Savage’s Dragon*Con Wookiee costume (above),
built by Mark Poutenis. Savage dressed as a myth-busting Neo (right), jumping off a building.
“In these situations
I remind myself what
I’m doing is universal.
I’m enjoying myself.”
narrower!” And there are different philosophies.
For example, the R2-D2 builders club now has
sufficient detail to make a perfect R2-D2 — literally better than anything that ILM has: all aluminum, all remote control, everything. And there’s
a conflict in the club over how dirty and beat-up
to make your R2-D2. The real thing is pretty
crunchy. It’s a piece of junk that’s been reglued
together many times on set. But some guys build
these pristine R2-D2s, even though it’s never
been seen in the movies like that.
After ILM, I stopped working in special effects
and started working for a toy company. The
owner turned out to be Michael Joaquin Grey,
who’s an amazing sculptor; he recently had a
show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
One time I told Michael that although I wasn’t
doing sculpture, I never wanted to say, “I used to
do sculpture.” And Michael said, “Come on, you’re
making your own R2-D2. What do you call that?”
PS: I was just going to ask that. I mean, art is
called art because people agree to call it that.
They agree that it has special value, and it’s
relevant to the culture. And that’s exactly what
happens in the replica prop community.
AS: Yes, but that’s more blue-collar. It would have
to be classified as outsider art. One of Michael’s
37 Make:
