(CBR) All signs point to the new “Star Wars” movies leaning more on the original trilogy”s use of practical effects, and veering away from the CG-heaviness of the prequels. And you can thank one person for that: Simon Pegg”s daughter.
The actor explained the story during an appearance on Sirius XM”s Unmasked (via The Interrobang), saying he has become known on set as “the guy whose daughter saved 'Star Wars.'”
It all started when Pegg sat down his then 3-year-old daughter to watch “A New Hope,” followed swiftly by “The Empire Strikes Back.” It was when Yoda first arrived that the big moment occurred:
“When he appears, I saw her sort of sit up. She looked at the screen and then she looked at me and then she looked back at the screen and she watched it for a bit. And then she said – ‘Daddy, he”s real!” And I kind of like burst out crying. I was like – ‘You”re my child!” And it”s because he”s there. He”s there interacting with Mark Hamill. Even if he was CG, we”d still know he wasn”t really there because he”s a sort of a little long-eared alien. But the fact that it was a puppet who”s existing in the same space as Mark Hamill, talking to him, it made her believe in him in a way that CG would never do.”
Pegg said he related the story to his colleague and friend J.J. Abrams, who turned around and used that it to convince top-level executives at Disney and Lucasfilm “as a good argument for using puppets and masks and that kind of thing” on the new “Star Wars” films.
When Pegg finally got the chance to visit the “Star Wars” set (and possibly shoot a role in the movie, depending on who you believe), the actor was approached by some of the puppeteers, who identified him as “the guy whose daughter saved 'Star Wars'”
“I know that J.J. had always planned to do that,” Pegg said of the new film”s use of practical effects, “but it was a nice little validation of that impulse, I think, to have a child of that age say that.”
“Star Wars: Episode VII” arrives December 18, 2015.