Star Wars' Wampa Costume Was As Nightmarish To Build As It Was To Wear
Despite numerous stuffies, toys, and webcomics making wampas seem cuddly and cute, when "Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back" first came out, the fluffy white monster was pretty scary. A denizen of the ice planet Hoth where the Rebels have a base, a wampa sneaks up on Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and captures him. He sticks Luke's feet to the ceiling of his cave with ice and saves him as a snack for later. As it turns out, the wampa costume itself was pretty difficult to deal with, according to a 2013 issue of "Star Wars Insider." It was also uncomfortable to wear and move in, leading to a scene that ended up being left out of the finished film, as was detailed in the book "The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Enhanced Edition)" by J.W. Rinzler.
Though the wampa scene we did see gave us the perfect fright (as well as showing us how Luke has progressed with his Force powers since we last saw him), we could have gotten more wampas if the scene had been easier to pull off. Let's take a look at the difficulties inherent to the giant fluffy-suited character.
'It was made with sheepskins and weighed a ton'
According to "Star Wars Insider," makeup artist Nick Dudman took part in creating the wampa costume pieces for a pick-up scene. In his own words:
"I do remember helping construct the wampa. That was always a nightmare because it was made with sheepskins and weighed a ton. I do remember problems with that because they'd already shot it in Norway before I came on the picture. Then there were first pick-up shots being done at Elstree, so they were putting the shoot back together. I remember that being an absolute pain."
It wasn't just building the costume that was tough. In "The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back," assistant cameraman Maurice Arnold said they were trying to set up a scene where a wampa "thrusts its hideous claws through a cavern wall" and that it took quite a bit of planning:
"We knew that if it were not achieved in one take the whole thing would have to be mounted again for another try and consume costly time."
The scene in question — a deleted moment that was included with the 2004 DVD re-release of the original trilogy — shows R2-D2 near a wall in the Rebel base on Hoth when a wampa uses its "hideous claws" to break through.
'If we don't get it the first time, it will be disastrous'
The scene was difficult to manage in the days before CGI was commonly used. "It's very difficult to give the illusion and suggest more than you see, which is what we're trying to do," director Irvin Kershner explained in Rinzler's book. He added that they were going to try it after lunch that day on set and people didn't know if they'd be able to pull it off:
"We have a confrontation between a tiny Artoo and a giant ice creature, who's about 11 feet tall, and it's proving difficult. We're going to have one attempt. We've got four cameras on it, including VistaVision — and if we don't get it the first time, it will be disastrous."
It was. The physics were too difficult for creature actor Des Webb inside the suit. Special visual effects tech Brian Johnson explained, "The major problem was the snow creature being nine or 10 feet tall. The operative's arms are only half the length of the snow creature's, so, in effect, he's trying to propel force from the elbows; he couldn't actually push the wall himself. In the end, we pulled the bottom of the wall out, but you're just at the mercy of how the wall breaks up."
Poor Webb had been in that suit for three hours and was "suffering from stomach cramps." The scene, which involved a "bazooka hit fx," was fortunately delayed and, as we know from the finished film, didn't make it in. Still, with the amount of love this film has produced over the years, let's all take a moment to appreciate the efforts of the people who made it all happen.
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