Peter Mayhew Quotations

With my mask, I controlled all of the mouth movements with my own mouth.

It was amazing that during rehearsals, without any of the costume on, the character was there complete. It just happened. Half the time, I didn't know I was doing it.

With Star Wars fans, there's so much enthusiasm, and it's a completely different generation now.

After my own for instance, my favourite is Princess Leia.

I really enjoyed the last scene at the Ewok celebration after the battle.

I think that Star Wars revolutionized not only sci-fi movies, but also the entire industry in the way that things are done.

After a while, the character sort of took over.

I think the main thing was that the character couldn't speak in regular language, so he had to be mimed.

Doing the Muppet Show you forget about conventional filming.

They asked if I was interested in a role as a large alien in a movie.

This has been the best thing that ever happened to me.

When you've got eight or nine or ten cables running around with someone trying to operate them, it's too much.

I think by that time I knew where Chewie was going, and he left me to do what was called for, because the character had been well established. You know, it was like putting on a second skin by that time.

When you consider that you're a character that doesn't speak, but you've still got to react to the other actors, you've got to make a noise of some kind.

A whole new generation is looking at the videos, and going to the video shop and buying the re-release of the complete trilogy, which you can buy at a reasonable price.

I think the things I wanted answered have been answered by people in the know that we can't talk about, so I'm perfectly happy with how Chewie came to be where he is and what is going on in Episode III.

But, apart from that, there was very little on underneath the suit.

George has only got to ring me. His imagination is so wonderful, I'd do any character he might create.

George Lucas puts those types of characters in for the kids. Same with Jar Jar.

I can go out in public without being recognized. If I want to be recognized in public, it will happen.

Richard Marquand, on Jedi, was very much an actor's director.

Never having played Chess before, it was most interesting to be playing the game with no pieces in front of me. But I still knew how to stroke my hair when I won.

When we first put the costume on, you could see the human shape underneath, so the padding gave Chewie his rounded shape, really.

When I made the decision to live permanent in the States, ... it was just a natural progression that was part of the process.

I got married to a Texan lady. That more or less decided it,

Whatever people say about America, it is still one of the most wonderful countries in the world, despite the politics, religion and everything else that goes on.

I was in the costume department having the costume made the next day, and we were shooting two weeks later when the main unit returned from Tunisia.

You have to do obviously some research, but the questions are easy enough if you think about them,

Well it was a natural thing being married to a Texan. I wanted to become an American because Texas is an integral part of America, its lifestyle.

It's absolutely wonderful, ... It's one of the good days in my life.

Then I put on the new suit they'd made and it felt wonderful to climb back into it and feel the character coming back out again.

It's literally as big as when Star Wars came out,

It's going to be rather nice, ... Center stage for once in my life.

I know that I have the best of both worlds with the dual nationality,

You've got to be on the toes, ... You've got to know what you're talking about.