Sam Witwer was a special guest at the Dallas Sci-fi Expo 2013 and a favorite amongst the fans. He has done many notable projects, but most recently is known as Aidan on Being Human and the voice of Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Naturally, during his Q&A session, the topic of Disney acquiring the rights to Star Wars and planning to make more films came up. There’s a lot of fear about what will happen to the beloved franchise, to which Witwer made some excellent points:
First gut reaction is fear, because Star Wars were independent movies. You don’t think of them that way because of the large scale but they were independent movies…with budgets of 200 million dollars! The moment you hear it’s no longer going to be an independent thing, you feel fear. But let’s think about this: the two choices were he [George Lucas] just locks up the rights and throws away the key, and we never get Star Wars again. Clone Wars is proving you can do all kinds of different stories, and what? He’s just going to let it die? It doesn’t make sense, so who do you leave it to? Disney has a reputation for keeping certain franchises and characters special. If they treat Star Wars like that, we’re in good shape, but if they get reckless with it we’re in trouble. George Lucas isn’t going to be around forever, and this is his way of acknowledging that. This was an act of generosity on his part. I’m sure there’s a part of him that says this is my thing and that’s that. But that’s not what he decided to do: “No I think it’s everyone’s thing and I’m going to give it to the world so that everyone can enjoy it.” I think that’s cool.
When you put it like that, it does make sense- this was probably the best way to keep the franchise alive after Lucas is gone. Witwer then talked about how he thinks J.J. Abrams was a great choice as director of the new films, saying, “If you say nothing else about the new Star Trek movie, it’s that they were excited about it. I’m thinking he’s going to bring the same type of feel to Star Wars, and that’s great.” He went on to discuss how dangerous it is when people don’t have passion for their projects, that it shows through on the screen and the fans also notice. Abrams will hopefully be very excited in getting this opportunity and we as fans will be able to feel it. Change is scary but necessary so I’m keeping an open, optimistic attitude about the whole thing.
Photo by Katrina Hill
Switching gears to Being Human. It’s running its third season right now on Syfy, and Witwer has been pleased as punch with how the show has turned out. When asked who was the biggest prankster on set he answered with a hearty “all of us.” He delved further into the subject saying they were pranksters and hit it off from the minute they sat down to audition together: “There was something in my hair that made me look like I had a grey hair and the first thing Huntington says to me in front of the producers is ‘You going grey?’ Oh thanks for saying that in front of the producers, dick! I was like, ‘Who are you?’ They were just laughing their asses off the whole time. Then Meagan Rath sat down with us after that and was like ‘hi guys’ just like in the script. We all reflected how it was in the script.”
One question I’ve always wondered, which was finally asked at the Q&A, is how Sam Witwer and Sam Huntington handle having the same name on set? Witwer explained that he’s Sam, and Huntington is Sammy and joked, “When they call him Sam, I get angry and beat someone up.”
Witwer is a funny, laid-back guy who seems like he has fun with life. He gave very thoughtful answers to even the smallest questions prompting the moderator and con organizer, Mark Walters (Bigfanboy.com) to jokingly tell him to hurry it up so they can get through more questions. Tune into Being Human Mondays at 9/8c on Syfy.
This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!
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