Peter Mayhew Quotes & Trivia

Quotes

A lot of people grew up with the Star Wars characters as part of their early childhood and saw them as role models.

A whole new generation is looking at the videos, and going to the video shop and buying the re-release of the complete trilogy, which you can buy at a reasonable price.

After a while, the character sort of took over.

After my own for instance, my favourite is Princess Leia.

But, apart from that, there was very little on underneath the suit.

Chewy is just a great big teddy bear. He is loyal to his friends and he will rip apart anyone who threatens his friends.

Doing the Muppet Show you forget about conventional filming.

George has only got to ring me. His imagination is so wonderful, I'd do any character he might create.

George Lucas puts those types of characters in for the kids. Same with Jar Jar.

I can go out in public without being recognized. If I want to be recognized in public, it will happen.

I really enjoyed the last scene at the Ewok celebration after the battle.

I think by that time I knew where Chewie was going, and he left me to do what was called for, because the character had been well established. You know, it was like putting on a second skin by that time.

I think that Star Wars revolutionized not only sci-fi movies, but also the entire industry in the way that things are done.

I think the main thing was that the character couldn't speak in regular language, so he had to be mimed.

I think the things I wanted answered have been answered by people in the know that we can't talk about, so I'm perfectly happy with how Chewie came to be where he is and what is going on in Episode III.

I was in the costume department having the costume made the next day, and we were shooting two weeks later when the main unit returned from Tunisia.

I've been privileged to meet two of my heroes: Alec Guinness and Christopher Lee.

In the last 25 years, I've been able to travel all over the world, get paid for it.

It was amazing that during rehearsals, without any of the costume on, the character was there complete. It just happened. Half the time, I didn't know I was doing it.

Never having played Chess before, it was most interesting to be playing the game with no pieces in front of me. But I still knew how to stroke my hair when I won.

Obviously, throughout that period of time, the mask had to be remade, but nothing that would alter the appearance of it.

Putting C3PO back together again. That was fun and it showed Chewie's lighter side, I think.

Richard Marquand, on Jedi, was very much an actor's director.

Then I put on the new suit they'd made and it felt wonderful to climb back into it and feel the character coming back out again.

They asked if I was interested in a role as a large alien in a movie.

They tried to improve on the Wookiee costume which I thought was a mistake, by adding moving eyebrows and other pieces on the face.

This has been the best thing that ever happened to me.

When we first put the costume on, you could see the human shape underneath, so the padding gave Chewie his rounded shape, really.

When you consider that you're a character that doesn't speak, but you've still got to react to the other actors, you've got to make a noise of some kind.

When you've got eight or nine or ten cables running around with someone trying to operate them, it's too much.

With George (Lucas), we were in agreement about what Chewie could do and couldn't do, and how to do it.

With my mask, I controlled all of the mouth movements with my own mouth.

With Star Wars fans, there's so much enthusiasm, and it's a completely different generation now.

Trivia

Peter is the only english actor to ever act in the Dragon Ball universe.

When cast as Chewbacca, Peter went to London Zoo to better learn the movements and actions of animals in order to bring the character of Chewbacca to life.

Peter's role as Chewbacca was first offered to David Prowse who later became the body of Darth Vader. Peter was suggested to fill Prowse's vacancy and ended up helping to create a cinematic icon.

Peter tried to be an engineer and a nurse before he found his way into acting.