Ewan McGregor recently expressed his disappointment at the digital version of Yoda used in the last two films of theStar Warsprequel trilogy. McGregor played fan-favorite Obi-Wan Kenobi in all three prequels. The Scottish actor recently appeared on Variety’s acclaimed Actors on Actors series withThe Mandalorian’sPedro Pascal. The duo had a lengthy chat about their experiences playing belovedStar Warscharacters. Here is what McGregor told Pascal about his time filming theStar Warsprequels.
“Amazing! The first film I did, I was lucky to do my scenes with theYodapuppet. And it was extraordinary, because I acted with him. I couldn’t believe I was acting with Yoda. There’s so many people operating him, and the stage is lifted up so they’re underneath the floor and we were literally walking next to each other - and he’s alive. Then every time George called cut, Yoda would die, because everyone just stops. It was sort of disturbing every time the end of the scene would come along.
“Then they replaced him for our second film and our third film with the digital version of him, and it’s not nearly as endearing. Also, we know Yoda as a puppet. We know him from the original movies as a puppet. So when it was suddenly computer generated, it didn’t feel like Yoda to me anymore. It was interesting that itwent back to an actual puppetwith your series.”
Pascal also shared some nostalgic moments of acting with theBaby Yodadoll. “It worked on so many levels, and the way that we had to end the second season with this sort of tearful goodbye. To not have had the puppet for that, and also the knowledge of its reception from the world and how everyone felt about its creation, its relationship to the history of “Star Wars” - it was one of the more strange acting experiences that I’ve ever had.”
The Mandalorianseason 2 finale was a real tear-jerker that Pascal attributes to the Baby Yoda doll. While trying to modernize, George Lucas shot almost the entirety of theStar Warsprequels using green screens. Fans too found the excessive CGI tiresome and that was one among many of the criticisms those films faced. Disney and Lucasfilm seem to have learned their lesson and are now employing the groundbreaking StageCraft technology to shoot their upcoming shows. In it, the background is replaced by virtual sets and high-resolution images are projected onto the screens. In short, the background is changeable.
Ewan McGregoris currently busy filming the Disney+ originalObi-Wan Kenobi. The show takes place 10 years after the events of 2005’sRevenge of The Sithand will feature another contest between Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader played by Hayden Christensen. Obi-wan Kenobiis also being filmed with StageCraft technology and McGregor seems to have a good time while filming. In his own words “I’m having such an amazing time down there with that incredible technology, and not being in front of too much green screen and blue screen”. The highly anticipated show debuts in early 2022. However, you can currently catch Ewan McGregor in the biographical mini series Halston streaming on Netflix.
