This week will see the largest gathering of 'Star Wars' fans every at the 30th Anniversary convention being held in Los Angeles, May 24th to 29th.
After 30 years of 'Star Wars' fans and autograph hunters trying to track down the actor who played the Stormtrooper in the famous 'Jedi Mind Trick' scene in the original 'Star Wars' with Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill, actor, Anthony Forrest will be attending 'Star Wars’ Celebration IV to sign autographs and meet the fans.
As Forrest puts it, "The film’s story is steeped in mythology; it is quite something to be a part of a project that has become an indelible piece of our mythology." After 30 years of keeping a low profile, now a writer and director himself, Forrest felt it was time to share his unique story of how he came to play what many consider, the most famous of Stormtroopers in the 'Star Wars' films.
Forrest, who was originally cast by George Lucas as the character 'The Fixer' which now exists in the much debated 'Lost Scenes', was unexpectedly asked as a favor by George Lucas to don the Stormtrooper uniform and perform the scene.
“It was one of those moments that as an actor you are totally unrehearsed for, but love the spontaneity of.”
Never receiving a screen credit for the role, there was always an issue as to who had actually been the actor in the Stormtrooper uniform. Fortunately for Forrest, a behind-the-scenes still photograph shows Anthony Forrest without the Stormtrooper helmet, opposite Mark Hamill and Alec Guinness in the X-34 Landspeeder as they prepare to film the ‘Jedi Mind Trick’ scene in Tunisia.
Hardcore ‘Star Wars’ fans have lobbied George Lucas for years to have ‘the Lost Scenes’ from the first film included in a version of ‘A New Hope, but as Forrest sees it, “No matter what I did as ‘The Fixer’, will always be overshadowed by the Stormtrooper and getting Mind Warped by Obi-Wan Kenobi, that was pretty cool.”
