Behind the Mask of Boba Fett
(found and transcribed by Ccedric Mira)

Jeremy Bulloch, the man who brought STAR WARS most popular bounty hunter to life.

Darth Vader glides into the bridge of his ominous imperial Star destroyer, the Avenger. Awaiting him there is a mixture of some of the most reviled, deadly and lizard creatures in the STAR WARS galaxy - Bounty hunters. The dark lord of the SITH has summoned this wild assortment of fortune hunters for one purpose: capture the MILLENNIUM FALCON which would, in turn, bring LUKE SKYWALKER, PRINCESS LEIA and HAN SOLO into his sinister clutches. Among this motley group of creatures is one of the most notorious of the bounty hunters...his name is BOBA FETT. Dressed in a weapon-covered, armor space-suit, this human bounty hunter displays a menacing and dangerous look and is not the kind of character would want to confront, whether you're living today or a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away!

In reality, the man behind the bounty hunter's streamlined mask is a very friendly soul eager to discuss his days as STAR WARS' BOBA FETT. Although most of you reading this article best as the deadly BOBA FETT, JEREMY BULLOCH has been acting for years and has a substantial list of credits, an interest in acting that goes back to his childhood "When about 11 years old, I took what was called an 11 plus exam...which i failed. That's when I decided that an academic life just wasn't for me, and went to drama school. I attended CORNA ACADEMY in 1957 ... I went out for parts in the school plays and even painted scenery as young as eight. When i was doing lessons in English or history or geography, all I was interested in was having fun and playing football and cricket ... The only thing I could do, apart from playing sports, was mimic people or act in different plays. I loved mimicking the teacher - that's how it all started."

Jeremy's first professional piece at 12 was a cereal commercial for TV. The cereal package contained little models of a frog man. Jeremy had to put the frog man in a bottle of water, press the cork and get the frog man to reach a certain depth ."This was the free gift and they had to see my happy smiling face" he recalls.

"I was terribly nervous, because I to reach a certain mark on the bottle and, of course, (the frog man) kept going past the mark. The director got rather cross with me, but my hands were hot and sweaty and I kept making a few mistakes. I suddenly thought, "Is this what acting is all about; getting shouted at by directors?" But in fact it went fine and the director said he was sorry he'd shouted but they had to finish by 6 o'clock. From then, I did a series of children films which used to be shown Saturday morning at the cinema."

Since then, Jeremy has worked steadily as an actor having played parts in DOCTOR WHO and various British comedies and films. He also played the TV series ROBIN OF SHERWOOD. Jeremy was intro duced to STAR WARS through his children. "Christian, Jamie and Robbie went to see STAR WARS and loved it, it was completely new and very exciting. When the second film, THE ESB was being done at Elstreet Studios, I got a call one day and was asked to go down and read for it."

Jeremy didn't know what the second installment was called and when his agent explained what EMPIRE was. He went down to the studios immediately to meet George Lucas and Irvin Kershner. "They were both very pleasant. I got into the costume and put the helmet on. There were lots of little gadgets and knee pads and the boots had 2 little jets on the toes. I thought, "This look rather good!" There was a jet pack too. I found what I thought was my hair so I put it on underneath the helmet, hanging down. When I came out to show George Lucas, he said "What's that funny thing sticking out of your helmet?" I said, "isn't it the character's hair?" " no, it's a wookiee scalp is supposed to be tied of your belt! "

They made Jeremy walk up and down and turn in different directions. The next day he received a call asking if he would like to play the part of BOBA FETT. "I was thrilled, and my kids were too." Even though he was exciting to be playing a part in the sequel to STAR WARS, Jeremy still considered it just like a part of his job. One day he could be playing a lawyer in a courtroom, the next day he was a bounty hunter in a science fiction film. "I met everybody from MARK HAMILL to HARRISON FORD and CARRIE FISHER... In all my scenes, I was behind a mask. Every now and then, they'd take the helmet off and cool me down. People like Dave Prowse in the DARTH VADER costume, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO and Peter Mayhew as CHEWBACCA were far more uncomfortable in their costumes than I was. Even though I was quite hot my costume was not too bad, although the jet pack was quite heavy. "At the end of filming, there was a party and then you would get on to your next job which, for me, was a British comedy series called Agony. Then THE ESB came out in the US and I started to receive letters. Mostly, they were from kids saying 'Dear Jeremy ' or 'Dear Boba, I think you're very neat or really cool and could you please send me a picture,' I had some photographs done and I sent out a reply to everybody. Then suddenly, hundreds of letters started to arrive...from all over the world! I thought "This is crazy! Is this success? "...

In 1982, he was asked to attend a convention in MIAMI, and talk about his ESB role and his part in early DOCTOR WHO. The fans at the convention kept asking Jeremy when ROTJ was going to be out, and he still didn't know if he was going to be in it . The fans were positive that he would be back. "It was a lovely surprise when LUCASFILM called and asked if I would come and play BOBA FETT again. The mail began coming in from as far away as JAPAN, AUSTRALIA again - all over the place. It was just one of those wonderful periods in my career. It allowed me to go to AMERICA and I was asked in AUSTRALIA, to attend a big convention...I still get letters from people, it's in dribs and drabs, not hundreds, but the in terest is still there. And I still get asked to radio shows, to speak about being an actor, especially about the role of BOBA FETT." Jeremy recalls that fateful day when he first walk onto the EMPIRE set as BOBA FETT. He definitely received a good deal of attention as the costume demand a good look. "When I first walked onto the set to see George Lucas and to check that everything was all right in my costume, the cast and crew stopped and looked and thought, "Who's this ?" it was a nice feeling."

BOBA FETT had a mighty presence. Jeremy moved slowly and methodically as the character, keeping in mind that with his jet pack, the laser, the rope and other gadgets, if anybody attacked BOBA FETT he could be very ruthless. When acting with a mask, demeanor is everything. "I just found it quite funny because no one can see your face, a slight turn of the head was a more menacing gesture than I could do with my own face." Another thrill for Jeremy was acting with the trilogy's stars, HARRISON FORD, MARK HAMILL, CARRIE FISHER ..."The times I spent talking with them all were pleasant ... I felt very at home with them. When I came back to do ROTJ they said, "Hey, Jeremy, how are you, lovely to see you, I'm glad you're playing the part again." Jeremy only met Lucas a few time," He was always very pleasant and always asked how I was doing. I didn't really have a lot to do with him because really I was a small cog in a very big machine. Although I was an important character, I was really a special effect , so to speak! When I met George, he was always busy. He had so much going on around him. I thought he was quite a shy man."

Many of Jeremy's scenes in the ESB and ROTJ were with costume actors or puppet-like creatures, which was a little different. "Most of my scenes were with DARTH VADER but there were a good number of scenes shot on SLAVE I and the sail barge with JABBA THE HUTT. But in JEDI the demise of BOBA FETT in the Sarlacc Pit happens quite quickly." Jeremy laughs, " I was quite upset about that! When I first saw JABBA, I thought it was incredible the way they manipulated that creature. One morning, I arrived a little early on the set . It took me about 20 minutes to get into BOBA's costume to do the JABBA scene. There were all these extraordinary people walking around, getting made up in amazing costumes. I'd walked past the dwarf actors who were getting their costumes on and there were acrobats practicing walking on their hands. I was just thinking that this is an extraordinary way to go to work! You arrive, put on a funny costume and start talking to people with pig-nose-type faces on ... it's a very strange way to make a living !" But working with puppets and actors in bizarre costume was something Jeremy got used to rather quickly ? "I'd rather go from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. dressed up in a funny costume than go from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday working a normal job." Jeremy was very pleased he was brought back for ROTJ and happy with the initial scenes he filmed, even though he knew many would end up on the cutting room floor. His only disappointment was that BOBA FETT ends up in the Sarlacc Pit so early in the film. "Many fans have written to me saying, 'surely BOBA FETT can get out. After all, he's got his jet pack on! So he's probably still down there waiting'" he says with a laugh .