Within the last few months, James Arnold Taylor, best known for lending his voice to both Jedi Master Plo Koon and Obi-Wan Kenobi among others in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," has begun hosting his own web series on YouTube, which he aptly called "Clone Wars Conversations." Throughout each episode of the show, he interviews various members of his "Clone Wars" family asking about topics ranging from how they got their role(s) on the show (as there are times where they voiced more than one character), their feelings about certain characters and their memories of working on the show.
That is, provided they can say anything of course; NDA's or Non-Disclosure Agreements often makes talking about upcoming or even potential upcoming roles quite difficult. Even after their roll on a project is completed, they are still often unable to say anything one way or another about their character(s). Along with his normal trolling nature, there's a reason why Dave Filoni isn't often known for giving out much straight forward information.
The interview part one
In the latest episode which began last week on August 5 and concluded this week on August 11, he interviewed Sam Witwer, best known for his role as Galen "Starkiller" Marek - Darth Vader's secret apprentice in the "Force Unleashed" video games - and Darth Maul in both "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars: Rebels."
In part one, they talked about how you can't have "Star Wars" without Luke first acting like a whiny little brat (in most people's opinions), Sam's role in "The Clone Wars" even before Darth Maul and so much more.
If everything was put here, this article would never end.
To start with, in Sam's opinion, you have Harrison Ford's gun slinging Han Solo on one side, which is all right, good, and serving a very specific purpose, but then you have Mark Hamill playing Luke Skywalker as this whiny little farm boy. To Sam, Mark's portrayal of whiny Luke in "A New Hope" is crucial because not only does it make him seem more like an everyman (everyone whines over something more than once in their life), but it also gives his character a great starting point.
It really allows the audience to watch him start as a naivë little farm boy who grew up on some back water planet to a troubled young man in "The Empire Strikes Back" and ultimately to a "very centered adult" in the "Return of the Jedi". Without Mark's specific performance in the first movie, not only does his character not seem to have much of an arc, but there also ends up being no "Star Wars" overall.
Without "Star Wars," Sam would not have been able to play "The Son" in the three-part episode of "The Clone Wars" titled "Overlords," "Altar of Mortis" and "Ghosts of Mortis." Being as "The Son" was essentially the living embodiment of The Force, it had Sam dipping a bit into each of the characters he has been known to impersonate such as the Emperor, and Starkiller. As it had been told to him, he was to essentially play a theme. In his own words, "...how do you play a theme?"
While Sam admitted that he wasn't much of a fan during the first season, he said it was during the second that he really fell in love with and was surprised by it. Like with the movies before it, season one of the show was pretty light and comparable to "A New Hope." Season two, on the other hand, is where things began getting darker and more interesting such as in "The Empire Strikes Back." The characters have been introduced and the audience can now begin learning more about them.
By learning more about them, we thus become more invested in their journey. Once we become invested in their journey, it makes it difficult to say goodbye to their character.
The interview part two (spoilers ahead)
Being as Sam Witwer's acting career, both on camera and voice has spanned so many incredible shows, James had no choice but to split up the interview into two parts. Picking up where the first left off, he dove right back into it by first talking about his and Sam's memories of going to Skywalker Sound, then his feelings over "Rebels" coming to an end after its fourth season in general and all things in between.
After briefly touching on just a few of the amazing people they have each worked with over their careers, David Collins and Matthew Wood, they then delved into where they had worked with them, at Skywalker Sound.
For a short background, Skywalker Sound is the place where all the music and sound effects for any "Star Wars" project-be it film or TV-comes together. It's essentially this huge facility in Northern California which houses all parts of the sound recording process.
While there, James could not help but recall a time when he saw Ben Bert, the sound designer on the Original Trilogy, sitting at a table in the commissary provided on the grounds, eating lunch. After seeing the man acknowledge him with a simple nod of his head and thumbs up, James said that he could have died happy then and there, something many fans would likely be able to relate to. This was the man who brought us the now iconic sound of a lightsaber and rediscovered the "Wilhelm Scream" that has been used in many movies outside of "Star Wars" after all.
Following in James's footsteps, Sam could help but go a little fan boy either as he recalled being brought to Ben Burt's office simply to talk. Nothing bad, just casual conversation between two people who are part of the "Star Wars" universe. One of the things Sam remembered Ben brought up was a story about how Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) got their first building in downtown Van Nuys, California.
According to the story told by Sam, in order to pass inspection, skirt zoning laws and thus get away with "all the crazy stuff they were doing in that warehouse," they literally built fake walls over the real stuff that they had. In other words, even back then, the people working at ILM were crazy, but in the best way possible.
While that is technically illegal and shouldn't have been done, it at least makes for a fun story. The things they did to get to where they are now.
In getting to where they are now, both actors and fans alike have had to accept a sad reality, that as with all good things in life, "Star Wars Rebels" is coming to an end after its fourth and final season. According to Sam, Dave Filoni, the executive producer of the show said that four seasons is his ideal length and that he wants to be able to end it on his terms, unlike what happened with "The Clone Wars."
Due to Disney buying Lucasfilm several years back, this beloved show had to come to a sudden halt, ending way before it was planned to. Of the final season of "Clone Wars", Sam said that, "If you think about how those last episodes [the ones that were put on Netflix as part of the sixth and final season], if you think about the thematic stuff that's happening in those last episodes with Yoda, it's a pretty (----) good end to the series." To this, James cannot help but agree.
While everyone is sad that "Rebels" is ending, they're at least happy that's doing so on its own terms rather than from outside interference.
If you want to watch the entire interview and see an exclusive reunion of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul with a twist along with other fun stuff, then head on over to youtube and type his name into the search bar. It's definitely worth checking out.
