Connie's Warwick Davis Fanpage and Leprechaun Center

Us: Little Lord of the Ewoks

Once upon a time in this very galaxy, there dwelt a lad named Warwick Davis. At age 14, cursed by a genetic defect, he stood not even three feet tall. But if Warwick was short of stature, he was high on hope. This is the story of how he became Wicket, the
Little Lord of the Ewoks

Article by Pat Sellers, from Us magazine Vol. 8 No. 25 (December 3, 1984)
 
Warwick can't mask his love for Ewoks, but he can do without playing scenes with goats.

Warwick Davis had a big dream. He'd always wanted to be an actor, but at a tad over two feet tall, his chances for stardom seemed, well, small. As things turned out, however, his short stature has put him head and shoulders above the competition. After appearing in Return of the Jedi, the 14-year-old is now featured in the first made-for-TV Star Wars saga, The Ewok Adventure, airing Nov. 25 on ABC.

This is no tall tale. Warwick (pronounced Warrick) is an Ewok - one of the furry, forest-dwelling, teddy-bear-like creatures who team with Luke Skywalker, et. al., in their battle against the evil Empire.

The story begins not so very long ago in Surrey, England, where Warwick lives with his parents, Sue and Ashley, and his sister, Kim, 10. Because of a genetic defect, Warwick's growth has been stunted. However, to his family's delight, the 2'11" boy has grown nine inches in the past three years.

It was when he was 2'2" that his grandmother heard a radio commercial asking for short people to audition for the latest Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi. "My mom phoned the studio," recalls Warwick, who'd been taking acting lessons. "She told them how high I was and they asked me up. The secretary took a look at me and said, "Right. You can go down to the costume department.'"

Accompanied by his mother, Warwick set off for America expecting to play just any old Ewok. But when food poisoning felled fellow Ewok Kenny Baker (who also plays R2D2) on the day that he was to shoot an important scene with Princess Leia, Warwick was chosen to replace him. Thanks to his sensitive acting, his role was expanded and his character was given a name. No longer just another furry face in the crowd, Wicket W. Warrick became one of Jedi's most lovable creatures, and one of the best-selling Star Wars toys.

However, Jedi made little impact on Warwick's daily life. The film wasn't quite the smash in Britain that it was here. At school, says Warwick, "One or two kids asked me what it was like to meet all the stars, but they treated me just the same."

He used part of his earnings to buy a scaled-down Yamaha motorcycle that "tears up the garden wall pretty well." But his biggest Jedi dividend to date came when the big Star Warrior, George Lucas, asked him - out of all the Ewoks - to repeat his role for the TV movie.

Filmed on a relatively low budget, The Ewok Adventure (which is not part of the continuing Star Wars story) has no battle scenes and few special effects. Shot entirely in California's Marin County (partially on Lucas' Skywalker Ranch), it focuses on a family of Ewoks who help two human children searching for their parents. The movie's more intimate scale makes it a better showcase for Warwick, who's described by producer Tom Smith as "a superb actor."

Director John Korty concurs. "Everything Warwick does in the film is wonderful. Every little detail - the way he cocks his head, the graceful way he moves his arms - is perfect. His performance is pure body language." (He might add "literally." In an attempt to "individualize" the Ewok voices, a second set of actors is heard on the soundtrack.)

A comic off-camera, Warwick was dead serious about his Wicket role. "Sometimes," says Korty, "because of the child labor laws, we had to stop using him when there was still part of a scene left to do. It might just be a walk-through in the background, but even then I could tell how painful it was for him to see someone else be his stand-in. He knew that nobody else was going to walk the way he walked."

Walking was no mean feat, thanks to a pair of cumbersome rubber feet. "I couldn't feel the ground much, so I tripped a lot," says Warwick. "The costume is also very hot. [Ewoks were zipped to the neck in four layers of foam rubber, including a coat of fur.] When you were in the hot studio or on a hot location, your plastic eyes misted up and after a few minutes you couldn't see. One day, I tripped and nearly pushed a goat into a fire. Another goat twisted a rope around me and I fell over. I had a lot to do with goats."

He had an easier time entertaining Lucas' three-year-old daughter, Amanda, who invited Wicket W. Warrick to her birthday party. "She thinks we're real," says the little actor. Even visiting Warwick on the set and seeing him holding his Ewok head wasn't enough to dispel the illusion. "She thinks we take our heads home with us," he groans.