By Julian Shaw
Temuera Morrison is in full “Jake The Muss” mode. He’s covered in dust and grime, cell-phone tucked into his ear, snorting grumpily as he stalks around the get-away lodge he is building on 2 ½ acres overlooking Lake Rotorua in the heartland of New Zealand. Morrison’s mind is in a different galaxy to Star Wars, and because his radar is down, some remarkably honest remarks seem to be leaking out. Initially frightening, interviewing Temuera soon becomes a thrilling prospect, as he disregards the protocol of blandly talking his new movie up and instead lays out real feelings from the stomach, sometimes punctuated by guttural grunts as he inspects the disappointing work some of his builders and plasterers have wrought.
Is Temuera a fan of Star Wars: Episodes I and II? Not a man to maintain false airs, there is a grizzly silence and then a few extremely faltering stabs at an answer. “Well… ah… I’m not really into the… I’m not a Star Wars geek, if you know what I mean. I’ve just sort of come across it and then ended up in it.”
Referring to the Star Wars fan conventions he jets around the world to visit – where thousands of fans flock to get the autograph of bad boy Jango Fett – Temuera notes: “You get to go to all these celebrations and all these fans know more about you than you do… They know the history and all that – where the characters came from and what planet that they’re from…I don’t know anything.” Temuera’s jagged candour still seems pretty unusual.
Did Temuera endeavor to plug these holes in knowledge in order to tackle his bounty hunter character (whose many clones feature in the third film) in Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith? “What time’s lunch? That was my research. You just have to go with the flow, put the costume on… Look right. See what George wants. Do it.” Temuera would sometimes cut the ham a wee bit too solidly in the blue screen maze at Sydney’s Fox Studios, where there is no sense of relativity. “What they would say to me is: ‘Pull it back a bit, too much, too much.’ And I’d say ‘Okay, I’ll pull it back a bit.’”
From Indianapolis to London to Orlando to Brisbane, Temuera is in hot demand at Star Wars conventions. As he puts it in a few salt-of-the-earth words, “you spend a weekend away, sign a few autographs, come home again. You just get a bit of sun and then you’re off again. It’s kind of nice,” he says, his tone lightening a little, “just to pop along and get to the ones in America. They’re full on and they’re freaky, because sometimes the whole family turns up all dressed like Star Wars. They come dressed like you with tattoos of you on their body.”
Is this perceived toughness the same reason that George Lucas wanted him for the role of Jango Fett – to make him the galaxy’s hard man? “I dunno. You’ll have to ask George,” he says. “I think it was my good looks,” he says, taking a litre of piss.
An endlessly debated figure in Star Wars mythology, the enigma that is Jango Fett (the father of the infamous villain Boba Fett) has fascinated, perplexed and sparked endless debates amongst Star Wars aficionados. Not that Temuera has noticed, mind you. “I don’t think too deeply, otherwise you go crazy. You drive yourself nuts. I just generally find out what time’s lunch. Do a few variations until you find the right mode that you and the director connect with. And then you go and have lunch.”
Temuera’s attitude might just be the antidote to the sense of frigid reverence that has strangled moments of the prequels. Indeed, the defining element of the original Star Wars films was the palpable sense of fun, and in particular Harrison Ford’s goofy ad libbing. Nowadays, by Morrison’s own admission, the territory is much more sacrosanct. “I think they didn’t know what they were making the first time anyway. They were quite surprised by the success of it all too. George got shut down a number of times and the first one was made for only like 10 million dollars. The actors were working for bugger all. Now it’s turned into such a billion-dollar industry.” Contrary to the impression that the big man might be a bit of a joyless poobah, Temuera insists, “George Lucas likes to have a bit of fun on set; he is pretty relaxed. You can try whatever you like generally, though he likes you to stick to the script that he’s worked on for two years! I don’t think he likes to improvise too much.”
When the conversation drifts back to the first two prequels, a capacious silence once again descends on our conversation. There is a chill radiating through the phone that you can feel on your skin. “Uhhhhhh… ohhh… uh…” he blunders. “I, uh, didn’t really, yeah… haven’t really… I sort of a… that love story got to me. That love story stuff in my episode of the Clones, it kind of killed me, bro’… I’d rather watch a kung fu movie.”
If you liked this story, click here for our in-depth look at the Sydney, Australia shoot of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith.
