Watto's Very First Star Wars Scene Nearly Broke Liam Neeson's Nose
There are plenty of stories out there about actors getting injured by other actors on set. Harrison Ford was famously (accidentally) punched in the face by Ryan Gosling on the set of "Blade Runner 2049." Dolph Lundgren punched Sylvester Stallone so hard in "Rocky IV" that the latter's heart swelled. Usually, however, they aren't injured by someone who isn't going to be seen on camera. However, during the shoot for 1999's "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace," Andrew Secombe, the actor who played the CG character Watto, caused a big injury for Liam Neeson, aka Qui-Gon Jinn. In fact, he nearly broke Neeson's nose, according to "Star Wars Insider" #196.
This all happened on Secombe's very first day of shooting. Watto, of course, is the Toydarian character who owns the secondhand shop in Mos Espa and forces the enslaved Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August) and her son Anakin (Jake Lloyd) to work as his underlings. The whole nose incident happened because of a choice George Lucas made, though it was hardly his fault. The big issue was that Secombe wasn't in a costume, and he was the only actor on set who wasn't. He even jokes in the article that the woman bringing food to the actors thought he was "a hanger-on" trying to snag snacks for free.
'George made me wear a silly hat'
The hat was there because the effects team needed to know where Watto was in the scene. Secombe explained, "Because I wasn't in a costume, George made me wear a silly hat. It looked like a gray lampshade. It had a metal rim around it and stuck out a good six inches in front of my head. This was to let the animators know which one of these characters was Watto: the one they were supposed to make CGI."
So there Secombe is, walking around with this goofy hat, thinking it's all going to be fine. Then they set up to shoot the scene with Neeson where Qui-Gon and Watto decide to bet on Shmi and Anakin. If Anakin wins the podrace, Qui-Gon gets to take the Force-sensitive kid with him off of Tatooine. They threw the chance-cube and Qui-Gon won, but it was now up to Anakin to gain his freedom with a win. Then ... the nose.
'This is really, really not good'
Secombe said his line, "You may have won the small toss, outlander, but you will not win the race" when their height difference and the silly hat caused the incident. He explained:
"Because Liam is very tall and I'm very short, I was on a flight case to bring my eyeline level with his. And I accidentally spat this line in his face, and I hit him on the bridge of the nose with the rim of the hat, quite hard. He doubled over in pain and all I could think was, Oh my, I've broken the leading actor's nose on the first day of shooting. This is really, really not good.
"Everybody — all the cast and crew — gasped, and there was this frozen silence for about five seconds until Liam said, 'It's okay, I'm okay.' He had a little gash on the bridge of his nose, which makeup had to deal with. I was on the floor, apologizing, and I said to George, 'This hat's very dangerous. Can I take it off?' He let me for the close-ups, but not the other shots."
You know, you don't hear that many stories about noses being broken by lampshade hats. It was a pretty big hat, though, as you can see from the picture above. Ah, well. That wasn't the worst thing to happen to Qui-Gon Jinn in "Phantom Menace," am I right? Sorry. Too soon?
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