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The last day! (Or is it...)

We start out with a scene where "Anakin sits talking with Yoda". This calls for me to sit perfectly still on a hard meditation seat in Yoda's quarters, for almost a full hour. Sitting still is incredibly hard! Come on, own up, which of you thought this job was easy and desirable?! You have NO idea how much your back begins to ache when you can't move around. Try it one day! What makes it more surreal is that I am staring into the eyes of Yoda - the actual puppet seen throughout Episode I, who is paying us a visit on set to provide an eyeline for Anakin and CG reference for ILM, and this means I have to stare at him so the lighting can be set perfectly onto my face, with a shaft of light around my eyes from the meditation chamber window slats.

At one point I start to hallucinate and am sure Yoda has winked at me. Or maybe it wasn't an hallucination. Woooo...

Yoda's line of 'Try not! Do, or do not. There is no try' is what made me determined to get a part on a Star Wars film. How ironic is it that I succeed, and end up staring him in the face?

Once the correct 'slatted' lighting effect has been achieved, the scene is shot with a very serious Hayden Christensen responding to Anakin's dialogue, and we move onto Shaak Ti's scene featuring my friend Orli Shoshan (hi Orli!)

This involves a 'stunt' of sorts, as Anakin enters her meditation room whilst she sits crossed-legged with closed eyes, places the lightsabre at her back, then switches it on. Ouch. Naughty Anakin. In the animatic we see on-screen, the blade shoots through her body and she dies instantly. You won't see that in the film, so you heard it here first. Or last. Anyway...

On the day she has no lines scripted, but Hayden and Nick Gillard (stunt co-ordinator) tell her that she should say something! This results in Lucas adding an impromptu line. As Anakin enters the room, she senses him and says, "What is it Skywalker?". Orli is a beautiful actress but to be fair is not a professionally trained stunt man (obviously), so when it's time for her to throw her arms up in agony then fall backwards onto a very soft and comfortable crash mat, it just doesn't quite work right. On the 10th take, instead of rolling off sideways, she goes backwards head-over-heels and... well I think they're the first Jedi knickers I'll ever see! Next thing I know the Video Assist guy Dimitri, is playing the take back in slow motion to Rick McCallum!

As the lack of a stunt double continues, Hayden approaches the Video Village and says quietly, "I know how to solve this, take the sabre straight down through her head!".

Awwww, next up are the Jedi Younglings! But wait, noooo, this scene doesn't involve what I think it does, does it? Anakin slaughtering several 4 year old children? Well, okay, they said this was going to be a dark movie. Fortunately they leave the actual killing to the imagination. The scene involves Anakin walking in, hooded, as a little blonde boy gets up from behind the chair he has been using to hide, and says, "Master Anakin, what are we going to do? There are too many of them". At this point, Anakin turns on his sabre in front of the soon-to-be ex-younglings. Chilling.

During set-up, the kids get a bit confused as both me and Hayden are in costume. Eddie the 2nd Assistant Director tells them, "Look at him all the time ok", whilst pointing at me as I am in the space where Anakin will stand. This only adds more to their confusion. Later the star of the scene, the little blonde boy, says to a chaperone, "Which one of them do I look at?", unsure who to deliver his lines to. This makes my day in a way, as it reminds one that the labels we place on stars and celebrities are just that, but from the eyes of a child anyone could be equally worthy of the label Anyway I helpfully point to Hayden and so pass the label on

I ask Alex, the props assistant, for a lightsabre to help them set up the shot (I have another reason of course - who wouldn't want to hold the actual sabre!) but he tells me Anakin doesn't have it at this stage. He's wrong. He must be covering. He doesn't want anyone to hold it! I question this but he says, "I've seen the animatic!" . It seems they're very protective of these props! Then George comes up to me and explains the scene, and says, "Christian will need a sabre!". Err, I know! He then yells out for a sabre, and Alex comes running! It's quite amusing. If only he'd listened to me

And this is the top-quality, proper, shiny, used-for-close-ups, version of Anakin's sabre -- the one OB1 hands to Luke in Ep IV. Ahhhhhhh, I'm happy now! It feels soooo incredible to be standing there holding Luke's lightsabre, wearing the Sith robes and hood, having just received direction from Lucas in front of children who think I'm Anakin, peering through the gap in the hood at several Jedi Younglings hiding behind Jedi Council Chamber seats. It doesn't get much better than this, does it.

Hayden arrives and takes my spot as I standby next to him. He acts through the scene and I hear him making the lightsabre sound effect as he turns it on. He must've picked that up from Ewan "They can put that in later you know", I say. "No, I do all the sound effects myself", he jokes back. During the actual take, Colin Fletcher talks the kids through the scene saying stuff like, "Right, now here comes the monster, you're scared - scared - scared... now relieved, it's Anakin...". The point is that when Hayden flicks on the sabre, the kids are supposed to react terrified of the laser that stretches out in front of them, about to make them into youngling mince.

However the kids aren't reacting scared because on set, the scary moment is just Hayden slightly moving his finger on the lightsabre. To solve this, on take 3 Hayden rather cruelly takes advantage of this and just after the boy has delivered his lines, gives an almighty ROAAAARRRRR! to the unsuspecting kids! This sends the boy running back to behind his chair in absolute terror. Cruel, but very funny! And that's the shot you see in the movie.

And that's lunch! I take this opportunity to visit H Stage, where the very first Star Wars film was partly based. In 1976 it housed the Yavin IV hanger, war room and celebration hall, and all the big names were standing right there such as Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Alec Guinness. At the time it was the largest stage in the UK (before the 007 stage was built - now the largest in the world) and although it looks very old now, it is definitely HUGE. I enter and soak up the atmosphere. You can almost still hear the scenes being shot, and amazingly the echo inside has a very recognisable tone to it! Remember the echo in the hanger shots before Luke gets in his X-Wing? It's unmistakable.

On my way back to R Stage I pass Alex, the props assistant, and ask him how many lightsabres he is going to take home, jokingly. He remarks, "not if I ever want to work again". To cut a long one short, a runner on Episode II was caught selling props he'd stolen on eBay. Lucasfilm arranged for the FBI to pay him a visit. I vow to return the grain of sand I put in my pocket from Tatooine!

Next I get to Use The Force! In this scene OB1 and Anakin 'Force Push' against each other, so I have to do the same. It's only fair However, Ewan arrives early leaving me there with my hand up, facing him! I better not use my own Force (although I secretly am a Jedi) as that's the real OB1 standing opposite me. I might break him before the final shot. But Ewan then practices his lightsabre swings and pushes out his hand in my direction giving me a Force Push. I jokingly say, "DO YOU MIND!?!", as he has just used the force on me! He does a double-take, then says, "Oh, sorry!", seemingly embarrassed and thinking he really had offended me or something! I didn't mind really and let him know.

Penultimate shot ever now! (Maybe.) And boy is this weird. I have to climb under the extremely heavy A Camera which is hung on a crane, and lie on my back over a ledge where my sabre has just dropped down on Mustafar. The scene then involves using Force Pull to make the sabre fly back into my hand. As a kid I loved the scene in Empire Strikes Back where Luke uses the force to pull his lightsabre out of the snow before the Wampa attacks him. I used to dream of that scene... and here I was, recreating a similar moment and playing Luke's dad's hand. I savour the moment. I then pray nobody touches the controls of the crane which is for now securely holding the one tonne camera inches above my head - that would end my trip real quick!

This is a very low-tech scene when it comes to special effects. Hayden lies in my place which we have marked out for him, and with an empty hand makes the pulling motion, then Alex slaps the sabre into his hand from below! From the camera's POV it looks like the sabre has just appeared in his hand magically. George says he will put in a few frames of CG sabre flying towards the hand, but I'm amazed how easily these things are done sometimes, with all you hear about over use of CGI.

And then at 18:55 we're onto the last shot. A simple one, back to camera, where Anakin talks about bringing, "peace to MY new empire". Hayden arrives and I jokingly say, "Don't worry, I'll do this scene", and he says, "oh ok then", joking back. And then before I know it, 2 weeks are over in a flash. Colin announces to everyone, "That was Hayden's last shot!", to a huge round of applause and whistles. Then to my surprise he follows with, "Everyone, that was Christian's last shot!", and again there is applause from everyone including my stand-in Hayden

Later Colin comes up to me, shakes my hand, and says, "Thanks for everything Christian, I hope you're available in January" for these rumoured final pick-up shots. "I'll make myself available", I reply and tell him what a gentleman he's been. He's certainly the nicest A.D. I've ever had the pleasure of working with.

One final scene with Ewan McGregor involves him being doused in water as he has just emerged from a sea and they need a shot of him removing breathing apparatus from his mouth, whilst climbing up a rock face. Then those immortal words, "It's a wrap!". Colin announces a big thank you to all of us for a great production, and we are told to enjoy the beer and champagne that has been provided. And then the ultimate... the 'Crew' T-shirts and baseball caps arrive. I choose the cap which has Revenge of the Sith on the front, and CREW on the back. In case I ever forget.

Outside I chat in depth to the Episode III Novelist Matthew Woodring Stover, joined by Richard (OB1's stand-in), wearing my new cap with pride. Then Rick McCallum (the Producer) approaches and puts the icing on the cake of an extraordinary shoot, and says to George Lucas who stands next to him, and Colin Flether, "Hey! And what about these guys eh? Weren't they great?!", then he gives me a firm shake by the hand and puts his other hand on my shoulder. This instantly takes me back to a moment outside the canteen at Leavesden Studios back during the filming of Episode I and I was in my full Gavyn Sykes costume, where he did the same thing and told me he'd try to get me in the credits. I say, "Thanks, it's been an incredible experience", and he smiles. We then joke briefly about how the film has not come in on budget, it's come in UNDER budget, and all too soon the conversation ends and it's time to say goodbye to the new friends I made there, but there is lots of talk of a possible, "See you in January", to keep my appetite up!

Am I sad it's over? In a way, but it's also been a lot of work getting up at 5:30 every morning and home at 20:00. WAIT! What am I saying!!! I'm sorry to put this chapter of my Star Wars involvement to rest, but at least it is with very very fond memories. With perhaps more to come... watch this space...

The End. (For now.)


[Thank you for reading my insight into the making of a Star Wars movie. Your comments mean a lot to me, so please let me know what you thought. I will try my best to also answer any questions (I like a challenge!).]