 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Connie's Warwick Davis Fanpage and Leprechaun Center | |||||
|
Other stuff: Email - Guestbook |
Caravan of Courage Press Kit: Warwick Davis |
|
"The first thing you have to do is get Warwick Davis." That was the pivotal instruction Tom Smith received from his executive producer, George Lucas, when production planning began for "Caravan of Courage." Davis was Lucas' only choice for the central role of Wicket, the young Ewok who becomes the essential link between his Ewok family and two human children searching for their parents after the crash of their space cruiser.
Who is this coveted star? A remarkable 14-year-old, 2'11" British schoolboy, who had so come to embody the smallest Ewok in "Return of the Jedi" that the character was named Wicket W. Warrick in his honor. The millions who saw George Lucas' blockbuster motion picture will recall their initial encounter with Wicket, the fuzzy, inquisitive, spear-carrying little fellow who first confronted a startled Princess Leia on a log in the forest of Endor. For us, that scene was the start of a love affair with the Ewoks. For Warwick Davis it was the turning point of his young life.
Davis, then 11, and an Ewok extra, had won the role by a fluke. Slated to play the little Ewok who would first encounter Leia was "Star Wars" veteran Kenny Baker, best known as R2-D2. But Baker contracted food poisoning. Warwick's posture and gestures were so characteristic of the director and producers' vision of an Ewok, that he was called to center stage. Comments Tom Smith, "Warwick has a very distinctive way of moving and you can spot him among all the other Ewoks. When you see him on screen there's a certain magic. He's a marvelous actor. Three feet tall, but filled with energy and charm and a sense of humor and a marvelous talent for pantomime."
Born in Surrey, England, Warwick is the son of Ashley and Susan Davis, an insurance broker and a homemaker. At seven he began studying acting and mime at a local drama school, Laine Theatre Arts. At 10, he saw "Star Wars," and like boys his age all over the world was totally enraptured. It was logical then that when his grandmother heard a radio announcement calling for small people to audition for a "Star Wars" movie that she immediately thought of Warwick. Warwick's mother whisked her son, his head spinning with excitement, down to EMI-Elstree Studios where after the briefest of interviews he was sent for a costume fitting, and became one of the 40 Ewok actors cast in "Return of the Jedi." After working diligently on the set in England, Warwick, accompanied by his mother, travelled to the towering redwoods of Crescent City, Calif. for "Return of the Jedi's" location shooting. There fate handed him his classic 'big break.'
Warwick returned to England after "Return of the Jedi," and resumed his acting lessons and returned to acting school and his academic education. Three years later he was in the midst of studying for his critical fifth form exams when Lucasfilm beckoned once more. "Guess what?," Susan Davis told her unsuspecting son, "We're going to America again!" "What have you done, won a competition?" replied Warwick, little dreaming that he was the prize that the American filmmakers were after. In a few short weeks, Warwick, Susan and his younger sister Kim, 10, were back in the midst of the California redwoods, a few hundred miles south in Lucasfilm's home base, Marin County. Susan even sported a sweatshirt with the apropos lettering "Return of the Ewok."
Once again, Warwick's talent lit up the set. Says Ewok choreographer Wendy Rogers, "Warwick is every bit a pro as the adult actors. He really understands the process. He has totally created a character, Wicket, and then just refined and refined him. His imagination is as big as the outdoors. His timing is excellent. His gestures are animated. He waits. He stands by. He knows how to make his movements visible in the camera. He's intelligent and professional. It's an enormous contribution."
"Warwick is really amazing," says camera operator Kim Mark, who had an audience-eye view of the young actor through his lens. "He has the ability to draw a different performance in every different situation he's put into. When you think that he has to communicate emotion with his arms and legs and not with his face and words, he does such an excellent job. He can look dejected, overjoyed. He has so many different ways of expressing his feelings just through the body language he's developed so well."
Warwick charmed the crew not just with his skill but with his personality. Says associate producer Rose Duignan, "He is really a magical kid. What a smile! You've seen his face, that warmth, it just lights up. He had a struggle getting here. There was a lot of pressure on him; he had to leave exams in the middle. Yet he has not had one frown on his face since he got here. His movement, I think, is the beauty of his character. He moves like no other Ewok. It's touching to watch him. He's really sweet. I think the character, Wicket, is sensitive, just like the sensitive little boy playing him."
"Caravan of Courage" is not a continuation of the "Star Wars" saga, but Warwick's character, Wicket, easily makes the transition between the two. Comical and perceptive, he is the first Ewok to truly reach out to the two young human castaways -- the impetuous Mace Towani and his gentle sister, Cindel. "He understands humans more than any of the other Ewoks," says Warwick. "He's quite young and very inquisitive, I think." In the film it is Cindel, played by four-year-old Northern Californian Aubree Miller, who becomes Wicket's friend. But, off the set, Warwick found a companion in Eric Walker, the 14-year-old actor cast as Mace.
Their backgrounds couldn't be more different. Warwick grew up in peaceful, rural Surrey;
Eric in Los Angeles' bustling San Fernando Valley. But they found a common ground in
movie-making -- in more ways than one. At the suggestion of their on-set tutor, Ramsay
Fifield, the young actors formed their own production company --
"It's one of the finest teaching devices I know," says their tutor. "The educational value is exceptional. They have to know math for editing, they have to figure out how to make a camera function, they have to learn the technique for interviewing people."
For Warwick, the camera work was not difficult. In the grand tradition of actors he aspires to be a director, and had started on that path with a video camera he'd received for Christmas. At home he had shot a few horror films and a takeoff on "Raiders of the Lost Ark." "I can never make a video film that's not got comedy in it," he contends.
But there was much to learn on this non-fiction project. "You've got to get things done when you think of them," Warwick says ruefully. "You've got to have all the stuff written down that you're going to need. You've got to get good interviews. You've got to get the camera on a steady position, and a good microphone, and you've got to have good questions ready to ask the people, and a good person to interview who'll answer with not just a yes or a no, but with a sentence."
As Fifield had hoped, the project helped dissolve the barriers created by their
cross-cultural differences. Shortly after production began, Eric changed his hotel room to
be closer to Warwick's and soon they were sharing the joys of California living --
swimming after work in the hotel pool, basketball with the cast or crew; hamburgers at
the drive-in; summer movies like "Gremlins," "Ghostbusters" and "Indiana Jones and The
Temple of Doom," and even Warwick's first American baseball game at San Francisco's
Candlestick Park. With the course of "Caravan of Courage" Warwick and Eric had become more
than just acting and filmmaking partners. Like Wicket and Mace, they became friends.
