Ewoks, as all Starwoids would possibly recall, had been a species of teddy bear-like aliens who lived on the forest moon of Endor. They had been a tree-dwelling, tribal species who joined Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) after he satisfied them that his golden robotic C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) was a deity. Morally talking, that is unbearably dodgy, however for an journey story, it features nicely sufficient. The Ewoks had been written to be diminutive, and “Return of the Jedi” required dozens of actors below 4′ 2″ to play them.
When approaching the standard casting channels, manufacturing assistant Patricia Carr was solely capable of finding so many actors to play Ewoks. Carr was interviewed for Peecher’s e-book, and she or he recalled the transient frustration of not with the ability to discover actors … after which a sudden growth of functions. It appears that “seeking actors under 4′ 2” subsequent to a photograph of a nude girl was all it took. In Carr’s phrases:
“We only got four or five applications from the Job Center. Then some reporter from the Sun newspaper put the story on page 3 under the picture of a nude, and suddenly we had phone calls from all over the country. About 120 people applied, and we soon had all the people we needed under 4 feet 2 inches tall. Up until then we had thought that Kenny Baker—R2-D2— was the shortest man in Britain.”
The late actor Kenny Baker operated the R2-D2 robotic from inside, as he was sufficiently small to suit contained in the costume. Baker stood 3′ 8″, and appeared in films like “Time Bandits,” “Willow,” and “Flash Gordon.” In 1983, he was one of the preeminent little-person actors working. “Return of the Jedi” launched one other: Warwick Davis.