These questions came from an in-person interview done by a member of the www.petermayhew.com webstaff in February of 2001. Keep checking back for more interviews, and if you have any questions that you would like answered, e-mail them to our staff.

I received a phone call from the production secretary. My name had been put forward by the specialty guys who made the masks, whom had worked with me on "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" earlier that year. They asked if I was interested in a role as a large alien in a movie. I said "Yes!" of course, and went to Elstree Studios outside of London to speak with George Lucas and Gary Kurtz. I was seated in a large office room and when George arrived. I stood up to greet him and he said, "I think we've found him." 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.

Did you have any sort of inspiration or model for the role?

Maybe a bear, a dog, and the curiosity of a chimp. Natural easy stuff, really. I think the main thing was that the character couldn't speak in regular language, so he had to be mimed.

What information were you provided with about Chewbacca before filming?

That he was very big and could be very aggressive and very inquisitive, but maybe a coward at heart.

I think that Star Wars revolutionized not only sci-fi movies, but also the entire industry in the way that things are done. George is truly an innovator and deserves all of the credit that he has received for his work. He is still reworking the filming industry processes and developing new and better ways of filming and watching movies.

What do you think about the death of Chewbacca?

Gutted

The public reaction has been, well, a lot more than I think anyone expected. I have had all persons, all age groups, grandmas to kids saying that they are very sorry that it happened. I feel like I'm constantly going to his funeral. It still continues and I guess it will continue to continue. A lot of people grew up with the Star Wars characters as part of their early childhood and saw them as role models.

My favorite of the trilogy is "The Empire Strikes Back". The crew came together for the second time and things began to click. It was like a large family and the story was the most exciting of the three, and the characters enlarged from "A New Hope" to fill out the storyline. Look for the same type of character development in "Episode II".

Each of these directors had a different way of pulling things together. George on the first film was a good director because it was "his baby" and he told us what he wanted and what was expected. Irvin was a "show it" director and he would show you how he wanted a scene played and then give you a certain amount of freedom to improvise as the scene developed. Richard was an actor before he was a director, so he knew what the actors were going through. Therefore, he understood things far more from our perspective.

The Chess Game. Because there were so many cameras and so many actors on set, you didn't know what was going to be used in camera range. 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.

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

I really enjoyed the last scene at the Ewok celebration after the battle. The camaraderie was really high and it really was a celebration. Sometimes you do something and you really feel like it "worked" with the music going in the background and everyone was really happy, it was a great feeling and we wanted to make it as good as possible right up to the end.

That's easy. R2-D2. He's the hero and champion of the rebellion and continues to pull their chestnuts out of the fire at the darkest moments. Watch that little droid, he's obviously important.

Jabba the Hutt

Yes (James, take this answer from the posts of theforce.net, please and edit it as you see fit.)

How about the Muppet Show?

Doing the Muppet Show you forget about conventional filming. The stage was 8 feet in the air so that Jim Henson and Frank Oz and the other puppeteers could work underneath. They are such a creative assortment of people that it was easy to get lost in the moment. Instead of taking cues and instructions from Jim and Frank, I took them from Kermit and Piggy and thought that was the way it was done! I think I missed my calling sometimes. I love puppets!!

About 3 weeks after finishing Empire, I was asked if I would like to go and see how the scoring was done, to which I said "yes". The music was recorded at Abbey Road studios where the Beatles had recorded all their music. We were sitting in the control room watching the London Symphony Orchestra playing and watching the scenes on the screens behind them so that the mood and the timing were all synchronous. Watching John conducting the Orchestra was a highlight of the process. Seeing the score, which was very large, coming together with the pictures just made it all complete. John is a master at his craft of writing and conducting. What a way to spend a day.

Chewie got the last word at the end of the film and a medal 20 years later. The medal is one of the pride's of my collection. It was the first time I had been back in costume in many years and I enjoyed it immensely.