The latest issue of the Official Star Wars magazine, Star Wars Insider #110 is now available on newstands and includes interviews with Clone Wars Yoda voice actor Tom Kane and Wicket the Ewok's Warwick Davis, among others. Here's a preview:
Tom Kane: Voicing Yoda
Yoda -- the ultimate Jedi Master, a character known and loved throughout the world, whose voice was created by one of the most legendary puppeteers and voice actors of all time. You'd think that taking over the character from Frank Oz would be such a daunting and difficult assignment that it would be all one performer could handle.
But not when that performer is Tom Kane, one of the top voice-over artists working today, and the man who has given voice to some of the most memorable and iconic animated characters of the last dozen years. In fact, Yoda is merely the most prominent of a seemingly endless stream of Star Wars roles Kane continues to tackle. A born mimic, Kane even admitted he dedicated no time to preparing for the powerful role -- other than the years he'd spent as a devoted Star Wars fan.
"The Yoda thing just kind of happened," Kane tells Star Wars Insider, explaining that he was already in a recording studio playing another character for a LucasArts video game. "I'm a Star Wars nerd," he says, "so I would sit there looking through the script, and I would try to do my best Grand Moff Tarkin or Boba Fett or whoever. I was goofing around one day, and saw some Yoda lines, so of course I was trying to do my very best Yoda, and the producer looked up and said, 'Can you do that again?'
"What I didn't know," he continues, "was that Frank Oz was very busy at that point because he had become a very successful director. So they played my Yoda for George Lucas and got approval, and suddenly I found myself doing Yoda for videogames, and that led to toys and commercials. When it came time to do Star Wars: The Clone Wars, somebody up north said, 'We're just going to use Tom.'"
Cast of Characters
By that point, of course, George Lucas and his team had good reason to be confident in Kane's formidable abilities. He'd already played Yoda in several LucasArts games, such as Jedi Power Battles, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Super Bombad Racing, Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars: Battlefront I and II, and the videogame adaptation of Revenge of the Sith, among many others. Most memorably of all, Kane voiced the sage Jedi Master in the Clone Wars micro-series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005.
Phoning it in!
Yet the scope of Kane's work is so wide that all of those famous characters are just a small slice of it.
In fact, if you've turned on your TV or radio today, chances are you've already heard him. Kane works every day -- which is virtually unheard of among voice performers -- and the vast majority of his work is as an announcer, voicing everything from promotional spots for TV crime dramas to the trailers for Monsters vs. Aliens. He's been the official voice of the Academy Awards a few times, and he's done so many commercials and movie trailers, he's lost count. On the day Star Wars Insider caught up with him, Kane was between recording sessions, one as an announcer for CBS promos and the other for a character on Adult Swim's The Boondocks.
Yoda the icon!
Kane admits that even though he had George Lucas' full confidence, the magnitude of the character can be a little intimidating.
"I look at it not just as a cool gig, which it is," he said, "but it is such an honor to be entrusted with something that iconic, with a voice that's known to the world. James Arnold Taylor, who is [the voice of] Obi-Wan, is now Fred Flintstone, and something we talk about is how honored we are to be caretaking these characters and their voices. It's not something we created, so even though it may become ours, it's on loan. I may be Yoda for another couple years or another 20 years, it's up to George, but for as long as it lasts, I'm just trying to do it the justice that it warrants and hope everyone's happy with it."
Yoda is number one!
Still, Kane makes it clear that, "Yoda has to be number one. Anytime it's a character who was important in the films, that would just add a little extra weight to me emotionally, because as soon as I hear the words and hear the voice -- even if it's me doing it-- it brings back the joy at seeing the movies."
Warwick Davis Interview
Here is an excerpt from Star Wars Insider's interview with Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi, among other characters throughout the Star Wars saga:
Star Wars Insider: Starting out your acting career in a major movie such as Return of the Jedi would be considered quite intimidating to some people. Indeed, the big question was, "How do I top this?"
Warwick Davis: Yes, I know. I was already at the top of the ladder when I began! It is a tough place to be when you are just starting out, but I have not fallen too far down thankfully. Many actors would love to be in a Star Wars movie and I managed to sneak in a few other franchises along the way, such as Leprechaun and Harry Potter. I have nothing to complain about, and Star Wars is such a wonderful thing to have been a part of. When you mention it, everyone has seen it, and that gives you some credibility.
Is it true you got the part of Wicket after your grandmother heard a commercial about the casting on the radio?
Yes, she heard a radio spot and told my mum about it. She then phoned the studios and they invited me up to see them. Basically, I met up with the production assistant and then I was sent down to the wardrobe department. I didn't have to audition actually -- it was as simple as that. So I owe all of this to my grandmother really, my whole career, and the fact that I am speaking about it now. To be a part of any film would have been great, of course, but to act in a Star Wars movie -- which was a big part of my life anyway, being a kid and a major fan -- was a huge, huge thrill! It was the best thing that happened to me.
What was it like for you, as a child actor, to walk onto the set of Return of the Jedi and see so many icons?
I was in an amazing position. I was just 11-years-old when we began Return of the Jedi and I was welcomed onto the set with open arms. I was one of the youngest performers in the trilogy and I think that, being a child and being so full of energy, was actually quite refreshing for them. Carrie Fisher took me under her wing right away. She was quite concerned for me because I was in a hot Ewok suit. She always had milk and cookies for me whenever I took the head off! Mark Hamill was a really nice chap. He bought me all the toys I wanted! I remember he asked me to make a list of all the Star Wars things I didn't have and the next day he came in with all of this stuff! I never expected that and it was very flattering. Harrison Ford was exactly as you would imagine: a real gentleman. These people were my heroes. I found it hard to see them as actors. To me they were their characters and I was in awe.
Do you have any news as to whether you are going to be featured in the upcoming Star Wars television series?
There is no news on that yet, but I have been dropping hints all over the place! I think it would be nice to the Star Wars fans if they could involve some people from the original movies. Not as Wicket, I would not hope to come back as someone I have already played, but maybe as a bad guy. I have never been a Star Wars villain and I would love to play a bounty hunter who eventually meets his doom at the hands of one of the heroes. So something like that would be great!
You can join the Star Wars Insider Facebook page here, and subscribe to the magazine here. For more information on issue #110, check out our previous coverage.
