Talking Bay 94: Star Wars Interviews

Adrienne Wilkinson  played Maris Brood in The Force Unleashed , and returned to the saga (alongside Sam Witwer) as the voice of The Daughter in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels . From getting her start as a senior in high school, to her work on Star Trek: Renegades , Ms. Wilkinson is full of really great stories and so much passion for her work. As we mentioned, definitely head to h...

Terrence Masson is an incredible visual effects artist, who worked on the Star Wars: Special Editions , The Phantom Menace and so so much more. Mr. Masson literally wrote the book on CGI (it's called " CG 101 "), worked on projects like South Park , and now is the Chair of the MFA Computer Arts Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He took me to school with his incredible insig...

James Clyne is a design supervisor and visual effects art director at Industrial Light & Magic , who has worked on the Sequel Trilogy and Solo: A Star Wars Story , as well as other incredible movies. Highlights of his incredible career include working with Steven Spielberg on Minority Report , collaborating with James Cameron on Avatar and Alita: Battle of Angel , and of course designing for JJ Ab...

Michael McCormick was one of the original puppeteers and sculptors of Salacious Crumb , Sy Snootles and Ephant Mon , who then left Return of the Jedi 's Creature Shop early into production, because of injuries. This is a short, live, interesting interview, and I believe it's his first Star Wars-related one ever. We touch on many subjects, some fun and some not-so-fun, but I hope you get a better u...

Amy Ratcliffe is the author of the recent The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge , as well as a huge inspiration to me. During our conversation, we go through her career ... from her The Clone Wars blog to, after years of hard work, officially writing for Star Wars , including Women of the Galaxy , A Jedi Mind , and Elee & Me . We also delve into the creation of her "Art of" book, and the steps requi...

Today I'm talking to one of the biggest inspirations for this show: Mick Garris . Yes, you may know Mick as one of the most influential genre writers and directors of all time, or you may know him from his incredible podcast, Post Mortem with Mick Garris  … but you may not know that his first job in film was as the receptionist at " The Star Wars Company " in 1977, where he answered phone calls an...

Today I'm talking to one of my new favorite people, Tom Spina , founder of Tom Spina Designs and Regal Robot . We talk all about his early inspirations, his experiences with the internet and growing a community, his restoring of original props at the Lucasfilm Archives ... and what is coming up for Regal Robot ( including a brand new, exclusive announcement ) The Dejarik chess sets are now on sale...

Welcome to a very special, very short May the Fourth bonus episode of Talking Bay 94 : my conversation with prolific voice actor, Jim Cummings . Mr. Cummings is the voice of characters like Winnie the Pooh , Darkwing Duck , the Tasmanian Devil , and of course ...  HONDO OHNAKA . Thank you, as always, to Zach McGinnis at Galactic Productions for setting this up: http://www.galacticproductionsevents...

Prolific Star Wars author, Alexander Freed has done so much , recently completing his Alphabet Squadron trilogy of novels. I really loved this conversation, tracing his journey from Bioware's The Old Republic to Dark Horse Comics to Star Wars Insider Short Stories to then, of course, full-length Star Wars novels. And, whether it is his Rogue One novelization or his most recent book, Victory's Pric...

Stunt woman, martial artist and actor, Lauren Mary Kim has helped bring to life such beloved characters like Ahsoka Tano ( The Clone Wars , Season 7)  and The Armorer ( The Mandalorian , Season 1) . Whether motion capture with Ray Park for The Siege of Mandalore or being on set with Jon Favreau  in The Volume for The Mandalorian , Lauren's hard work and incredible talent has made her an integral p...

Ray Hassett played Lt. Tigran Jamiro on Echo Base, in The Empire Strikes Back . Of course, he is best known for his iconic barb to Han Solo: "Your Tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker!" Truly one of the more unique interviews we've had on this show, we delve into his early improvisational work, pairing with John Ratzenberger , becoming a fire eater on the streets of London, actin...

Today is our 100th episode of Talking Bay 94 , and I'm talking to the legendary Tony McVey : model maker, sculptor and character designer, who has worked on three generations of Star Wars . The designer of Salacious Crumb and sculptor of Sy Snootles , the Rancor and Gamorrean Guards for Return of the Jedi , Mr. McVey returned to bring Jar Jar , Geonosians , and Yoda to three dimensions for the pre...

Dave Carson is an extremely talented man of many different roles thorughout the Star Wars saga: whether working as a storyboard artist, a Creature Shop sculptor, or visual effects supervisor, his work left a lasting mark on so many of the movies we love. From his start on The Empire Strikes Back to bringing the Gamorrean Guards to life in Return of the Jedi , he also has some incredible stories fr...

Don Bies came on this podcast way back on Episode #5 (!). If you haven't listened to our previous conversation, definitely give it a download first , to hear all about his incredible career … because this episode is me asking all the questions I wish I had asked him 3 years ago. Japanese Panasonic commercials (and adventures with Peter Mayhew + previous guest Niki Botelho)… the 1988 Marin County F...

Paul Davids co-wrote the Jedi Prince series of books, best known for The Glove of Darth Vader , as well as characters like Trioculus , Zorba the Hutt … and, of course, the grandchild of Emperor Palpatine . And that was 30 years ago! I grew up reading these books and so getting to talk about their creation was such a blast. (Mr. Davids sure knows how to tell a story.) It's such a fun interview. And...

The prequel renaissance continues! Richard Stride played Separatist leader Poggle the Lesser in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith , as well as numerous other roles, including Clone Troopers and … Obi-Wan Kenobi (in more scenes than you would believe). It's a great, quick inside look at what it was like to be on set while they were filming the prequels, and I hope you all enjoy it! As me...

Paul Duncan is a writer, historian, and the author of the two volumes of Taschen 's Star Wars Archives . Mr. Duncan's research, insights, and his exclusive multi-day interviews with George Lucas , himself, make these books a must-have for any Star Wars fan ... and this interview, if I do say so myself, a must-listen. Listening back on this interview while editing, I was again just so impressed (an...

Today is Talking Bay 94 … Episode 94 . So I wanted to do something special, especially after the announcement of The Book of Boba Fett series, as well as the very sad news of Jeremy Bulloch's passing last week. Over the past few years of this show, we've been able to interview a lot of cast and crew members, who have put on the Mandalorian armor, who have helped design it, or who have brought it t...

Kirk Thatcher started his career as the youngest person in the Return of the Jedi Creature Shop. Come for the stories of working with Phil Tippett , Jim Henson , David Fincher , and then stay for the very insightful discussion on the future of the Muppets and Star Wars . Head to his website, www.kirkrthatcher.com , for autographs and sketches of your favorite characters. This Friday, we'll be back...

Dan Perri is an iconic title designer, who, well, created the opening crawl of the original Star Wars . You know, the crawl. His work spans decades and directors, and I try to tackle as many as I can: from William Friedkin ( The Exorcist ) and Martin Scorcese ( Taxi Driver , Gangs of New York ) to Steven Spielberg ( Close Encounters ) and, of course, George Lucas. We dive deep into his process and...

David Dozoretz spearheaded the pre-visualization work on the Special Editions and the first two Star Wars prequels , as pre-vis effects supervisor. He is such an immense talent and has such incredible passion for his work, so it was a real honor. This is such a fun episode, a deep dive into what it was like to be working at Skywalker Ranch ... while they were literally changing how movies we being...

Chris Bartlett is not only is the official "Media C-3PO", but also has had numerous roles in these first two seasons of The Mandalorian , including bounty hunter Q9-0 and the flute-playing Kubaz from the very first episode. His story of turning his cosplaying and costume-building hobby into a profession is super inspiring, and his stories of working with people like Anthony Daniels , Carl Weathers...

Industrial Light & Magic digital artist and compositing supervisor Todd Vaziri has worked on every Star Wars movie since 2002, beginning with Attack of the Clones . Whether for the prequels (including the final duel on Mustafar ), the sequels (figuring out the feel  of a modern Star Wars movie), the spin-offs (helping to bring Tarkin and the Kessel Run to life), theme park rides (including Star To...

Today is a very special roundtable episode with three incredible Star Wars authors, all of whom contributed to the just-published From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back anthology. Joining me is Delilah S. Dawson , also the author of Phasma and Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire, John Jackson Miller , who previously wrote Kenobi and A New Dawn , and Tracy Deonn , who might be a newcomer to w...

The writer of Rogue One , Gary Whitta , returns to the show to talk all about his latest Star Wars story … Rogue Two . What follows is an in-depth dive into his piece in the just-published From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back , a further discussion on the importance of hope in Star Wars , and a look at what else he's been doing since the last time we spoke, especially Animal Talki...