interview I was doing in Australia at the time was about, 'how does it feel to be in Star Wars?'" she recalls. "The media were very excited about it here, and it was the thing I was talking about in every interview, regardless what I was promoting at the time. So, I started thinking about it, and predicted that my part wouldn't even make it to the screen. And that's what happened."

Blundell, who plays Ruwee Naberrie, is an acting veteran of over 50 feature films and hundreds of hours of television and live theater. He was well prepared for the reality of not making the final cut. "I mean, this sort of thing happens constantly," he says pragmatically. "In my experience, professional actors just go with the flow. You know, the bits that you always like the most are going to be first ones to go. So, you can't really worry too much about it, but it is a pity when it happens. It was slightly disappointing because younger people in my family and close to my family had already told others at school that 'Uncle Graeme was in the new Star Wars!' So, all the kids went to see it and I wasn't there. They've all gone back to school recently to tell them that I am there, if they get the DVD and see, so I'm vindicated," he laughs.

Both Blundell and Karvan, like most of the supporting cast of Episode II , are Australian actors handpicked by Casting Director Robin Gurland. "Everyone was very impressed by Robin," says Karvan. "She really got involved in the theater scene in Sydney. She was really tireless in exploring all the Australian actors, and went to a lot of different plays and picked out lots of fantastic performers that haven't been totally discovered here in Australia. She had a really good eye, I thought."

"Usually casting for American films and television series here is somewhat perfunctory," says Blundell. "People come in from the States with no idea of what your background is in this country. But Robin was incredibly alert and informed. She had a complete background on all the people that she screen-tested. That was incredibly refreshing and highly professional."

Each actor had a very basic description of their role and a few lines of dialogue to read in the screen-testing process. "I did them with a couple of different accents," says Blundell. "George Lucas then said when we had our first rehearsal that accents weren't all that important, because out in the galaxy, people come from all over the place."

For Karvan, she was happy to learn the role wouldn't require extensive makeup, something she endured for appearances on "Farscape." "I played a big blue crab," she laughs. "I think if they'd offered me a monster or something, I would have said no because I've had the experience of being in about three hours of prosthetics every morning, with teeth and eyeballs and big mechanized helmets and foam latex. Oh, God, it was horrendous," she chuckles.

Karvan's wardrobe instead became highlights of her Episode II experience. "I went to about three wardrobe calls, which was hilarious, because I'm not used to working on something on such a grand scale," she says. "The wardrobe was fantastic, really brilliant fabric, a long dress and hooded cape. Unfortunately, you don't really get to see how fantastic it is in the scene, because it's such a quick moment, but the work that's gone into these costumes is really to be admired."