The first Star Wars film that started it all, starred The Curse of Frankenstein star Peter Cushing in the role of Grand Moff Tarkin, a name the late actor wasn’t too fond of. But it wasn’t the name of his Star Wars counterpart that irked him the most, as following his huge shoe size, Cushing wasn’t comfortably cruising in his military boots.
This pushed him to request George Lucas to resolve the issue by shooting him from the waist up, a decision that would come to haunt the creators of Rogue One.
Peter Cushing Continued the Star Wars Shoot in Slippers
With his feet being 12 inches, the wardrobe crew in the first Star Wars failed to get the right boots made for Peter Cushing and the available ones were extremely uncomfortable for the actor.
This led to a very unpleasant first-day shoot for him, and the next day, Cushing requested George Lucas to shoot him from the waist up.
The late star recalled:
They hadn’t got time to have my boots made for me, which is usually the case because of my large feet, so I had to do with a pair out of stock. There I was on the first day of shooting, [as] this very cross, unpleasant gentleman, Grand Moff Tarkin, stomping around and it was agony, it really was. So the next day, I say to dear George Lucas, the director, ‘George, I’m not asking for close-ups, but do you think you could shoot me from the waist up from now on?’
Not only did the filmmaker grant it, but after ditching the uncomfortable military boots, he introduced a pair of slippers for Cushing to walk around the set.
So for the rest of the film, I stomped around looking extremely angry and very cross with that dear little Carrie Fisher as Grand Moff Tarkin in carpet slippers.
As for the name, Grand Moff Tarkin, which remained unaltered, the actor joked the name sounded like it came out of a clothes closet.
No Footage of Peter Cushing’s Feet Bothered Rogue One’s VFX Crew
While Cushing’s appearance as Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars film was his lone trip to the galaxy far, far away, 2016’s Rogue One brought back the late actor with the aid of CGI. Although the morality behind this move from Disney remains up for debate, resurrecting Moff Tarkin through CGI was a painful job for the VFX crew, following the lack of his feet shots from the first film.
In order to resolve this issue, the artists would take reference from Cushing’s other horror works, and despite a few hiccups, for better or worse, they were successful in recreating Moff’s presence.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and Rogue One are available to stream on Disney Plus.
