Mark Dodson interview | Salacious Crumb | Star Wars

Mark Dodson

Salacious Crumb (Return of the Jedi), Marauders, Ewoks, Teek (Ewoks: The Battle for Endor)

Interview: August 2010

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How did you get started in the voice acting business?

There’s a long answer to that! I’ll try to keep it short. I went out to Los Angeles right after high school in 1978 and I wanted to work into film as a director/producer. I know that I couldn’t afford to go to college as my family didn’t have the ability to do that, so I thought I should start as a production assistant and work my way up. That was in the late 70’s when it was easier to do that than it is today. I went to Los Angeles and had various jobs to pay the bills. There, I met a woman called Rita Bozyk who worked for Lucasfilm, doing the toys. We ended up together and she was told that she was going to be transferred to Marin County. I moved with her there. They were looking for carpenters to work at the Kerner Company in San Rafael where they were building the sound studio Sprockets. I took the job, working as a laborer. Then, Ben Burtt was looking for a voice for a creature. He wanted to know if someone had a raccoon, as he wanted to record raccoon chirps. Rita and I happened to have a baby raccoon called Mabel as a pet. Ben came to our house to record, but the raccoon didn’t make the sounds he wanted. We asked him to leave the equipment so we could record it when Mabel would make the sound. I had done some voices since I was a kid and thought why shouldn’t I try and see if Ben can use it. I did some impersonations, recorded them, returned the equipment to Ben and said I did some voices. A week or so later he asked me if I wanted to try out for a creature. I went in and did some lines. I didn’t know what it was for. I didn’t get the part, but some of the raccoon chirps were used. My wife Rita asked me what the creature I tried out for was. I said I had to say some kids name “phone home” and some weird sounds. When we went to the screening of E.T. all of a sudden E.T. says “Elliott” and I said to Rita “That’s the part I tried out for!” Elliott was the kid’s name I couldn’t remember. Months later I let Ben know that if he had other creatures I’d love to have another shot. He called me later that he had some voices he was looking for, I went to the studio I had worked on as a laborer and I was given a script for the part of Admiral Ackbar. I was so nervous and green…and I didn’t do a good job. I told this to Ben and asked him if I could loosen up for a minute. I walked away from the mic and started cackling and screaming to get rid of the nerves. Ben said he might be able to use me for one of the creatures. Ben directed me and the voice I had to do was between a bird a rat and a monkey who just saw something funny. I did the laughing and then I had to do some screaming as if I was chased by a giant. He said it was great and he’d use it. I got a check and weeks later I went to the screening of Return of the Jedi. Then, Salacious Crumb comes on and started cackling. I told my wife “That’s me!” “What do you mean?” she said. I said that it was the voice I ended up doing. After the screening there was a nice lunch with cast and crew. I went up to Ben and asked him if I was that little guy next to Jabba. He said I was and asked if I liked it and if I heard some of the other stuff. I said that I thought my sounds were used for some of the Ewoks and he told me I was right. So, that’s how I got started.

Did you have voice acting role models? People like Clarence Nash, Mel Blanc or others?

When I was in fifth grade we had to do a speech on how to do something and I did a speech on how to do impersonations. I loved voices. I knew who Mel Blanc was. As a kid I was always into impersonations, fun voices, crazy voices, evil voices. My biggest role model would be Paul Frees. At the age of 9, in 1970, I went to Disneyland and we went to the Haunted Mansion. I remember asking a crewmember who the voice was and I was told it was Paul Frees. I thought it was the greatest voice I ever heard. I found out he was also the voice of Boris Badenov from Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Pillsbury Doughboy, many of the voices from Fractured Fairytales and the Disney rides Pirates of the Caribbean and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. I listen to his styles and try to put my own spin on them. I can’t sound like him, but it’s something to shoot for. The emotions in his voice are what I try to get close to.

On IMDB.com and your own site you are credited for Battle For Endor; a Star Wars spin-off movie that featured the Ewoks. Which characters did you voice for this movie?

For Battle for Endor I voiced the Marauders, some of the Ewoks and Teek. This came because Ian Bryce was a producer on this movie. Ian and I were friends and he knew I had done stuff for Return of the Jedi and he called me and asked if I wanted to do this. I said yes of course. I like doing the crazy characters, like Teek.

Can you share some memories regarding working on the Star Wars projects you did?

Besides working at the Kerner Company I also worked as a carpenter on the Skywalker Ranch. Because of my wife I was able to go to a lot of the screenings. My best memories are working at the Ranch, it was fun and amazing. They were building beautiful Victorian places and I was an apprentice carpenter on that. My time in the studio for the voices wasn’t long. My greatest memories are the comraderie, the feeling of family that George Lucas created. You really felt being a part of the family. It was the greatest place to work. We were treated well, paid well, fed well, the parties were great, the fourth of July party at the Ranch and the Christmas party in San Francisco…One of the most fun things I remember was the Christmas party in the year of Return of the Jedi, Ian Bryce saw to it I was at a table with Anthony Daniels. When we were sitting there, ready to eat, Ian said “Mark, I want you to meet Tony”. I said “Mr. Daniels, nice to meet you”. Ian said “This is Mark Dodson, the voice of Salacious Crumb”. Tony looked at me and with a voice of disgust, said “Oh, I hated you”. I was like ‘why does he say that?’ Tony went on: “You took my eyeball out and I hated that!” Of course, he was joking and we laughed about it. So, having C-3PO say he hated me is one of the best memories. Being an evil character you want people to hate you. We laughed, had a nice dinner, and danced. Of course, I didn’t dance with Tony! (laughs).

You are featured in a Star Wars movie and a Star Wars spin-off movie. How come you didn’t get a part in the latest Star Wars animation series: Clone Wars?

Well, if you were the voice director I probably would have by now. I took time away from voice over to work in the radio business. It was steadier work. I started a radio company that lasted about 15 years. As I got away from it I didn’t make myself that available, people didn’t know how to get a hold of me.
I was running the company, writing comedy, producing, doing everything. It was steady work and I like that. I’m not someone who likes to sit and wait for the next job for too long. I met Matt Wood and talked with him a few months ago. I told him I’m out here again and back to do voice work and if he needs me for Clone Wars I’d love to be a part of it. So who knows? Matt, if you see this, remember me!

How do you look back at the things you did for Star Wars and Ewoks?

I look back at it as some of the best times of my life, with a lot of affection. It was my start doing voiceovers. I met great people, worked with George Lucas, I ended up being a part of something I think is going to live forever and I’m humbled by it. I can’t believe I’m a part of it. Quite honestly, if it wasn’t for Star Wars, Ben Burtt and George Lucas I’d be another voiceover guy nobody really hears of.

After Return of the Jedi came Gremlins and Gremlins 2. Can you tell how you got cast for these movies? I understand it was Steven Spielberg who wanted you?

Well yes. Chris Walas and Tony McVey were the monster makers that made Salacious Crumb and they were brought in by Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and Mike Finell to do Gremlins. When they were working on the movie they had a meeting. I’m told that it was Steven who asked who the voice of Salacious Crumb was. Chris, who was a friend, said he knew and it was me. They asked if he knew how to get in touch with me. Salacious kind of looked like the gremlins and had the style of voice they wanted for Gremlins. Chris had my number and I had told him at one point that it would be great if they made a movie were Salacious Crumbs planet was involved. Chris called me and said we needed to get together. He reminded me of what I had said and told me there was a planet with many Salacious Crumbs and it was called Earth. He asked me if I was interested, which I was. I then went to Mark Mangini’s studio and did some wild lines and was told me they would use my voice. I also heard Howie Mandel and Frank Welker were going to be involved. I was a big fan of Frank, so I was like ‘Wow, I’m going to work with these guys!’ That was exciting. So, Salacious led to Gremlins.

What do you recall from your time working on Gremlins and Gremlins 2? I bet it must have been fun working with Howie Mandel and Frank Welker.

It was a lot of fun and exciting. Any time you’re working on a Spielberg movie you know it’s gonna be good. We watched a rough cut of the movie at Warner Bros and the next day we started recording, It were three 6 hour days of doing about 10 seconds at a time. It was done improve; here’s a scene, here’s a gremlin, what does he sound like, and go! We did it ‘to picture’. Gremlins 2 was even more fun because Howie, Frank, Kirk Thatcher and I were in the studio at the same time. I got to be many gremlins and mogwai including Daffy, Lenny and George. Daffy was a whole lot of fun to do because he’s so crazy. I modeled him after Daffy Duck; they pitched up his voice a bit. The recording took about a week, 6 hours a day of screaming, cackling, laughing and being crazy.

Which character you voiced is your favorite?

This may be the politically correct answer but it’s true: they’re all favorites for different reasons. Salacious Crumb is my favorite because of the Star Wars fans; they keep him alive. It was my first thing that got some notoriety. Daffy was the most fun because he has a big part in the movie and he’s a fun character. Last year I did a voice for the Silverwood theme Park, for their Halloween park which becomes Scarywood. I was the ghost host there and did a whole lot of voices for that. I got to do the Paul Frees style of ghost host. I modeled it after what Paul did for the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

Suppose you had the chance to pick any character you’d like to voice. Which character would you choose, and why?

That is a hard question. I’d love to do some of the Transformer voices. I guess if I could be anyone wouldn’t Darth Vader be the one you want to be? But who could do it better than James Earl Jones? I love the dark characters, so pretty much any dark character is my favorite.

What are you currently up to? Do you have new projects?

Yes, I’m on my second season of a show for the Outdoor channel called Bow Madness. I’m the narrator for that. I’m also going to do another hunting show called Natural Born Killers. That can be seen on the Pursuit channel. Also, I’m one of the promo voices for NBC Universal Sports, I do commercials all the time and I audition almost every day. You know, in this business you wake up and don’t think you’ll work that day. Then you get a call and all of a sudden there you are. I’m hoping to get such a call for Clone Wars one day!

(editors note: 5 years after this interview Mark got the call from Lucasfilm…and was hired to do voice work for The Force Awakens)

Tim Rose interview | Admiral Ackbar | Star Wars

Tim Rose

Admiral Ackbar (Return of the Jedi), Salacious Crumb, Sy Snootles (Return of the Jedi)

Interview: September 2005

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How and when did you start puppeteering and eventually ended up with Jim Henson and Star Wars?

I discovered puppetry while I was attending University studying acting and directing. My first paid professional performance was for the student union. I had built a walk-around bag booth and performed The true story of Prince George and the Dragon. I was paid the princely sum of $15 for the show. If you don’t believe me I still have the receipt I was given with my first check.
When I graduated I continued to perform my show at fairgrounds, shopping malls and in parks all across the north east of America. If you would like to know the story line of my show then watch the movie, Dragon Heart written by Ben Johnson. I got to talk to him when he came to Henson’s to have a test Dragon built for the movie. Although he couldn’t admit having seen my show for obvious financial reasons, he did admit that his parents had taken him as a child to some of the fairs I had performed my puppet show at. I was just happy he had liked it so much.
When I first started work at Jim Henson’s I had to take a pay cut. I had been earning more money from people throwing money into my hat, but I wanted to learn how you become a millionaire doing puppets. My job was to design what would eventually be called animatronics for the Muppet movies.
Jim Henson and George Lucas were both very interested in what each other were doing. New things were being developed all the time and they had a friendly rivalry going. I was loaned by Hensons to Lucasfilm to do Return of the Jedi.

How did you get appointed to puppeteer Sy Snootles, Salacious Crumb and Admiral Ackbar?

I was already working in Phil Tippets workshop at ILM designing animatronics for the characters of Jedi. I knew that when pre-production was finished I would be going to England to perform Sy Snootles and Salacious Crumb. We were never given copies of the script for reasons of secrecy, so I had no idea who Admiral Ackbar was. I had done a lot of the design work for his close-up version and when I asked Phil who he was he said, “Oh, he’s just another background character that appears later in the movie”. So I asked if I could perform him, as I was familiar with his controls, and Phil said OK. It was as simple as that.

On the set of Return of the Jedi there was an incident involving you, Salacious Crumb, a loudspeaker and Harrison Ford. Can you tell us more about this?

No, I could get sued. The truth doesn’t matter in lawsuits.
It was the day we were filming the scene where Harrison gets unfrozen from the carbon. It was very important to the film because up to this point no one knew if his character had lived or died. Tensions were running high on set that day. All the animatronic characters had been in full costume for over four hours already while the Director of Photography got the lighting just right. Finally it was time to “turn over” on the shot.
Poor Harrison, covered in goo, comes sliding out of the carbon block. Carrie comes running in and has to plant a big wet kiss on his slime covered face. The curtains open on Jabba and his court and we all scream out, “We saw you kissing, we saw you kissing.” Cut.
Harrison being the professional that he is, went to the director and pointed out that our screaming would cause problems in the sound edit, and he was right.
So Richard Marquand came over to the tired sweating aliens and told us all to do “take two” the same as before, but do it without making a noise. We did the second take without making a sound. It was now time for Tea break, but all the aliens had to stay in place, as it would take too long to redress us. The sound man had gone for tea but had forgotten to turn off my microphone which was connected to a speaker out in the main acting area.
It was during the break that Mr. Marquand came over and sat next to Salacious Crumb. He liked talking to him although he very rarely would talk directly to me. He couldn’t as I was buried under the set with my arm stuck up though a hole in the floor.
He asked Salacious what he thought of the last take and Salacious replied, “The take went well, but this Harrison guy, is he going to talk during our laugh? Because it’s really putting me off.” My words went booming out over the floor on the speaker and the whole crew began to laugh at the cheekiness of the puppet. Everyone that is except for Harrison, who left the set and refused to return until, “The Asshole who said that was fired off the production”.
An A.D. came under the set to tell me that they were going to have to fire me. I pleaded with him to let me apologize, but he said Mr. Ford was furious and only my head would do. So, I asked who was going to do my puppet for the rest of the filming. He said, “Well you are, but if anyone asks you, you have to tell them that you are the new guy!”
On the call sheets for the rest of the filming it always said, ‘Salacious Crumb – The New Guy’.

When puppeteering Salacious Crumb, you had to interact with Carrie Fisher.
How did she react to Salacious and you off-camera?

Well, let me start by saying that I was a young man at the time, about 25 years old. Carrie wasn’t much older and with that costume she wore in Jabba’s palace it wasn’t hard to get the blood flowing. Now I am shy by nature, but Salacious definitely was not. I used to use the puppet to try and make her laugh during the long waits between shots. I’d sometimes do an imitation of Gomez and Morticia, out of the Addams Family TV show. Salacious would declare his undying love, while slowly nibbling his way up her thigh. Ah, fond memories……..

Richard Marquand was your director on Return of the Jedi. What are your memories regarding working with him and George Lucas?

Richard was a very patient director. You had to be, with so many special effects to incorporate into each shot. He was from the “Old School” of British directors. They ran things like a military campaign. There was only one man in charge and his word was God. Not like today where the director has three producers and five accountants continually trying to knock him off the pedestal.
Richard had a wonderful dry sense of humor. When egos bloated or tempers flared, Richard would have a comment to slice though the problem and get us all marching in the same direction again.
George Lucas is a very quiet man. You have to strain just to hear what he is saying to you sometimes. He came from the world of the editing suite where there aren’t many people around for days on end. You always felt as if he found it painful to be out in public. Having said that, he didn’t need to make much noise. By the time we were doing Jedi, his reputation came into the room ahead of him. You always knew when George was on set even if you hadn’t seen him yet. There was a subtle shift in the vibe on the floor. He ran the production like an editor would. He took ideas and suggestions from everybody and then used his editors’ eye to know which bits to keep and which bits to throw on the floor.

There were a lot of puppeteers involved with Return of the Jedi, especially regarding the Jabba’s Palace scenes.

Yes, we had a combination of puppeteers and mine artists. People who were interested in physical movement. Most of us had already worked together on Jim Henson’s film, The Dark Crystal so it was more like a class reunion.

How did actors like Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels react to all of you?

Harrison stayed in his own space most of the time.
Carrie loved to flirt, and liked hanging out with the crew.
Mark used to do his own stop action figures, so he was very interested in seeing and “playing” with all the animatronic characters.
Anthony Daniels was always locked in his costume which made interaction difficult. But I think he prefers things that way.

And how were they on the set? Were they seen as ‘big stars’ by you?

There is always an excitement about meeting the ‘big stars’ for the first time. But that quickly wears off, and they become one of the guys. I think that is why they put themselves through the film making process over and over. It’s not the money, though that helps. It’s the only place left where they are treated like normal people, and they crave what they have lost more than anything else.

In the Classic Creatures documentary we see you puppeteer Salacious Crumb and Admiral Ackbar. We can even see you acting out scenes in which your voice is being used.
For the movie, they used the voices of Mark Dodson (Salacious Crumb) and Erik Bauersfeld (Admiral Ackbar).
How do you feel about the fact your voice wasn’t used?

When I was performing the characters I was stuck inside a foam head or stuffed under a set so the quality of the sound was never good enough to be used in the final edit. I always knew they would have to be overdubbed, and that they weren’t going to pay for me to fly back all the way from England to do a couple of hours work.
Having worked for Muppets I was used to having up to six people working together to create one character. I love watching a crew work seamlessly to bring an inanimate object to life. It is the character that is important, not my ego. Besides, I was only 25, try my best I would not have the gravel in my voice that an older man would have for Ackbars performance.

You did 3 characters in Star Wars: Sy Snootles, Salacious Crumb and Admiral Ackbar. I’d like to hear from you: which one was the hardest to do?

Sy Snootles was the hardest to do. I designed her as a reverse string marionette which I operated with Mike Quinn. Instead of hanging the figure on strings and pulling her off the ground, the weight was supported on elastic from above and then pulled down so you could get a much more solid positive movement than a classic marionette would give. When Mike and I got the timing just right she was magical, when we didn’t she would fly out of control and loose all sense of life.
They never gave us enough takes to get it right when the pressure was on, and so she was the first of my characters to be replaced by CG. If anyone has a copy that still has the original performance on it I would love to have a copy as I never bought one at the time. After all I had already seen the movie!

Which one did you love to do the most when the movie was filmed?

Oh come on, a young man with his own spaceship and crew after growing up watching Star Wars in the cinema? You have a guess.

And which one is your favorite now, 23 years later.

Thank you for reminding me about the 23 years. Salacious Crumb is my alter ego. He was getting me in trouble back then and he still sneaks out when I’m not looking to get me in trouble now.

Return to Oz, in which you designed and puppeteered Tik-Tok, was intended to be a huge blockbuster, but the studio wasn’t that co-operative. They even tried to get rid of director Walter Murch, but he decided to make a call, which eventually led to three legendary directors visiting the set. Can you tell us about this event and how you experienced all this?

I can tell from the question you know the answer already, but a good story is always worth telling again.
(Editors note: Tim told me this story back in 2005)
Three weeks before the start of shooting the Disney Corp got cold feet and cut the budget in half. We were now in a mad scramble to save what would have been a fantastic film. Walter was working 24/7 to rewrite the script to fit the new budget. Everyone else was working 24/7 to design and build sets that had always been location shoots up to that point.
We started filming on which ever set had been built, totally out of sequence with the script, which makes continuity a nightmare. Well, what a surprise? The shoot went behind schedule.
Disney decided in their wisdom, that Walter, who had written the script and spent ten years trying to get his project off the ground was the reason that the project was behind schedule. It had to be him, “PRODUCERS ARE NEVER WRONG”, or so they insist that we believe if we want to work.
But you can’t just fire a director, you have to undermine him and drive him insane so you can prove incompetence.
Walter was told that he would only be allowed to continue if he could find a co-director that Disney could approve. They sat back and rubbed their hands together. They had him now, anyone he put up they would shoot down, and then bring in one of their old faithful directors who never made anything anyone can remember, but boy were they good at sticking to a schedule.
Walter was well respected in the business for his editing, and had studied at UCLA with a few other people who were changing things in Hollywood as well. So he called his old college buddies for help. They happened to be Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas. They were all involved in their own projects at the time, but agreed to come over and see what they could do about the situation.
So we ended up with all three directors sitting on the side of the set while we were filming the Gump’s escape scene from Mombi’s tower. They hadn’t all been together since school and they were like kids again.
Comments like, “Jesus Christ Walter, are you really going to turn over on that setup? Maybe Disney was right after all!!” Followed by raucous laughter was the level that things tended to stay at.
After a week they all met with the Disney producers and handed in their verdict which went something like this.
As far as they could see the root of the problem lay not in the director’s incompetence, but in the fact that he was spending so much time trying to protect him from the Disney producers he had no time left to do the job they had hired him to do in the first place. So they backed off leaving one producer on set just to keep an eye on things. He turned out to be a very good trumpet player, and thought he knew the secret of how to turn film to gold. He had a couple of films out at the time that were grossing well at the box office.
I haven’t heard his name around in a long time now, but Walter is still very much in demand.

The 70’s and especially the 80’s were the glory days of puppeteering.
Since CGI has made its entrance the art of puppeteering is disappearing. What is your view on this and why would puppeteering be better than CGI according to you?

CGI has begun to use puppeteers in motion capture suits to help get a more realistic movement to the characters but the big problem remains. As with stop action animation from so long ago, they can not interact directly with the environment they are meant to be in.
As animatronics evolved the characters were getting more and more complex. All the controls had to be hidden as the shots were all “in camera”. The figures were beginning to loose their life under the weight of their own mechanics.
With the advent of computers it is now very easy to hide the way an animatronic character is done so they could be made much cheaper than CGI and have better interaction on set. They could be, but producers are too busy trying to out do each other and have the “next big thing” in their movies to ever see the simple truth.

What do you regard as your best puppet-performance ever? And why?

I am very proud of my work on Howard the Duck. Although Tad Chenovski and I were only brought in three weeks before the start of filming to “fix things,” and it was too late to do anything about the horrendous design of the duck, the amount of movement that we got out of the animatronics was very good.
Here was an animatronic character that was operating in the real world and staring in the movie. You must remember this was before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the other big Animatronic films that were to follow.

You have done a lot of conventions over the years. What is the biggest kick you get meeting the fans?

Well actually I don’t do many conventions at all. I only started going to them about six years ago, and then only when I feel like a little mini break from the day job.
I was worried that the fans were going to be a bit weird. But I have met so many lovely people who have helped to restore my faith in humanity. The husband with a long suffering wife at his side as he collects autographs, the couples who first met because of their mutual interest in Star Wars, and the young Jedi so nervous to meet a ‘Star’. The world is full of really beautiful people, don’t believe everything you see in the news.

And what is the nicest thing a fan has ever done for you?

The prides of my Star Wars collection are two action figures that were made for me by fans. One is me with Salacious Crumb on my arm and the other is Admiral Ackbar with his head under his arm and my head on the figure as if I had just come out of costume. They took a lot of time to do and I am not worthy.

What is your general feeling towards signing photos and memorabilia?

I have never enjoyed being treated like a star, I much prefer just to be one of the boys, but when I hand back the signed photo or action figure the person looks genuinely happy and if I helped them to feel that way then I did something good.

And what is the craziest/weirdest item you have ever signed?

At Celebration III in Indianapolis, a very drunk young lady came up to me in the hotel bar and insisted I sign her ……….! Well, enough said.

You are one of the few Star Wars autograph guests who “prints” your name, instead of a cursive signature. Is there a reason for this?

There are two reasons. The first is I am left handed and my cursive writing is like chicken scratches. The second is, I hate when people show me a photo they have paid for and it is impossible to tell who signed it.