Evil Has A New Name

Evil Has a New Name - Ray Park Embodies the Dark Side as Episode I Villain Darth Maul
by Scott Chernoff

Until now, there has been only one to bear the name Darth...

Since Star Wars first exploded out of the screen in 1977, we have known Darth Vader as the singular embodiment of the mysterious Sith Lords, the powerful warriors who wield the dark side of the Force with brutal precision and unwavering loyalty to the highest of all Sith Lords, the evil Emperor himself. To put it simply, there was only one Darth casting an imposing shadow over the Star Wars universe, and there sure as heck didn't seem to be room for any more.

But now, that's all about to change. Every bit as frightening and ruthless as the Darth Vader who stormed onto the Rebel Blockade Runner in a cloud of smoke and a hail of blaster fire in A New Hope, and - like Vader - bearing his own uniquely sinister visage, Darth Maul leaps into Episode I with both ends of his double-sided lightsaber blazing, ferociously focused on no less that the fall of the Jedi and the destruction of the Republic itself.

Yet lurking behind the striking make-up and sweeping black cloak is an unassuming first-time actor who now finds himself at the precipice preceding the flight from his relatively anonymous status as an international martial arts champion, soaring instead toward what is likely to be global recognition and a permanent place in the prequel pantheon. Just 24 and living in London, where he moved as a toddler from his native Scotland, Ray Park is currently experiencing the calm before the storm.

"All my life, I've always wanted to be in films," Park told the Insider. "My background is in martial arts and gymnastics, and before Star Wars I was a stunt double. I think I'm pretty lucky, and I want to be ready for everything. I really want to take off, and hopefully I might have a future in the film industry."

Well, he'll certainly have the exposure. In Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, Park is featured prominently as the punishingly relentless Darth Maul, one of the most formidable foes the Jedi have yet faced. The role requires not only a menacing and memorable screen presence but also the near-balletic fighting skills of a martial arts expert, both of which Park posseses. He holds a second degree black belt and has racked up competition championships and medals in Great Britain for his Wu Shu style, in addition to his fourth place finish in the 1995 world championships.

"Wu Shu just means 'martial arts' in Chinese," Park explained, "but in the west it's a style. It's a nice sort of art to look at. It's a non-contact sport, very much like gymnastics - you're on the mat and you do a sequence of moves. But it's also very explosive and has lots of leaps and somersaults and high kicks."

He took up the sport when he was just seven years old, inspired in part by his father's idolization of martial arts icon Bruce Lee, a Wu Shu master. "My dad always wanted to do martial arts, but he didn't want to do Karate or Tae Kwon Do, because his hero was Bruce Lee and he liked the way he moved. I always wanted to fly when I was a kid and do all those high kicks like in the movies. When we moved down to London, I saw this guy in the park doing all these kicks and punches and somersaults, and I said to my dad, 'I want to do that.'"

Lee was an early influence, but there are others. "I was really into Bruce Lee movies when I was younger," Park said. "I watched all his movies, and all of Jackie Chan's movies. I like Jackie Chan - I used to have all his movies, still do really. I also like all the Jet Li films. It was all the Wu Shu style."

But it wasn't only the glamour of the movies that attracted Park to the Wu Shu. "It was a way of life for me when I was younger," he said, noting the depth of the philosophy behind the art. "It kept me focused and gave me something to aim for, and just to be part of something. I believed in it, the way of it. I was going to China or Malaysia all the time and learning Chinese, learning the culture and meeting new people."

Park learned other skills as well, such as kick-boxing, Tae Kwon Do, and even "a bit" of fire-breathing, but he devoted most of his energy to Wu Shu, the style that would ultimately lead him directly into Star Wars: Episode I. "There are so many years of training," he explained. "The more you train, the longer it takes to get a certain degree. You don't just get it every year - it could be every five or every 10, so you have to study very hard."

But through all the studies, Park was always aiming for the silver screen. "I really liked doing the martial arts, and I was really into movies all my life," he continued. "But I never actually got the time to go to drama school, because I was training eight to nine hours a day. I had to make it in a different way. I took the sport seriously, so I thought I'd proceed in that and maybe it will take me on to other things. I thought, if I just get to a high level and try to win as many championships as I can, I might get discovered. That was my only thought, option, or guide. I knew that one day, I'd get into the movies."

His vision was clear, and right on the money. All that training and competing began to pay off when Park landed a gig as a stunt double in the martial-arts laden sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, causing him to drop out of a world championship competition in 1996. "I was in Asia for four months training with my master in my martial arts," he recalled, but the movie "took priority." His introduction to filmmaking couldn't have come too soon, as only a month after finishing his first movie, Park received a fateful call from Episode I Stunt Coordinator Nick Gillard.

"I went down to see Nick, and he said he's got this fight he has to rehearse and show George Lucas," Park said, "but he said it could also help me because they're looking for someone to play Darth Maul, like a stunt person, an action person. So for a week we rehearsed this fight that Nick Gillard wrote, and on the last day we shot it and then he showed it to George. From there I had a call from Rick McCallum, and he said I had the job."

Park said he tried not to dwell on his own rather intense Star Wars fandom. "Star Wars was the first movie I saw when I came to London," he remembered. "I had all the figures and the Millenium Falcon. My younger brother as into Star Wars was well, so both of us were really into Star Wars. But when I was on the Star Wars set, I tried not to think about that or get excited. I just kept my feet on the ground and got on with it.

"But when I would talk to my parents, they would remind me of what I was like when I was younger. I wanted to be Han Solo, and my brother wanted to be Luke. Han Solo seemed to be more getting in there, and he got the girl and everything. Maybe it's because I was older than my brother and Han was older than Luke as well, so my brother and I sort of portrayed that."

They also staged many at-home lightsaber battles. "I quite liked all the lightsaber fights, and all the mystical stuff behind it. I had one when I was younger, but it was one of the old ones with the big bulb and a big plastic tube. When you turned it on, it didn't make a noise or anything. I always wished I had the real one from the movies."

For Episode I, that wish was granted, as Park discovered that as Darth Maul, he would have the honor of debuting the new - and deadly - double-ended lightsaber. "I could spin it around and give them moves they wouldn't expect," Park said of his weapon. "I had more options and could be more creative. Nick Gillard was fabulous," Park said. "I had never met him before, but he let me be creative in my moves."

Nevertheless, choreographing, rehearsing and perfecting the elaborate fight sequences of The Phantom Menace was hard, grueling work. "It was like training every day," he said. "We were there from the morning to late evening, working on different stunts or acrobatic moves, just getting them so they're 100 percent, so you can do it with your eyes closed, so you knew the moves inside-out. And the timing of it - you knew where the other person was going to be, you could read them."

Park said the extensive rehearsal helped him develop a strong rapport with cinematic sparring partners Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. "The last fight that Ewan and I did together was really fiery," Park said. "We both really went for it. He fed off me and I fed off him. The energy we had was really good, and also with Liam."

But while Park's years of Wu Shu training guaranteed his confidence in pulling off the spectacular fight scenes, the novice actor, who hadn't acted since a high school play when he was 15, couldn't help but feel a little intimidated when it came to playing scenes in such accomplished and acclaimed company.

"I did question myself a bit, because it was my first time," Park said. "But I had confidence in myself, so I just thought I'd give it a go, and if I did it wrong then someone will tell me. I just thought, 'Well, I haven't got much acting experience, so I have to go on my ability.' The whole thing was a challenge, but it wasn't something that was out of my reach. I knew that if I'd ever done something before, I could work on it. I knew I could do it."

Still, Park confessed it took him a few days to get completely into character. "At first I wasn't sure how the character was supposed to be played," he said, "but George seemed so cool about everything that he made me more confident. The more we did it, the more I felt I knew how the character was supposed to be, and no one questioned it. And the more I did it, the more buzz I got out of playing the character. I was Darth Maul!"

Park said he knew early on that playing Darth Maul effectively was indeed within his reach: "Rick said to me, 'Ray, I really want you to play this character as a bad guy, and you've got to be mean and nasty, and I want you to scare everyone - no remorse. You have to be cool.' Then from looking at the storyboards and reading the script, I thought, 'Yeah, this is my character. I can do this."

The actor, who couldn't come across as more mild-mannered and soft-spoken when he's not playing a remorseless Sith Lord, said his confidence was aided by his martial arts training. "It has to do with the Wu Shu style," he said. "There's a certain arrogance to the style as well, because you have to be very focused and strong. Your eyes have to be piercing."

He added, "I think it's also from spending most of my time in the bathroom, acting out different things in the mirror, when I was younger - I think most kids do that."

In addition, Park freely admits he got a powerful assist from Creature Effects Supervisor Nick Dudman and Chief Make-Up Artist Paul Engelen, who together crafted a look separate from Darth Vader but equally original, Said Park, "People on the set would get scared when I had the lenses in my eyes and the make-up, and my teeth. To me it was nothing - I was just looking at me in the mirror with the make-up on, but to everyone else, you could see it in their faces. They couldn't look at me in the eye when I was speaking to them."

Like many Star Wars actors before him, Park had to learn to adjust to spending the morning in the make-up chair. "At first," he said, "it was about two and a half hours, and they were still playing about with getting everything right. But it got down to about an hour and a half - an hour and a quarter to get all of the make-up on my face, and then taking time for contact lenses and all the final things before going down to the set. I would be there first thing in the morning and I'd be tired, and because Paul is really good, I'd just fall asleep without realizing it. It was so soothing with the make-up and music playing in the morning, that it'd just send me to sleep. But it was easy for him when I was asleep in the chair."

Park also shaved his head for the role, a sacrifice he was happy to make for the sake of the production. But the actor said that when he showed up for the final pick-up shots with his full head of hair, some of his colleagues didn't realize it was him. "It was like the family was united," he recalled, "and it was really nice to see everyone. But everyone was used to seeing me with no hair, and my hair had grown back, so a lot of people didn't recognize me."

But Park was still happy to be on a set he called, "a kid's dream. My parents came down to the set to watch me," he continued," and my dad was like a big kid again. He couldn't believe it. He likes Star Wars as well - we had the original videos when they first came out. We used to watch them all the time, like it was part of the household, really. I have to thank my dad, because he gave me the guidance to do certain things."

Park said the whole Star Wars experience has only re-enforced his dedication to building a successful career as an actor. "It's all made me think I really want to get into acting more, do more movies, and use my martial arts more," he said. "I don't see myself playing Hamlet or anything like that - I see it more on the action side, using my skills. But I'm open to anything. I just want to get a bit more training and experience in acting, and be ready for anything that comes along. I never want to get so big-headed about anything or have my head up in the clouds. I want to keep my feet firm and just get on with everything."

But that's going to be difficult when Episode I is released on May 21 in North America. Having grown up with Star Wars, Park knows the power of what's about to be unleashed. "Sometimes I don't think about it," he said. "I just try to be normal about everything. But it's people around me who say, 'Wow, man, you're in Star Wars!' My cousin can't wait. He's about seven and he's really into Star Wars big time. He's got all the figures, so I promised him I'll get him one of my character," he said, adding, as if still trying the name on for size, "Darth Maul."

So for now Park is laying low. He's utilized his Wu Shu skills in a few British television commercialsm was scheduled to play a pirate in an Edinburgh, Scotland, stage production of Peter Pan over December and January, and plans to head for China before the Episode I premiere, "just to keep my skills sharp."

But for the most part, he's biding his time until the premiere of the movie that has already changed his life - and musing on the memories of his whirlwind entrance to the Star Wars universe. Some of his favorite recollections involve just hanging out on the set with friends he made on the Episode I set, like Fight Arranger Andreas Petrides and Floor Runner Nathan Holmes.

"Even when we were resting between shots, we'd be talking about it," Park said. "Andreas is really into Star Wars and the mystical, spiritual side of it. We were on the same level, really, and we would say, "What would it be like if you could do this with the lightsaber,' or, 'Imagine in Episode II or III if you could do this or that.' It was a bit like kids. We would be dreaming, fantasizing."

But for Ray Park, the fantasizing about Star Wars will soon give way to a new reality. Ray Park plays Darth Maul, and the Force will be with him. Always.

Copyright 1999 Star Wars Insider. All rights reserved.