How did you become a voice actor?

I’ve been pestering people with my cartoon voices ever since I was a kid. I used to try to imitate the voices that actors like Daws Butler (Snagglepuss, Yogi Bear) did. I originally came out to California to go to film school, but even back then, if anybody needed a narration or something like that, I'd do it. Then I decided it was really taking up a lot of my time, so maybe I should think about it as a career. So I moved into acting full time.

Were you excited about playing such a well-known character as Tarkin?

Absolutely. I originally went to see Star Wars as a teenager. I was familiar with Peter Cushing's work from all the Hammer horror films, and one of my favorites was Island of Terror (1966). There was a scene where he gets his hand chopped off that really freaked me out as a kid. I went to see Star Wars and I was like, Wow! This movie is great and it's got Peter Cushing in it!

When the chance came to audition to play Tarkin in The Clone Wars, I thought, They're looking for a young Peter Cushing sound-alike, and so I immediately started doing my research and turned in my audition tape.

What was your audition piece?

It was a scene from "The Citadel." I think Tarkin might have been a sergeant in the script, but it was just a page of sample dialogue from the episode.

It was really straightforward, because there wasn't much else to do except Peter Cushing, only younger. So I re-watched Island of Terror and watched the BBC television series Sherlock Holmes. Dave Filoni suggested that I watch the 1960s movies where he played Doctor Who so I got the DVDs, only to find he was already playing an old man back then!

What sort of nuances and vocal characteristics did you pick up?

Well he definitely had a cadence that's very particular to him. When he rolls his 'r's, that's something that's very Peter Cushing. I listened to a lot of dialogue just trying to pick out when he rolls his 'r's, and when he doesn't, and that up-and-down style.

What made Tarkin so tricky is that there is no performance of him as a young man; there's only the Tarkin that we know on the Death Star. So I had to create that based on what I knew of the character in A New Hope and what I could hear from Peter Cushing as a younger man, and combine the two in order to come up with the young Captain.

He still has to sound like the cold-blooded, heartless Tarkin who kills everybody on Alderaan to prove a point, but now he has to be this vibrant, younger character, too. He's still proper, he's still distinguished, but he's not quite that cold-hearted murderer yet. We're not quite sure how it gets to be that he's one of the few people that gets to order Darth Vader around: "Enough of this, release him!" And Vader listens to him, no questions asked.

Anakin and Tarkin are fractious from the start. Did you have a back-story for their relationship?

Dave Filoni is very good at giving reasons why characters interact the way they do. He talked to myself and Matt (Lanter, Anakin Skywalker) before we started recording and explained that we were exploring the relationship, because, when were first introduced to Vader in A New Hope, you can tell that people who were around him in the Death Star think he's just this creepy guy that hangs around with Tarkin. No one thinks of him as the supreme villain that we all do.

Did you know how Tarkin would look when you recorded the voice?

No. There are a lot of things that are very confidential on The Clone Wars—scripts, images and so forth—so I didn't see what he was going to look like until I got there on the day of the session. When I went into the booth, they said, "Oh, we've got a picture for you of what he's going to look like." I saw a picture, and thought, That's incredible, that's great, it's him.

This is not only a much-loved character from Star Wars, but also a much-loved actor. Did you feel a sense of pressure playing the role?

Oh, you better believe it! I think that most of the pressure just came from myself, because I wanted to do it right. I'm such an admirer of Peter Cushing, and I realize that Peter Cushing is more than an icon. Tarkin is iconic, but Peter Cushing as an actor is so revered and he did so many great things.

Of course, Peter Cushing appeared alongside Christopher Lee (the live-action Count Dooku) in many classic Hammer horror films. So the big question for a lot of Hammer fans is: Do you think Tarkin and Dooku will ever meet?

That was the first thing that went through my mind! I was sitting right next to Corey Burton, and we were both wondering whether there was a scene in here somewhere where the two of us talk! I'm sure they've thought about it. It'd be great to see these two icons of cinema meet in animation; that would be wonderful, don't you think?

If you could play another character on the show, which would it be?

I did the voice of the older Obi-Wan Kenobi in the video games. I think everyone's love of Obi-Wan is really based on that original performance by Sir Alec Guinness—how can you not love that guy? That'd be fun to do again. Admiral Ackbar would be fun to do. There's a little bit of Winston Churchill in him I think. He's a great character.

Would you like to play Tarkin again?

Oh, absolutely. They've got a long way to go from the character we just saw in "The Citadel" to the guy commanding the Death Star in Episode IV. I'd love to see how that whole relationship develops between Anakin and Tarkin. What do those two guys have to go through to get to the point where, after everything that's happened, they are working together? I'm all for it.

REBEL FRIENDS

Stephen Stanton on his earlier career in special effects working with Phil Tippett on projects such as Alien 3 (1992) and Batman Returns (1991).

Season Three of Star Wars:The Clone Wars revealed all kinds of secrets. Which was the hardest to keep?

I think the appearance of Chewbacca was the biggest deal—he is the character with the most recognition, period. He’s one of the classic characters. A character like Tarkin requires you to be a lot more in-the-know to be familiar with who he is. Chewie reaches a level closer to Vader: families, kids, and people who don’t really watch Star Wars regularly, know exactly who you are talking about.

It’s always hard when I talk to fans. They’re coming up to me all year saying, “When’s Tarkin going to be in The Clone Wars?” or “When are Wookiees going to be in The Clone Wars?” I try not to lie, but I’m looking at footage of this stuff and I can’t say, “Oh yeah, I saw it today!” I know that they’re not going to see it for another six months in some cases. I’m glad that they’re asking, though, because they are going to see it!

The first half of the season featured lots of political stories, followed by more action in the second half. Will you use that structure in future?

It wasn’t really a structure that we looked at and said, “Okay, we’re going to have stories that are more introspective and about politics.” It simply came down to the production schedule. The season started with “Clone Cadets” and “ARC Troopers” which were pretty action-packed. “Clone Cadets” really established those guys in the beginning. Then “The Academy” and “Corruption” were episodes that were actually left over from the previous season and they got lumped in there. Once we had Mandalore done, we could then do those episodes. We had some leftover stories from Season Two that got put back on the back-burner when we started doing stories like the Boba Fett arc. You want to end the season on something like Boba Fett, and what you get in the latter half of the season are the types of stories that you’re going to be seeing for a long time to come. They’re not all as dark as the Nightsisters arc, but they’re definitely in the action/adventure range, which is one of the reasons that people love Star Wars.

The episode “Heroes On Both Sides” felt very mature, particularly for an animated series...

That was the result of many attempts at doing political episodes. We learned something about our limitations and our inexperience as story-tellers doing those types of shows. We had to really work out how to do them better, because it was something that George was very keen to explore. Those ideas of banking, corruption, and politics, and how they affect the Clone Wars, were all things he was very interested in.

By the time we got to “Heroes On Both Sides” we were a lot better at it. It’s definitely my favorite episode of its kind. The key ingredient was the kind of romantic connection between Ahsoka and Lux. Ahsoka had found a peer that she respected for different reasons than why she respects Anakin. Anakin is all about being powerful and a warrior, and Lux is not that.

She respected his mind and the way he thought. It’s a much more mature way to look at things, so that helped connect that story and make it one of our stronger episodes.

Do you think there'll be any more episodes that take place in the past?

Right now, there’s nothing like that on the schedule. I suppose if we had a really good reason, it might happen, but the writers and I went to George and said that we’d really like to keep moving forward. I think George tied together what he wanted to from the first two seasons on the front half of the third season. That was another reason why we had a lot of stories that were jumping around—George wanted to resolve a couple of things once he had done Seasons One and Two.

Also, if we did go back to the past again, I think it would be very hard to go back and use the old character models. The younger-looking Ahsoka just wouldn’t render that well now that we’ve moved this far forward, so it would be a technical nightmare! That, if nothing else, will continue to push us forward, which I think is a good thing.

It was great to see Count Dooku get a lot of screen time this season...

I think the kids would say that he’s the major villain. He’s always going to be involved. Whether that’s to the level he was in the past is hard to say at this point. Well, it’s actually not hard to say—I just can’t! It was fun to see more of his character, more of him as an outright villain. Dooku is one of those characters who has more of a tragic past—because he was a Jedi and he was corrupted. I think that’s an interesting story, though I don’t think we would go back and tell it in The Clone Wars.

Villains in the Star Wars universe always seem to have a tragic past. Except one....

I don’t really know what makes Palpatine tick, and I think that’s for the best. He’s not a character where you want to say, “Oh, he had such a messed up childhood!” I once saw an interview with Ian McDiarmid where he described Palpatine as being rotten to the core from the very beginning. I’m not even sure Palpatine fits that classic mold of the fallen angel. He’s definitely a trickster. He uses a kind of logic that makes you believe it’s just a point of view—it’s not really evil, it’s just the dogmatic view of the Jedi! He appears in the form of a kindly old man, and he tricks you by making your fondest wishes seem attainable. I’m sure there are stories there that you could tell—it’s just not necessarily a story you need to know.

One of the biggest surprises of the season was the return of Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn.

That was just one of those things you hope for. When we were in the early story meetings and discussed Qui-Gon Jinn appearing, I really thought, Wow, it would be a great treat for everyone to get Liam Neeson involved in this. I knew it was going to be a small part, and frankly that really helped our chances. It was Lynne Hale [senior director of public relations at Lucasfilm] who was instrumental in making it happen. She had the relationship with Liam through the movie, and she thought it was a great idea. She also got Pernilla August (Shmi) on board. Having both of them back was just great—for us and for the fans. It’s great to see people who were involved in the films come back and reprise their characters for us.

It was amazing just talking to Qui-Gon. Liam asked me if he could add “Obi-Wan” to the beginning of his first line, because he thought it would be more personal. I said, “Yeah, it sounds great. Go ahead!” As soon as he does that you go, Wow, that really is Qui-Gon! That was fantastic and a moment I will remember.

Will we be seeing any more Force spirits in the show?

We’ll see. That would be a big give-away if I said anything! One of the things that Christian Taylor [writer of the Mortis trilogy] and I discussed was just how much of what we were getting at would actually ever be revealed to the fans. I think that one of my favorite things about the Mortis trilogy is how much it got people talking about the things that I always used to talk about as a kid: the light side of the Force, the dark side of the Force, and the nature of destiny. The message boards just lit up with comments asking, “Who is this?” “What does that mean?” “What’s the symbolic nature of this?” Christian and I decided that we had to be very careful, because if I come out and say what Qui-Gon was in that episode, then I’m giving you a definitive answer.

I think it’s more exciting that people are wondering, Was that really Qui-Gon? Does Obi-Wan believe that’s Qui-Gon? And why does he draw his lightsaber on him?

It was funny to me and the crew, because we knew that everyone would be interested in Qui-Gon, not even realizing that they were going to get a glimpse of Ahsoka as she may or may not be in the future! I would love to talk about those things at length, and yet at the same time I don’t want to rob fans of their own interpretations.

Those storylines are unlike anything ever seen in Star Wars before…

Yes and no. Yes, because it’s so symbolic, but those things are in all six films, too—they’re just disguised in different ways. When Luke goes down into the tree on Dagobah, and he sees the apparition of Vader, that’s something like we’ve never really seen in Star Wars. The same is true of the spirit of Obi-Wan appearing to Luke, and not being just a disembodied voice. Those elements are always there, but when you get caught up in The Clone Wars and the machinery and the politics of it, you might start to think that the more spiritual side has disappeared. It hasn’t, though: you just need to know where to look for it. Here, we put it right at the forefront.

Is there a lot of pressure when you bring back beloved original trilogy characters like Tarkin, Chewie, and Greedo?

There’s pressure in a lot of aspects of this job if you let it become pressure. We take it very seriously, and when we brought Chewbacca to The Clone Wars, I had Peter Mayhew come up to Skywalker Ranch; I wanted the crew to meet him. I thought that you can’t begin to understand how to make Chewbacca move, or who Chewbacca is, without meeting Peter Mayhew, knowing him a little bit, and seeing what he’s like.

With Tarkin, there are certain mannerisms that he has, and Stephen Stanton, who portrays him in The Clone Wars, did an amazing job of capturing what a younger Tarkin might be like. I don’t sit and worry about it, because I have George Lucas there to tell me when things are on the right track or not. So when you’re working directly with George, and when he’s looking at everything you do, that’s the audience you have to please because he’s the guy that created it all. When he’s sitting in the theater and he’s watching our Chewbacca and he says, “Well, I could tell when I looked at it that it was Chewbacca,” that’s really the validation that I think the crew hopes for.

A lot of my job is knowing when to avoid things. It would be hugely challenging to include a young Han Solo, for example. I’ve said it before: that’s not something I’m really interested in seeing. We were just talking the other day in editorial—watching Artoo and Threepio—saying, “I can’t believe that we’re telling their story.” I never dreamed that one day I’d be there saying, “Well, Artoo should go over there and do this.” We have a lot of fun with it, but I don’t take it lightly because I know the fans don’t want me to—and I don’t either.

How are things progressing with Season Four?

They’re going great. I can definitely say that we’ll start off with a bang, with a opener that’s even bigger than last season’s. There are going to be battles like we’ve never seen before on The Clone Wars. We’re going to environments and battling in places that have previously only been speculated on in the Star Wars universe. There will also be a classic character or two returning—but of course I’m not going to say who! To me, the whole season is like the back half of Season Three, but now you’re going to have all 22 episodes geared in that direction. It’s just high-flying adventure fun, and this many years into it, I think we’ve gotten progressively better at it under George’s tutelage. We’re ready to go, and it’s going to be a heck of a ride next year!

What TV shows do you watch in your free time?

My wife and I love Doctor Who. We’re really into the David Tennant episodes, though Christopher Eccleston [the previous actor to play the Doctor] was great as well. I just watched the new Doctor, Matt Smith. He’s very different, but also very good. None of the Doctors have been the same, which is kind of compelling. It’s a fantastic series.

David Tennant is a Star Wars fan. You could get him to do a voiceover on The Clone Wars.

Were you a Star Wars fan when you were growing up?

I really wasn't. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my Star Wars. It really struck some major chords with me. Star Wars was such a huge part of my daily life [Katie's dad is Star Wars saga creator George Lucas] that I wanted to escape it! I am just now able to embrace the series for what it is, and I'm learning to love it.

What is it about [Buffy creator] Joss Whedon's work that appeals to you?

I always wanted to be a writer, but Joss' Buffy episode, "The Body" made me passionate about being a screenwriter. Part of good screen-writing is knowing your audience, and the other part is knowing yourself, and being tuned into the human experience. You have to strike chords, and delve into certain painful truths. Joss does that flawlessly. "The Body" encapsulates everything I love about writing and the screenwriting medium. It's drool-worthy! It's the perfect blend of tragedy, heartbreak, vampires, and comedy. It's an honest portrait of humanity, despite the vampires.

How do you think you've changed as a writer since you penned your first script, Season One's "Jedi Crash?"

I've become more sure of myself. When I wrote "Jedi Crash," I wasn't sure that screenwriting was something I wanted to do. Now, I'm dedicated to it. I have so many stories to tell. Many people won't like it or get it, but some will. I'm excited to write for them.

Were you familiar with the Nightsisters from Star Wars fiction, or is it better to write without too much foreknowledge?

I had honestly never heard of the Nightsisters before, but I had become increasingly interested in the idea of an all-female sect in the Star Wars universe. The series' Expanded Universe expert, Gary Scheppke, filled in the basics about the Nightsisters for us, and we went from there.

What is the biggest challenge when you're writing an episode of The Clone Wars? And how do you overcome it?

I think the hardest thing is knowing how expansive the fan base is, and how you could potentially upset millions of people if you make one wrong move! But I've learned to let that unease go for the sake of the story. I just do the best that I can and hope that people enjoy it.

What makes Asajj Ventress such a fascinating character?

I've really fallen for Ventress and, in the Nightsisters trilogy, the audience gets to learn a lot about her history. She's an extremely complicated character. She's a cold-hearted harpy, but she has good reason to be—and now she's displaying a much more independent side of herself. Ventress is nobody's pawn anymore. She finally owns herself. I grew up on Buffy and Tank Girl, so writing strong females is second nature to me. I listened to a lot of early Hole and The Distillers albums to inspire me while writing these stories; I really wanted to tap into that visceral female rage, and Courtney Love's snarl certainly tears that right out of you!

Is Savage Opress a fun character to write?

Savage is a lot like Frankenstein's creation. He's a monster, but you get brief glimpses of a real heart beneath the surface. He's a complicated character—I don't think he would have turned to the dark side without the manipulation of the witches. They use him.

Do you enjoy working in the science fiction genre?