You might not have seen Gerald Home's face in RETURN OF THE JEDI, but you surely have seen the masks that covered it. Remember the fellow that was later named Tessek by the Expanded Universe gurus? Us old school fans know him as "Squid Head." Well, that was Gerald Home. Remember the Mon Calamari dudes standing behind Admiral Ackbar everywhere he went? Gerald Home was Admiral Ackbar's main man. Nowadays, he keeps busy with commercials and conventions, but Gerald took a few minutes to answer a few questions for TBSWU readers. Don't forget to check out his site at http://www.geraldhome.com/.

At what age did you know you wanted to act and how long did it take before you were confident enough to do it on a regular basis?

What an interesting question - no one has ever asked me this before. The answer is quite simple: at around the age of 9, I became aware of two towering female performers who had such an effect on me that I just knew that when I grew up, I wanted to be like them! More precisely, I wanted to perform like them and to have the effect on others that they had on me. These two women were Lucille Ball and Edith Piaf.

THE LUCY SHOW was an enormous success on British TV and I think Lucy was a comedic genius. She still is - many people now regard her as a Great Clown. There are many long scenes in her shows where she doesn't say a word - her characterization and comedy are purely visual and non-verbal. I still love that kind of work. There is too much noise in this world, too much talk, too many words; stillness, silence, body movement are greatly undervalued. I often think of Lucy, especially when I'm playing a comedy role.

The great French singer Edith Piaf was a huge success in the US - in fact, she lived there for 11 months straight at one stage, playing all around the States. Curiously, she never performed in Britain, so I only knew her from the radio. Her two hits when I was a child were MILORD and NON JE NE REGRETTE RIEN. I had no idea then what she was singing about, because she was singing in French, but even so, she touched my soul. Her voice and emotions transcended language. I knew then that I wanted to somehow do that one day too. I still want to do it! The hunger has never left me. I'm not a morbid person, nor am I into revering the dead, but I do pop into the Pere Lachaise cemetary in Paris when I'm there and put some flowers on Piaf's grave as my little way of saluting her.

Maybe it seems strange that these two vastly different performers had such an effect on me - Lucy with her comedy and Piaf with her emotional intensity - but they're not so different really. Both based their performances on truth. I think that's what really grabbed the child/me about them - the utter honestly there was in their art.

But even though I knew I wanted to be an actor as I grew up, I couldn't tell anyone. Coming from a small town in Ireland, so shy that I blushed when anyone spoke to me (I still do sometimes!) how could I say I wanted to be an actor? They'd have thought I was nuts.

So after university, I became a school teacher. Now let me tell you, if you've never been in front of a class of 32 unruly teenage students who don't want to be there, you don't know that it's a case of sink or swim - it's them or you! Either they survive, or you do. So that's where I learned to be confident; how to take control of a large group of people - in a classroom. That's what my 3 years as a teacher gave me - confidence.

I was living in Australia by then and the theatre scene in Melbourne was taking off, so I started acting while I was teaching. That was how I found out I could actually act. But I wanted some training, so I found a drama school in London that seemed right for me. I went there from Australia, auditioned for it, and was accepted. I left in 1977 and have been acting ever since, still living in London.

Miming is a challenge. The obvious trick is to convey emotion without talking. Tell us another challenge about miming most people overlook.

Yes, you've got it in one: mime is acting without words. But more than that - it's acting with the body. That's what most people don't realize. Mime artists have to be very fit and in total control of their bodies, and that takes a lot of exercising and work.

So how did you find yourself on the set of RETURN OF THE JEDI?

After drama school, I was in a mime show that toured the UK and Europe. Also touring in his own show at that time was a mime teacher/director called Desmond Jones. We met, he remembered me and my work, and he contacted me nearly 5 years later when he was asked to gather together a lot of performers to audition to play various characters in a certain upcoming film called... REVENGE OF THE JEDI! So a bunch of us were seen and we were whittled down to 9 finalists. We were all people from mime or movement backgrounds who could bring non-speaking characters to life just by using our bodies. People often ask me why I'm not credited in the movie - but I am credited, under Mime Artists (after Ewoks) near the very end of the credits.

It was decided that I would play "Squid Face." Yes, he was more often called that than "Squid Head." My body shape and languid movements suited this character and costume very well so I could see why they cast me in this part.

I knew I would be in scenes with this new character called Jabba the Hutt, and that we would be heavily featured in these scenes. But that's not how things turned out. By the time all the crew came on set, plus the other actors, production people and technicians, Jawas, extras, as well as the lights and camera equipment, well, we 9 just got lost and disappeared into the background. This was not how it was supposed to be, so we were all very disappointed when we saw the finished film, and it looked like we were background artists. It still hurts a bit that Squid Head's best work was barely seen!

Were you up for other roles? Did you try on any other costumes?

I was told at the time of casting that after the Jabba scenes were finished, I'd be playing a Mon Calamari on a different sound stage. I didn't know anything about this character. As there were several others staying on too, playing other Mon Calamari, we were given whatever costumes and heads fitted, whereas Squid Head's costume and head were customized to fit me perfectly.

When did you find out you'd be playing Ackbar's Aide and how many other aide's were there? Did you know any of them?

A guy called Stuart Ziff was part of the Phil Tippett creature shop team responsible for us. Stuart is credited as Chief Articulation Engineer in the film. In fact, he worked on all the Original Trilogy. Well, I got to know him on set, and he knew that I was an actor primarily. So when he was at a production meeting one day and it was announced that they needed an actor to try some additional scenes as a speaking Mon Calamari, he suggested me for the part. And so it was that I went home that night with 2 pages of additional scenes to learn.

I wasn't surprised that these scenes weren't used - they were an interesting experiment, but my Mon Calamari mouth didn't move well since it wasn't designed for articulation - so it must have looked very strange. I think of these as "unused scenes" rather than "deleted scenes."

But I'm still in a lot of Mon Cal scenes, especially during the Battle of Endor where I'm dashing around maniacally behind Ackbar and in the Rebel Briefing Room scenes. I'm the tall Mon Cal behind Caroline Blakiston.

It surprises me that a lot of people don't realize there were 2 different types of Mon Calamari costumes. There was the kind I wore, and then the "camouflage" version. You can see the difference in the photo of me behind Mon Mothma - the smaller people to my left and right are wearing 'camouflage' costumes. These were worn by small actors, and, I remember, the female extra bedside me.

All the Mon Cals in the Bridge/Battle of Endor scenes wear the simple Mon Cal costume like mine. From these scenes, I remember Tim Dry and Sean Crawford. I think Andy Cunningham might have been there too. I remember Simon Williamson was in the Briefing Room scenes.

If you look at my 2 call sheets, only one person is named as an Officer - me! Nowadays all Mon Calamari are called Mon Calamari Officer, but at the time there was only one. Also on the call sheets, you'll see "camouflaged" Calamari called for.

By the way, the yellow-colored call sheet means it was a Second Unit call.

How much time did you notice George Lucas on the set? Was Richard Marquand there the whole time?

George Lucas wasn't on the set much at all; I only saw him on the Jabba sets a couple of times. Richard Marquand was on all the sets, but George Lucas directed some of the Second Unit blue screen Battle of Endor shots because only he knew what would eventually be in those scenes. You'll find confirmation of this on page 141 of the excellent little paperback from 1983 - The Making of Return of the Jedi.

What can you tell me about any scenes or shots you saw photographed that didn't make it into the film besides your Aide scenes and lines covered on the site?

How long were you on set total?

I was on the set for almost 5 weeks.

How much interaction did you have with the main cast? What were they like?

We didn't have much interaction with the main cast. Mark Hamill was the most sociable: he asked many questions about all the characters, the costumes and so on. He was eager to learn and was very friendly. Carrie Fisher was more reticent, keeping herself to herself, but not in an unfriendly way, just more guarded and quiet. Billy Dee Williams was the only one who had an entourage of friends on set with him. And what can I say about the megastar himself, Harrison Ford? He was polite, then concentrated, focused and intense, just the way an actor should be on set.

Did you ever bump into people you met on JEDI on other film or TV sets?

I knew some people before ROTJ and kept in touch with them after it, Simon Williamson and Ailsa Berk for example. I came across Tim Rose at various parties and gatherings, and bumped into Jeremy Bulloch a few times too.

Who convinced you to start touring conventions? How do you like it?

I was tracked down, like so many people are these days, because of the internet. An English fan called Graham Miles contacted me via my agent and asked if I'd like to do a convention. I didn't even know what a convention was then! But he suggested me for my first one, and it snowballed from there.

I love doing conventions! I'm still very much a "new face" though and there are lots of places I haven't been to yet. I adore meeting the fans and am still amazed that there's still this interest in all things Star Wars.

Do you have any souvenirs from the shoot? If so, what?

My contract stated that I wasn't allowed to keep any souvenirs, or take any photos. I cheated a little bit. I didn't take photos of Squid Head, but I did take photos of his costume bag! All the actors/characters had such a bag in the costume department containing the small bits of the costume and actor details written on the front plus a Polaroid of the actor in the costume. I still have that photo somewhere. So the only souvenirs I kept were several call sheets and my 2 pages of dialogue.

What's the funniest thing that happened on the set?

Keeping my glasses on under my Squid Head head was a big mistake! I did that the day the Rancor Pit was left open and I was afraid of falling into it. The trouble is, my glasses misted up very quickly and I couldn't see a thing! And I couldn't take them off because I was trussed up as Squid Head! It wasn't funny at the time though.

What do you do to keep busy these days? Anything on the horizon?

I'm still very much a working actor and do whatever comes along. I did a commercial a little while ago for Dutch TV - it was also on the internet for a month. I recently did a theatre tour and my agent and I have been badgering the DOCTOR WHO people at the BBC to get me into that. There hasn't been anything suitable in it yet, but you never know. The funny thing is, though I've been around as an actor for nearly 30 years and have done a ton or work I still feel that the best is yet to come!

How's that for positivity?!

Thanks to Gerald Home for agreeing to talk to me. Please check out his site at http://www.gerald home.com for lots more info.

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