Imagine it’s 1975 or so… you’re a fly on the wall in the pitch meeting for Star Wars. A young, dark-haired George Lucas, with a single hit under his belt is telling everyone about the Force, Luke Skywalker, trying to explain what a lightsaber is, what a Millennium Falcon is and… wait… the dog drives the ship? “Sure,” George says, “Just like my malamute Indiana sits in my passenger seat.” I can imagine the blank stares and the heads shaking. In a world where The French Connection, The Godfather, and Patton were gold standards, how in the heck does that concept even come across?
Fast-forward more than 40 years. Chewbacca is a pop-culture icon. Star Wars still exists… and Chewie is still flying the Millennium Falcon from the same seat. One of the most beautiful moments of The Force Awakens is the end, when our heroine, Rey, goes to sit in the cockpit and looks confused as to why Chewbacca is motioning for her to sit in the pilot’s seat. If Chewie could speak he’d say, “No, no… I sit here. I’ve always sat here. That’s your seat now.” His nod to her made me well up with tears in the theater when I first saw this. In Solo: A Star Wars Story, when Chewbacca for the first time sits next to Han in the Falcon, the music swells and that familiar Star Wars theme plays loudly in the theater. “Chewie, get in!” Qi’ra says. My theater sent up cheers on opening night when this happened.
None of this happens, none of this matters, and none of this carries any weight without an obscure, 7-foot, 3-inch hospital porter named Peter Mayhew.
So what made this man so important and vital to a fan base that, upon his passing made Star Wars Day, May 4th, just not seem so cheery this year? After all, how hard can it be? Put on a giant costume, you have no real dialogue, no real facial expressions…you just have to go through the motions, right? Well that’s what Roger Ebert famously claimed in his 1997 review of the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back:
“This character was thrown into the first film as window dressing, was never thought through, and as a result has been saddled with one facial expression and one mournful yelp,” the famed critic wrote. “Much more could have been done. How can you be a space pilot and not be able to communicate in any meaningful way? Does Han Solo really understand Chewie’s monotonous noises? Do they have long chats sometimes? Never mind.”
With all respect to the late film critic, this statement is wildly misguided and false. With that one facial expression, monotonous noises, and mournful yelp, Peter Mayhew added to it so much more. He communicated plenty. He communicated his soul. Normally, a person’s soul is something you can’t see. But in this case, Peter broadcast his soul for the world to see in five unforgettable films. People talk often about what Peter brought to the character but what, exactly does that mean?
D20 Radio’s celebrity Star Wars contributor and RPG nerd, Sam Witwer, was able to explain it during one of his many commentaries about Star Wars and what made Peter so incredible. While studying acting at Juilliard, Sam often was subjected to what is called “Mask Training.” This is where you would put on a mask of a smiling face, for example, and then told to “act sad.” How in the world do you convey emotions, sentiments, and thoughts and you can’t change your face? This is what makes it one of the most challenging aspects of being an actor. This is not a basic skill. It’s for the masters, Sam explained.
And Peter Mayhew literally walked out of a hospital and onto the Star Wars set, and gave everyone a Master’s Class in acting.
We take it for granted today. Chewbacca is a ‘gentle giant,’ as he and his soulmate, Peter, was often referred to. He is a fierce, fierce friend. One that single-handedly tried to take on Darth Vader and Boba Fett to save his friend. One that choked Lando for betrayal, and shot Kylo Ren in the stomach for killing his best friend in the galaxy. He was lovable, often the one giving the hugs on screen. “We did it!” Leia exclaimed as she reaches over and hugs a strange “walking carpet” she met just moments earlier. Chewbacca was also hilarious, making everyone in the theater smile and laugh as he always had a witty one-liner, not that you could understand it. “Laugh it up, Fuzzball,” is a moment I rewound and rewound on my VCR over and over and over when I was young. But that’s the thing. That chuckle Chewie gives Han was created by Ben Burtt, the genius sound designer. But the noise means nothing without Peter and his soul coming through the screen.
Without the use of all the tools every A-list actor gets on screen, Peter made us all fall in love with Chewbacca.
Chewbacca was not “thrown in” as Roger Ebert falsely claimed. Chewie was meant to look like he didn’t belong. He was meant to stand out. He was meant to have awkward moments like when he refused to march down the Death Star halls at Han’s command. “Come here you big coward.” As a 7-foot, 3-inch man in a world built mostly for 6ft and below, Peter always stood out and looked like he didn’t belong. Well, that was the beauty of it.
“No one could understand Chewbacca,” folks say. But that’s actually the polar opposite. We all understood Chewbacca completely… we just happened to not know his language. As Star Wars was the first sci-fi film really aimed towards a younger audience (remember, 2001: A Space Odyssey was almost all we had before), it was the first time, at least in a sci-fi context, where not everyone looked human. Sure there were B-movies and Flash Gordon stuff but nothing that really counted. I always mildly chuckle when people discuss the pros or cons about more or less diversity in Star Wars because Star Wars IS diversity. Just look at any frame of the films. It looks like a sci-fi version of Sesame Street. Sure, in the early years technology would limit what could or couldn’t be done, so that nowadays we get even more. But in the middle of all that craziness we’d never seen on film, was Peter Mayhew. Out of all the wild aliens on screen, Chewie was at the center of the action.
Lucas didn’t quite realize what he was building. After all, he’s talked often about just wanting to see these places exist on screen. But in the midst of the chaos in the films, Peter was showing everyone that you don’t have to look like anyone else in the galaxy in order to save it. You can be taller, hairier, not speak the language, be fierce, compassionate, brave, and loving all at the same time, and still be one of the heroes out there. That can’t happen with only sound effects and a clever costume.
It only happened because of Peter Mayhew. And strangely, the argument could be made that Chewbacca might just be the most human of all the Star Wars characters.
My daughter has said often she’s love to own a dog rescue when she gets older, so perhaps it’s not a surprise that Chewbacca was her favorite. She said when walking into The Force Awakens, “If they kill Chewie I’m walking out!” Well Chewie is still going strong and my little girl gets to stay in love with him. What my daughter didn’t know is that, in a way, she wasn’t just falling in love with Chewbacca, she was feeling and falling in love with Peter Mayhew’s spirit.
So thank you, Peter. Thank you for sharing your unique spirit with all of us, and allowing it to manifest in a character that has now been loved by three generations, with many more to come. When I watch Chewbacca in The Rise of Skywalker, I will know you’re not physically in the suit… but we will all feel you in there on the screen.
We love you, Peter… May the Force be with you.
Scott Alden
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- We Never Saw His Face… We Saw His Soul - May 7, 2019
