Among the interviews featured in this issue is one with classic Star Wars star, Kenny Baker. Born in Birmingham, U.K, Baker will celebrate his 75th birthday later this year along with his 59th year in show business. At 16 he performed as a clown and shadow ringmaster. He then spent almost a decade performing in dazzling ice shows and pantomimes, British musical-comedy productions aimed at a family audience usually performed around Christmas. After that, he formed The Minitones, a musical comedy act with his friend Jack Purvis, touring the U.K. and performing cabaret twice nightly.
A popular figure on the convention circuit, Baker recently has been forced to curtail his appearances outside the U.K. due to ill health. Meeting the actor at his son Kevin's restaurant, Seasons, which is just east of London, Star Wars Insider was pleased to see our favorite astromech in full working order! Here's an excerpt:
Most importantly, how's your health?It's getting better. I was ill for a year before I was actually "taken ill." I passed out on a plane coming back from Chicago, and I was taken by paramedics straight from the plane to the hospital. I woke up several hours later with my two sons and their families around my bed and I didn't know what was going on. I was later told that had it not been for the ventilator I would have died of pneumonia. The whole thing was very frightening. I feel a lot better, but I don't have the energy that I used to, and I'm not able to fly at the moment.
Did you always want to be an entertainer?
No, not really. I wanted to be a draftsman or an artist.
What did you make of the original script for Star Wars?
I wasn't given a script. George Lucas just explained what he wanted me to do as we went along. He would direct me with a megaphone. There were no electronics to amplify outside sound inside Artoo; that's why C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) was a little bit annoyed with me because I couldn't respond -- I just couldn't hear what he was saying! Even if I had heard him, he wouldn't have been able to hear me back.
During the making of the movie did you have any idea how Artoo would sound?
No, I didn't know at all. The first time I heard Artoo "speak" was at the premiere of the film, and I thought it was fantastic. I wasn't the only person who was dubbed. For instance, Dave Prowse's voice as Darth Vader was dubbed too, and he didn't know it until he saw the finished film.
Do you have a favorite R2-D2 moment from the movies?
Goodness me! There's a lot to choose from. I think the funniest bit was when we were in the desert and C-3PO kicks me and walks away. I said to George, "Why don't I say 'ouch!'" but he didn't like the idea.
During the Podracing scene in Episode I, I was watching the race like a spectator at a tennis match with my head going left and right. Because I was doing it so quickly Artoo's head rose up a little too high. If you slow the film down you can actually see my face in between the dome of the head and the body of Artoo!
What are your plans for the future?
I hope that my autobiography will come out around the time of my 75th birthday this summer. The book is finished. It was ghost-written by Ken Mills, as that's not something that I'm able to do. It will be coming out in both hardback and paperback eventually. It's called From Little Acorns...The Kenny Baker Story.
Also interviewed in this issue is veteran voiceover actor Corey Burton. His voice has been heard in hundreds of cartoons, commercials, and video games, but when Star Wars Insider caught up with him recently, we had to take exception when he humbly dismissed himself as, "Just an old-time funny voice guy." To fans of Star Wars, Burton is much more than that. It's not just because Burton provides the voice of the villainous Count Dooku in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series; that alone would be impressive enough. And it;s also not simply because he has created the voices for two more of The Clone Wars' most distinctive bad guys -- Cad Bane and Ziro the Hutt -- along with a number of minor characters along the way.
More than two decades before Burton took over the Count Dooku character for Star Wars video games and animation, he had already lent his presence to The Empire Strikes Back as the voice of Hobbie, the brave snowspeeder pilot who backs up Luke Skywalker during the Battle of Hoth. Before that, while still in his teens, he contributed some brief dialogue as Luke Skywalker for a Star Wars Read-Along Book and record/tape project from Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista Records."I pursued the craft since I was a little kid," Burton says of his days growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles. "My dad used to get big laughs imitating friends and family, and I thought, 'Gee, that's what I'd like to do.' My favorite toy as kid was my tape recorder: I used to make up little productions and do send-ups of TV shows. I've always had an ear for voices and a fascination with recording gear. I discovered as a teenager that there were people who made a living at this, and I set out to meet them and observe what they do."
Burton enrolled in a voice-acting class led by the legendary Daws Butler, most famous as the voice of Yogi Bear, Chilly Willy, Popeye's pal Wimpy, and dozens more classic characters. Butler saw potential in young Burton, and helped him find work in radio dramas and an educational filmstrip produced by Walt Disney Studios -- a job that turned out to be a key turning point in Burton's burgeoning career.
Besides the Disney work, Burton soon found himself doing radio commercials and doubling actors' voices for a behind-the-scenes process called "looping," where voice actors are called in to provide bits of dialogue for feature films when the sound of the original recordings need to be touched up or the actors aren't available; often, the looped lines are not for major characters but instead for incidental characters who just have one or two lines. Between Disney, radio, and looping for movies such as E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, he was working all the time.
Flash forward some 20 years, and Burton -- now firmly established as a voice actor with hundreds of credits (Transformers, G.I. Joe, Batman: The Brave and The Bold, to name just a few) and decades of experience -- was cast as Christopher Lee's voice double for Count Dooku in Star Wars video games. That led to playing Dooku in the original Cartoon Network Star Wars: Clone Wars micro series, and he's had a lock on the role ever since.
"Initially, it was a matter of trying to replicate what Christopher Lee would most likely do," Corey says, "but the caliber of his acting, Shakespearean training and all that old-world, old-school elegance -- you don't want to do a half-hearted stab at that. It's got to sound genuine, no matter how outlandish the situation might be. You have to play it with a feature film intent and intensity. You have to see it all as real and play it from the heart."
Burton soon learned that there was more to playing Count Dooku than just mimicking Christopher Lee. "The trick is to learn the craft and do it well," he confides, "not just be able to change your voice, but to perform the essence, the soul of the character in a way that's compelling and entertaining."
Star Wars Insider #111 is set for release on July 28th. For more information visit Titan's official website here, and be sure to become a fan of Star Wars Insider on Facebook here. To receive Star Wars Insider exclusives, including sneak peeks, interviews, promotional offers, and sweepstakes, visit: mailing.titanmagazines.com/mailing/
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