Get your own
Free Home Page
Willow Ufgood
Warwick Davis
by Kim Howard Johnson & Adam Pirani
Warwick Davis has dealt with borrowed babies, mechanical possums and disappearing pigs, but says it has all been worth it to bring Willow to life.
The 3' 4" Davis, discovered and cast by George Lucas as Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi, has found the fantasy world of Willow to be as fascinating as a galaxy far, far away.
Winning the lead role in this epic adventure was easier said than done, according to the 18-year-old star. Although Lucas wanted him as Willow from the beginning, director Ron Howard initially thought Davis was too young for such a major part.
"George took to the background, and let Ron go all over the country, looking for someone else," Davis says, "but it kept coming back to me each time. They were narrowing it down each time, but I also auditioned for children's roles in the film, because Willow was originally going to be 35 or 40."
Davis says he and co-star Val (Top Gun) Kilmer had three weeks for rehearsals, an unusually long period to discuss the script, practice scenes, and learn how to hold babies. While shooting at Elstree Studios, the unit would send runners down to the local maternity hospital to hire infants for the long shots.
"They were going to shoot all the baby close-ups at the end, so I had to use a mechanical, remote-controlled model," Davis explains. "We couldn't use it for close-ups, but it looked good, and wriggled around. It was about 13 pounds, about as heavy as an actual baby, so in some scenes, one can actually see me break into a cold sweat because of the weight. At one point, they found they were using the mechanical baby far too much, so they stepped up the use of real ones."
Willow's legerdemain--which starts out as stage magic, but is eventually developed into real sorcery--transforms Fin Raziel back into her human form, and also saves the day at other times. To learn some real-life sleight-of-hand, the unit hired a real magician, David Berglass, to teach Davis some genuine stage tricks.
"I learned the disappearing pig, how to make the baby levitate, and doing the fire through my arm," Davis explains, "all for the magic show at the film's beginning. Of course, there were tricks throughout the story, and I did a version of the vanishing pig at the end. My character, Willow, is an amateur magician who is finally taught real magic, as in changing creatures into other things."
As if possums and mechanical babies weren't enough, Willow features several sequences with pigs, beginning with a scene in the a little farmyard. "I had to plow a field with a pig," Davis complains. "It worked, but the pig ran off a few times, mad! I think it was called Rambo."
In another sequence, in Wales, the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) turns the entire army into pigs. "We had about 100 real pigs from local farms--they just had to stand around, looking like guards that had turned into pigs. We had some of our extras in with them, wearing makeup and pig noses and ears, going through the in-between stages. But, while we were filming, some of the real pigs were trying to mate--the audience was cracking up during the rushes! It was so funny--pigs kept escaping, and so we would have men around the outside of the pen with boards, both to stop them from running off, and to whack them if they started coupling!"
Director Ron Howard was a dream to work with, according to Davis, not only because he is a former actor, but because he is so open to suggestions. "I had an idea that I hope they're going to use. At one scene's end, I have a line that says 'Things can't get any worse than this;' and as the next scene begins, it's pouring rain, and we're walking along all depressed.
"They were going to shoot me coming around the corner, but I suggested that we start with a close shot of my feet splashing in the mud, and just tilt up to my face. Ron said, 'Yes, let's do it!' and they made a big pile of mud and sloshed it all over. I hope they can keep it in."
Although there are plenty of action sequences (including the Nockmaar battle--filmed in rain and an inch of mud), the character of Willow tends to be more peaceful than his colleagues.
"They didn't want Willow to be really violent. He does fight against the trolls but we never see him kill anyone. He bashes a few guards around, and though Val Kilmer's Madmartigan goes around killing people, they wanted Willow to be a good person--which I don't mind.
"Willow is really an amateur magician who is failing, but trying hard. He's also a farmer, but not that good at farming, either--the landlord is always after him about the rent. As Ron would say," as Davis affects director Howard's American accent, " 'He's an ordinary kind of guy, just somebody you would love to know.' "
Davis' ordinary guy has more than his share of action sequences, including Willow and Madmartigan's escape from one camp by climbing onto a shield, and sledding down a mountain.
"It was very fun to do , but scary," Davis remarks. "We had a sled made out of a shield, with a camera fixed onto the front, facing me, with nobody operating it--they just switched it on. They had a skier sledding backwards down and steering it, and being our brakes--otherwise, I would have crashed into everyone.
"I was holding a false baby, and Val was behind me, when we started going down this shallow hill, with the camera rolling. I though, 'This isn't so bad,' when suddenly the hill drops away, rocks on either side, and we were shooting down! We did that 12 times, and I was a nervous wreck at the end. The audience is going to see real fear in my face in those shots."
Another of Davis' scenes began a bit more quietly, if not more seriously. Willow and Madmartigan are split up, and meet at a tavern frequented by the tall people, the Daikinis. "I'm leaning against a bit of wood, and fall through into a room where there's Val Kilmer with a woman. She looks out and sees her husband coming back, so Val dresses up like a woman, with lipstick, and two apples in his top.
"Val ended up wearing the woman's clothes for weeks, because we go on a chase sequence in a wagon then, while he's still dressed as a woman," Davis says, smiling. "He's riding in a wagon, wearing a pink dress, even through the snow in New Zealand. It was hilarious!
"The wagon chase was directed by Mickey Moore, who did the chases in Raiders of the Lost Ark. They began work while I was shooting interiors of Willow's house. Val was out there at Epping Forest with a stunt guy for me. When I arrived we shot it on a really low trailer, and they have the camera where the horses would be. I got battered about with them just filming Val and I, but then, we had to do it with real horses, with a blind driver laying down underneath the load of sacks in the back.
"I don't like horses anyway, and it was scary being pulled by them along the bumpy road, with the camera driving along the road next to us, trying to follow the action. Nothing went really seriously wrong, I was just thrown back over the seat, rolling around in the back," Davis explains.
"When the wagon hits a log, the back wheels come off. I had to fall down and just hang on, and Val falls off the back. I did some of those scenes myself, and it was quite exciting. I had a couple of people doing my stunts, though there's really just one main stuntman--he's a little person hoping to get on the stunt register, because there aren't actually any stunt little people in England. It fun to do my own action, like the wagon scenes, but they won't let me do all of it!"
Although the story of Willow is over for now, Davis says he is ready, willing and able should the call arise for another adventure. "Actually they were thinking about making this one into Willow II. They had so much material, they were going, 'Shall we make a sequel of it?' "
On thing seems certain, if the call goes out, Warwick Davis will be standing by, ready to make more pigs disappear.
Johnson, Kim Howard, & Adam Pirani. "Willow Ufgood: Warwick Davis." The Official Willow Movie Magazine. Ed. David McDonnell. New York: Jacobs, 1988. 16-18.
Get your own
Free Home Page