On Location: Part 17 Say Uncle or Hangin? with Mr.Lars
Summary by: Don Keefe
(Please note that the following comments are my opinions and speculations regarding the production of Episode II and do not necessarily reflect those of TheForce.net)
Whoa, hold up a minute! What happened to the club girls? They were one of my favorite things about ?On Location?. Well I guess equal time right? The only problem though is that I can?t understand a word this guy says except ?here?s Ahmed?. Well hopefully its only temporary. Anyway this 2 minute and 23 second clip features one of my favorite characters from the original trilogy (although he only made it through half of the 1st film) Uncle Owen Lars!! Joel Edgerton as most of you know is reprising the role of Owen except its obviously the younger Owen before he became disgruntled with moisture farming.
Ahmed: Ahmed Best here, here with Joel Edgerton. Premier Australian actor here with us in the desert in Tunisia. Joel How are you?
Joel: Pretty good. Ahmed: Tell everybody who you are in Episode II.
Joel: I AM OWEN LARS Ahmed: Who is Owen Lars? Joel: Well soon to be Uncle Owen Lars, Luke?s guardian from Ep 4.
Ahmed: Give us a little Uncle Owen for the World Wide Web Joel: Luke?.L-u-k-e?
Ahmed: What brings you to the Star Wars Universe? How do you feel about being part of our little family here? Joel: It?s very exciting especially when you?re on set like this. This is pretty cool. Seeing some of the characters from the bar scene in Ep 4, things called banthas which is ah?
Ahmed: Which is right over there I think somewhere?..
Joel: A green face man
Ahmed: Which is a Greedo
(I apologize some of these pictures are hard to make out. There was a lot of glare from the Tunisian sand when they filmed this.)
Joel: I saw all of them. (original trilogy) I think I was about nine when Jedi came out. I remember that one the most vividly; my Dad took me to that one. Ahmed: What was your audition process like? How?d you get here?
Joel: I just did a test with Robin Gurland (casting director) put some stuff on a tape earlier and sent it to her and just sort of got a call about it. It was really nice meeting her actually.
(Gee, I wish it were that easy for me to get a coveted role in Star Wars. I like how he nonchalantly says I just sort of got a call about it)
Ahmed: It wasn?t really a long process then. She just saw you, fell in love and that?s all there was?
Joel: She saw me. She said that?s a very chubby cheeked small-eyed man that could double for Uncle Owen.
Ahmed: Well you uncannily look like Uncle Owen. I?m sure there?s a lot of that. But tell everyone where they can see you other than doing Uncle Owen impressions? Give us a little filmography.
Joel: A little filmography. A couple of Australian films worth checking out ?Praise? and ?Erskinville Kings?
Ahmed: Check?em out, Joel Edgerton, Uncle Owen. Send us out with a little Uncle Owen again. (In a whiny Luke voice) but I wanted to get some power converters.
Joel: You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done.
Ahmed: There you go! www.starwars.com.
(Just a couple of quick notes on this one. Interesting that this again takes place in Mos Espa, NOT Mos Eisley where I associate Uncle Owen with. Also in the background you can see a lot of the set and the famous moisture evaporators. You can also see the tracks behind Joel and Ahmed for the camera.)