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Warwick Davis became an actor purely by accident after his grandmother heard a radio announcement asking for people under four feet tall to play characters in Return of the Jedi. Since then he's come a long way, with roles in many films and series including the ‘80’s fantasy classic Willow, The Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter series. Coppergirl caught up with him at the release of the Star Wars originals on DVD to have a chat about the Star Wars movies and the hundreds of tie-in games...
So Warwick, I hear you're a bit of a gamer yourself, and you've been playing LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy?
I have indeed and I'm really enjoying it. I'm a fan of the original LEGO games, but this one's even better because I grew up with the original movie trilogy and I'm far more familiar with the scenes, characters, and situations. There's a lot of humour in this game and it's packed with recognizable scenes, faces and set pieces. It feels like there's a lot more freedom in this game as well. You can get in and out of vehicles this time around, and being able to reinvent your own character is a nice touch too. I don't have lots of time to play games, but I'm a big fan of consoles and handhelds. All the Star Wars games have been at the top of my list, and Star Wars Battlefront was what got my nine-year-old daughter into Star Wars. She wasn't a fan of the films, but after playing it, she watched the movies again and got interested in the series!
I also think that when it comes to Star Wars Battlefront, I'm the only person who doesn't shoot the Ewoks when playing it! Instead I'll run past an Ewok, wave to him and say good morning!
So, you're the protector of the Ewoks?
Exactly! There's a division among Star Wars fans where some love them, and some hate them. There's rarely anybody in between.
You say you don't have much spare time to play videogames these days. How come?
It's true! I'm one of those frustrated gamers who never has enough time to do it! Once the phone's stopped ringing or I've finished work for the day, I'm much too tired. I can't stay awake all night playing a game like I used to, because I'm a dad now and have too many responsibilities. I'm limited to what I can do. If I'm on a plane, I'll play on the PSP – and I've got a PlayStation in the car – so if I've got time to play I do. I never mix driving with playing though! There are so many great titles out at the moment, but I have to watch them come and go! I used to buy new games as they came out, but I get them in the bargain bin now. I'm living gaming life a year behind everyone else! It's far cheaper, but you have to keep yourself in a time warp and avoid lusting after the latest titles!
When you do eventually get a chance to play, what sort of genres to you get into?
I like driving games, but I don-t like first-person shooters. The more real it is, the better. I want a world where I can drive a car, get out of it, go into a building and experience that environment as realistically as possible. I don-t like games where I can feel the boundaries or any kind of restrictions.
Have you tried Oblivion by any chance then? There aren't any cars, but you have a real world to explore in amazing detail...
No, no, I haven't yet, but that's definitely the kind of thing I want to do!
Do you think they're getting there now with next-generation consoles, technology-wise?
Definitely. The fact that they keep coming up with more powerful consoles makes me really excited to see the way that gaming is going – it's becoming so immersive. I like games that take you out of reality. It's escapism. And the films I'm involved in are the same in a sense – taking viewers away for two hours and enlightening them in the process. It's good when a game can do the same thing, because people can become so immersed in their alternate reality when the play them, and it's something more of us are experiencing daily.
I guess that's one of the main reasons why Star Wars appeals really, it's classic sci-fi…
It's another world, but at the same time, it's a real world. The whole wealth of material surrounding the characters and the films is so well-defined that you can step from this world into that one quite easily. It's almost a kind of parallel universe and you can quickly become subsumed by it. The games also allow you to roam around worlds that you previously stood in as a spectator. You can say ‘Wow, I can go in the Cantina now’, ‘I can jump in a land speeder’. You're allowed to do those things.
I'm exactly like that. Your first goal is ‘I want to see if I can go and do that’. I love the space battles in Battlefront II for that. Being able to commandeer a space craft, land on another ship, get out and roan around, it's just brilliant.
You don’t like FPS games. Is this because your daughter beats you at deathmatches?
Yeah, she does and I feel old then! Normally older people aren’t good at videogames, so I’m starting to feel old now. When I talk to my nieces and nephews I ask them what they’re playing and say ‘How do you do it?’ I feel so old in that regard! It’s good that you still pick up a pad though. Well, I then pull out a game from a few years ato and they’re like ‘Oh, this is going to be rubbish’. But after half an hour they’re well into it.
Over the last 20 years there have been countless Star Wars games on many different platforms, have you played many of them?
Well there have been a lot of them! I don’t think that Atari ever did anything Star Wars related, and I had an Atari as my first console. I was like ‘Wow, you can have a tank-looking thing and drive it through a maze!’ It was so amazing at the time. It’s funny how children of this generation expect so much more; that wouldn’t do at all! I’m trying to remember the earliest Star Wars game I played…
Well, one of the biggest ones was Episode 1: Pod Racer on the N64…
Interestingly enough, I do something fun with Pod Racer at Star Wars events. I was asked to be the host of last year’s Star Wars celebration party and as part of the deal I had to interview the other actors. One day I had Jake Lloyd, who’s the young Anakin Skywalker in Episode I. The fans would know pretty much everything there was to know about Jake already, so I thought I can’t sit and interview him for an hour, so instead I got the crew to get a console with Pod Racer on it and I’ll challenge someone in the audience to play against Jake!
Fantastic idea! Was there a stampede of Pod Racer fanatics? Did Jake stand a chance or did he manage to hold his own against the fans?
It was cool as the audience really got behind it, and of course, Jake won every time because he’s a pretty keen gamer, so we couldn’t catch him out there. I’ve done it again since then, as it was such an amazing success. Everyone would love to play Star Wars videogames with one of their heroes wouldn’t they?
Before our chat I checked out your website, and it appears that you’ve done a lot of films where you wear suits, or get covered in make-up. Do you ever find yourself getting a little fed up with that?
To me that’s part of my working day, and I would never refuse a job where I’m under several hours of makeup, because as an actor, I enjoy performing. It’s about the creation of the character and the art to me, not about being comfortable and how long it all takes. Nothing’s better than coming away from a film when people don’t even recognize you, because you’ve undergone a total transformation. That happened with Harry Potter where I played two characters. People recognized me as the goblin bank teller for instance, but not as Professor Flitwick!
Well what about the release of the original versions of Star Wars on DVD now? Do you think the hardcore fans will finally be happy?
I think they will. I’m quite pleased that we can now see these original theatrical versions on disc. I think with the recent Star Wars Special Editions, George Lucas was finally able to add in all those little extras he’d always wanted to and create those films in a way that he had always imagined them. However, for those of us who grew up watching those movies, we saw the new versions quite differently!
Although I find them infinitely enjoyable still, they’re different movies to me, and the originals hold a very special place in everyone’s hearts really. It’s fun to compare them as well. Sometimes the differences are subtle. At the end of Return of the Jedi, when Darth’s helmet is removed by Luke just before he dies; in the original version, he has eyebrows, but in the Special Edition he doesn’t have any. Obviously, after the fire at the end of Episode III, he wouldn’t have any left. It’s these tiny subtle differences which make it all worthwhile to watch again.
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Warwick Asks Us…
What’s your favourite game? What would you ultimately like to experience in a game?
Sandbox games are definitely the future of gaming. But we’d like to see one that includes more adventure gaming elements. A kind of cross between GTA and Oblivion.
Do you think videogames will become more handheld and portable in the future?
No, handheld gaming has its own appeal, but there will always be room for consoles in our living rooms and hearts. Plus, with high definition becoming the standard for TV now, we’re expecting console games to start looking on a par with CGI movies. Whether they’ll play like CGI movies, though…
Will you get more game for your money on next generation consoles? At the moment, ₤50 a game isn’t particularly cheap!
At the moment there are a few exceptional games such as Oblivion which offer real value for money time-wise, but it depends on the kind of genre you like. First person shooters have long lives thanks to their multiplayer options, but most games are shorter rather than longer, and extras often have to be paid for on Xbox Live. But we can expect more value for money going forward, as games will excel even more as the developers get to know the hardware even better. Plus there are always features like Live Anywhere…
A real challenge for you to finish off! Which actor was originally lined up to play Wicket before me?
Ha ha! Hooray for my geeky boyfriend with the Star Wars tattoo, and of course the bottomless pit of
Star Wars facts on Wikipedia! It was Kenny Baker, Mr. R2-D2, but he fell sick and so you got the role. We even discovered that Baker played an addition role in Return of the Jedi as Paploo – the Ewok who stole an imperial speeder bike!
