Warwick menu: Home - Biography - Filmography - Pictures - Articles - Sound Clips - Miscellaneous - Links Other stuff: Email - Guestbook

Willow Official Poster Magazine: Willow Ufgood

Lep menu: Home - Reviews - Pictures - Articles - Sound Clips - Scripts - Rhymes - Body Count - Music - Merchandise - Credits - Miscellaneous - Links

Willow Ufgood is a proud member of the good-hearted Nelwyn people. But, a normal life with wife and children is disrupted when Willow is asked to use every ounce of ingenuity and skill to escort a special Daikini baby past evil forces to the kingdom of Tir Asleen.

To successfully convey the emotions required of this unlikely hero, executive producer George Lucas tapped his discovery, Warwick Davis, for the task. With director Ron Howard's approval, Davis went on to his second feature with Lucasfilm, another grand adventure for the young actor.

At age 11, Davis was discovered by Lucas when the filmmaker was casting the cuddly-but-fearsome Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. Davis so thrilled audiences with his portrayal of Wicket W. Warrick, that Lucas produced two TV movies with Davis re-creating his Ewok role. When not before the cameras, Davis, now 18, has been studying Media Communications at the East Surrey College in his native England. His ultimate goal, he states, is to be a director and/or cameraman on feature films, saving acting for occasional cameo appearances.

Willow presents the 3'4" Davis with his first opportunity to act without hiding his features beneath fur. In the world of Willow, he plays an older man, an unusual hero who undertakes this important mission, debating life and philosophy all the way with Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), the brownies (Rick Overton & Kevin Pollak) and others.

"We had three weeks of script rehearsals before filming began and I think the character developed during those rehearsals," Davis says. "I was trying to find something that Willow could do to distinguish him from any other person, but I really couldn't find anything. However, there is a great deal of me in Willow Ufgood.

"During those early rehearsals, I had horse-riding lessons whenever they could be fitted in. I have a phobia about horses and was really scared of them before filming began."

Davis also managed to find a great deal of thrills and danger when he performed his own stunts. "The scene where I slide down the mountain on a sled made from a warrior's shield was the most frightening stunt. We had a special camera rig set up with our ski expert, Stefan Zurcher, skiing backwards down the mountain, towing the sled and operating the camera at the same time. Val and I went down this shallow hill with the camera clamped to the front of the sled and I was acting away, thinking 'Oh, this is OK.' When suddenly, the ground dropped away and we were hurtling through all these rocks at tremendous speed, ending up on this frozen lake at the bottom. I didn't have to act during that scene; it came naturally.

"Another sequence that proved a bit scary was the battle with the boy-fish on the storm-ridden lake, a scene which was cut from the movie. We shot the close-ups on the huge exterior tank at Pinewood Studios and I really underestimated that entire scene," says Davis. "I thought there would be some rain and a few waves, nothing worse than that. But, there were these huge tip-tanks, six of them, each holding a ton of water, shooting water down these big chutes and all over me, while these giant, hydraulic wave-making machines nearly swamped the little wooden boat from every direction, and aircraft engines were blowing water at me with such terrific force that I could barely get my breath. And it was freezing cold, too. Yes, that was a pretty uncomfortable two days."

Fortunately, director Ron Howard, notes Davis, "was an actor so he understands things that actors go through and he knows what they can and cannot do. He associates with them closely and never asks them to do anything that he wouldn't have done himself during his acting days."

For Willow, Davis learned a bit of real magic from master magician David Berglass. The magicks performed by Davis in the film are of a more supernatural nature, such as trying to turn Fin Raziel (Patricia Hayes) back into human form. To make it look absolutely right, however, Davis had to learn how to use his hands and eyes.

"I learned the disappearing pig, how to make the baby levitate, and doing the fire through my arm, all for a magic show at the film's beginning. Of course, there were a few tricks throughout the story, and I did a version of the disappearing pig at the end. My character, Willow," Warwick Davis explains, "is an amateur magician who is finally taught real magic."