Movies - TV
Why Star Wars Once Replaced Liam Neeson & Natalie Portman With Sticks
By JEREMY SMITH
For Hugh Quarshie, who hadn’t yet done a CG-heavy film prior to "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace," acting opposite a character to be created later was new.
In the days before performance capture, this was accomplished by having actors talk to a stick with a tennis ball affixed where the creature's head would be.
As Quarshie explained in issue 212 of Star Wars Insider, he wasn't acting opposite a CG-alien. He was interacting with an unavailable-at-the-time Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman.
Quarshie said they replaced Neeson and Portman with crosses attached to poles at appropriate heights. “I was filmed talking to a couple of crosses on two sticks!” he said.
When he saw the final result, Quarshie was impressed, though at the time, it seemed confusing and not what he was used to. “It was a learning curve," he added.