Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones stunt coordinator Nick Gillard recalls how George Lucas made a massive last-minute change to the film. Released in 2002, the second of Lucas’ Star Wars prequel movies follows Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) as he uncovers a secret clone army and Anakin (Hayden Christensen) as he falls in love and experiences some personal tragedy. Attack of the Clones memorably ends with a climactic fight between Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), with Yoda eventually making a heroic appearance in what marks his first lightsaber duel of the franchise.
In a recent interview with Chris Castellani on the Chris and Company podcast, Gillard, who served as the fight and stunt coordinator on all three Star Wars prequels, reveals that Yodi’s involvement in the Attack of the Clones’ Dooku duel was actually the result of a very last-minute decision from Lucas. Gillard recalls that the decision meant that a large stretch of fight choreography had to be mapped out, with a mannequin ultimately being used as a Yoda reference for both the Dooku stunt double and for Industrial Light & Magic’s post-production work. Watch the interview or read Gillard’s full comment below:
“Originally it was Anakin and Obi in that fight, I think, it changed on the day. We went in that day to shoot another fight, and George had decided Yoda wanted to be in it, so he said, ‘Sorry, but… the door’s gonna open and Yoda’s gonna come in.’ And he’s gonna fight Dooku.
“So we came up with the moves for Dooku, we found out where Yoda was going to be, he jumps around a lot, we had a little mannequin of him, so ILM would place it where they needed him to be, and the actor doubling for Dooku would make beautiful moves for Dooku reaching for those areas, which was actually a terribly easy thing for us to do. He did certain routines and arrived in certain places. ILM knew us well enough that they could make Yoda do the same moves.”
More to come…
Source: Chris Castellani
