Star Wars not only established many iconic characters back in 1977, but the behind-the-scenes stories are also exciting and sometimes funny. There is a very simple reason why an important character in the film is only shown from the waist down.
Which character is it? Grand Moff Tarkin is already a special character in the first Star Wars (1977) because he shows no visible fear of Darth Vader. Although he dies in the film, the character left an impression, likely due to the actor Peter Cushing.
In the film itself, he is always seen in camera shots from the waist up. This was not an artistic decision or coincidence: The military boots of the Empire were simply too small for the actor.
The small shoes also caused a problem in 2016
What was the issue with the small shoes? As Peter Cushing explained in an interview (source: YouTube), he had a shoe size of about 46, which is just under 30 cm. Those are relatively large feet, and no special shoes were made for the actor’s costume. Therefore, initially, he wore shoes that were actually much too small for him. He recounts the story of his first shooting day as follows:
So there I was on the first day of shooting, [as] this very angry, unpleasant man, Grand Moff Tarkin, stamping around, and it was torture, really.
Due to the painful first shooting sessions, he asked director George Lucas to film him only from the waist up so he wouldn’t have to wear the small shoes. He then simply wore slippers: So I stomped around angrily for the rest of the film and was very upset with the dear little Carrie Fisher as Grand Moff Tarkin in slippers.
However, in 2016, this led to another problem for the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Peter Cushing passed away in 1994, but for the film, they wanted to bring him back digitally. As the Daily Mail reported in 2015, there were issues with digitizing Peter Cushing because they never saw his feet. According to the source from the Daily Mail, the special effects team went through hours and hours
of horror films featuring the actor to represent his legs and feet.
Where else is Peter Cushing known from? Peter Cushing appeared in over 100 films between 1939 and 1986. His last film was The Biggles Effect (1986). Throughout his career, he starred in many horror films, including:
- Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
- Dracula (1958)
- Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Today, Star Wars is known as a massive franchise with huge budgets, but back in 1977, everything looked quite different. For special effects, since CGI was not so common yet, they had to improvise. Even with the well-known lightsabers: The old lightsabers of Star Wars and street signs have something in common and the trick is genius
