Carrie Fisher's Time With Jabba In Return Of The Jedi Was Even Grosser Behind The Scenes

Jabba the Hutt defines "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi." A massive alien creature puppet made by staff who cut their teeth on "The Dark Crystal," he took "four tons of clay" to produce (per J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi") and was barely finished in time for the film. Puppeteer Toby Philpott called him "probably the most expensive puppet that's ever been made" in the Jabba-centric documentary "Slimy Piece of Worm-Ridden Filth." His Tatooine palace set saw the "Star Wars" production staff aiming to outdo the famous Cantina scene in "A New Hope." So garish was his environs that the production staff paid to obtain rare frogs for the set, so that Jabba could pretend to eat plastic versions of them. 

To some, Jabba was an inconvenience. To others, he was an inspiration. But perhaps nobody else on set had a relationship with Jabba quite like Carrie Fisher.

According to 2021's "Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga: The Official Collector's Edition" (via GameRant), Fisher and Jabba had an unfortunate run-in while filming scenes set on Tatooine. Early in the film, Fisher's Princess Leia disguises herself in order to save Han Solo, only to be discovered by Jabba's men. They then restrain her while Jabba gloats incessantly. The film's director Richard Marquand asked that Philpott (and Jabba by extension) "menace Leia with [Jabba's] tongue" and "really try to lick her." When Philpott did so, using his hand to control the tongue from the inside, he heard "a stifled gasp, and some laughter, and 'CUT!'" Without realizing it, Philpott said, "I had stuck that horrible, gloop-covered tongue right in Carrie Fisher's ear!"

Odd Experiences

This was yet one more indignity that Carrie Fisher was made to suffer on set. Already she was stuck wearing an uncomfortable metal costume that threatened to slip in between takes. "This is no bikini," she is quoted in "The Making Of." "It was metal. It didn't go where you went." Fisher also couldn't understand why Leia had put up a fight against the likes of Darth Vader in "Star Wars: A New Hope," and yet was suddenly meek and compliant in the face of a giant alien slug. Early on during production, Toby Philpott's collaborator Dave Baclay was asked to put Jabba's hand on Leia's shoulder. When he tried to do so, per "The Official Collector's Edition," Fisher told him "That's not my shoulder..." These were awful experiences, but the movers and shakers on set had little sympathy for Fisher's position. "On a set, you get used to odd experiences very quickly," said C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels. "Or you get another job."

It should also be said that the Jabba puppet itself was a nightmare to control. According to Philpott, the puppet required at least two puppeteers in order to move. Philpott was in charge of the head, tongue, and right arm. Barclay handled the left arm and face, and spoke for Jabba (in English) as needed. The two of them entered the puppet together at 8:30 AM and left at 6:00 PM. Occasionally, they were joined by Mike Edmonds, who controlled the tail and (per actor and puppeteer Tim Rose) used to knock puppet Salacious Crumb off his perch with a cry of "Batter up!" Another collaborator, said Philpott in "Slimy Piece of Worm-Ridden Filth," produced smoke to emit from Jabba's mouth from inside the puppet using a real cigar.

A Whole Morning's Work

Toby Philpott and Dave Baclay were given only limited means of observing Jabba's movements. "All we could see was a grainy 'security camera' shot of Jabba on tiny monitors hanging on our chests," said Philpott in "The Official Collector's Edition," "which made filming hard." They also had headsets, but that only helped so much. Philpott and Barclay's job demanded precise motor control despite their limited vision outside the puppet. Jabba's eyes were expected to look left and right as needed, and their pupils were required to expand and contract. In one scene, Jabba's puppeteers were asked to "eat" a plastic frog, although an earlier take was rejected as being too gruesome. "That was a whole morning's work," Philpott recalled in "Slimy Piece." Meanwhile, crew members dosed the puppet's body with slime between takes.

The crew's intentions to top Mos Eisley required that the stage be packed with costumed actors. "It was a very, very crowded set," said Richard Marquand in "The Making Of." "It was incredibly hot." Even worse, with all the rubber and wood available, "Jabba and the whole set was a fire hazard." A cigar and a spark in the wrong place could have brought everything up in flames. The set was also constantly draped in smoke and incense, meant to impart (per Anthony Daniels in "The Official Collector's Edition") "a kind of nightclub fog." The result was a set where everybody was hot and uncomfortable all the time, nobody could see what they were doing, and the slightest mistake could lead to injury or death.

'We Tried To Make Him So Evil'

Despite the unpleasant conditions of filming, members of the crew remained in awe of Jabba. Toby Philpott, speaking in "Slimy Piece," said that one of the most challenging feats a puppeteer could achieve was to "make big creatures where you couldn't see that it was worked by a human being." Jabba was a difficult creature to make and control, but when used correctly he evoked what Philpott referred to as "the magic of good puppetry [...] it's just alive." Richard Marquand saw Jabba as an actor independent of the people manipulating him. "Once they are in costume," he is quoted in "The Official Collector's Edition," "they are the character." Makeup artist Stuart Freeborn fondly reminisced in "The Making Of" that "We tried to make him so evil." For better or worse, they succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations.

Carrie Fisher had the last word though. After spending many long, hot, and uncomfortable hours chained near Jabba, she was asked if she wanted a stunt double to strangle Jabba to death. Per "The Making Of," she insisted that she be the one to do the deed. "I really, really want to kill him myself," she said. So she did.

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