WORDS JAMES DYERCreature-shop maestro Neal
Scanlan dissects some of
The Last Jedi’s non-human castTHE PORGS
“They’re mischievous and inquisitive. Rian felt it
was very important you were able to look at them
and read their emotions, which is difficult in
a character that is essentially a bird. We were able
to do a lot practically by swapping a sad-looking
porg to a happy-looking porg, an aggressive porg
or a roaring porg. We have a whole porg
menagerie that we use. Chewie befriends one, and
that porg in particular shows some very Wookiee
traits in the way he’s coloured; his patterning is
very similar to Chewie’s.”THE CRYSTAL FOXES
“We started with real dogs and made a little suit
covered in drinking straws. Then we created a
scale version which had over a thousand crystals
in it. They’re really beautiful creatures; we had
one on set and the way it caught and refracted
the light was tremendous. The theory is they’ve
fed off this planet for so long that their fur has
become crystalline. It’s almost like when you
were at school and grew crystals on little cotton
strands; they’ve taken on the very surface of the
planet they live on.”FATHIERS
“Fathiers [pronounced “fath-ee-ays” ] have the
power and majestic quality that one might find
in a male lion and also beauty in their equine
aspects. They’re racing creatures, with bets placed
upon them, and are subjected to slightly cruel
treatment. We knew any version of those ina wide shot would be CG but we produced
a real-scale practical version for the first
encounter with a Fathier, so it was able to look
over the stable door and Finn could touch and
act with it. They’re amazing creatures.”THE CARETAKERS
“With Ahch-To, it felt like the only creatures
that would ever exist on this island were those
indigenous to it, where very few other species
and DNA would have reached them. So they’re
an extrapolation from the porgs and have bird-
like feet, but they’re a further developed race.
They look after Luke and have become somewhat
possessive of him, so Rey’s arrival on the island
is not seen in the most welcoming of ways.”BB-9E
“It was a joy to take BB-8, who we’ve all fallen
in love with and has a distinct personality,
and flip that a little bit. BB-9E is shiny and
chrome-like, looking back on ’60s American car
grilles — influences Ralph McQuarrie would
have drawn from. He’s much more robotic [than
BB-8], more emotionless. There was this one
scene in particular where BB-8 is in disguise
and has to try and make his way without being
recognised. It just seemed so threatening that his
doppelgänger would be the very one that
may or may not discover him.”STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI IS IN CINEMAS FROM
14 DECEMBERChewie befriends
a porg. Below:
The caretakers are
indigenous to Luke’s
exile world Ahch-To.the stepping stone for me will be directing
commercials. I think we’ve got some really good
ads in Australia that are quite narrative-led.
There’s quite an art to it. I think there’s fun to be
had in both areas.
It would be remiss of us not to mention, Dominic,
that’s it’s the 20th anniversary of you appearing as
a photographer in Spice World: The Movie...
DW: Fuck, it’s been 20 years? I had been at a three
day wedding in Ibiza and I got on set and I was
passed out on the sofa, and I woke up, and I was
in a script meeting with all the Spice Girls. And
they’re going, “Oh, well done. You woke up now,
have you?” “Who is this guy?” And they were at
the height of their fame, right? Geri was the only
nice one. The others were just taking the piss out
of me. Geri said, “Are you like a luvvie, then?”
And I went, “Yeah. Um yeah.” “So you do
theatre?” And I went, “Yeah.” That was it!
VIEW THE SHORT FILMS AND FIND MORE INFORMATION
AT WWW.JAMESONFIRSTSHOT.COM
Dominic West with
Australian filmmaker
Alice Cogin on the set
of her short film.
Below: London’s Ollie
Wolf with West.