Don’t let the fact that Paul Blake is a sweet and thoughtful 71-year-old Englishman fool you. He is enmeshed in one of the biggest cover ups in sci-fi film history: the question of just who shot first, Han or Greedo.
You may remember that in George Lucas’s original 1977 Star Wars film, outlaw Han Solo shoots the bounty hunter Greedo to escape capture. When Lucas decided to alter a later release of the film to show Greedo firing his weapon first, fans protested the edit with an outcry of “Han shot first!” and it has been a point of contention ever since.
Paul Blake saw it all firsthand from inside his green Greedo mask.
We got to hear Blake’s side of the story during his panel at Tucson Comic-Con 2019.
An Actor’s Life
While portraying an alien from the planet Rodia named “Greedo” may be Blake’s claim to fame, he had a long career as a working actor, which he defines as being skilled enough to get steady work in theater and film, but without “the hassle of being a superstar.”
Let’s step back, for a moment, to 1970s England. At the time, Star Wars was in pre-production. Blake worked with future fellow Star Wars actor Anthony Daniels on the BBC children’s show Jackanory. Daniels was the one who gave him the tip to audition for Star Wars.
Blake arrived so early for the audition that there was no one else around. He poked around the impressive set until a crew member showed up. Blake asked if there was anywhere he could get coffee, and the man offered to bring him some. Shortly afterwards, Blake was mortified to realize that the person who had fetched his coffee was, in fact, director George Lucas!
Despite Blake’s misstep, Lucas still cast him in the role of Greedo, who, at that point, was simply known as “The Alien.”
Getting Into Character
Blake’s transition to Greedo began a few weeks later with a “life mask” molding to fit his face and head. He noted, “As in theater, the costume informs your character.”
When he asked for direction on playing Greedo, Lucas simply told Blake, “Play him like an alien in the movies!”
The cantina scene had so many unusual new creatures that inspiration had to come from a wide variety of sources, including (in Greedo’s case) an ad for Birds Eye frozen vegetables with a bouncing green pea.
Despite a stuffy mask that smelled equal part “sweat and chemicals,” Blake was fortunate that the rest of his costume was made of comfortable parachute silk. Shooting his scenes stretched from days to weeks.
The Cantina Scene
The biggest moment for his character, of course, would be his Solo encounter in a seedy space cantina known for being a “wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
To accomplish the effect of him being shot, the production’s explosive technician detonated a small explosive on a fully-clothed dummy of Greedo. With the costume still smoldering, stage hands disrobed Greedo’s dummy and placed the costume on Blake, so the actor could finish the scene.
Unfortunately, the technician was a bit too aggressive with the explosives in one of the first takes, resulting in a fire on the cantina set. The set had to be rebuilt before filming could continue.
After all that, it would be close to a year until Blake found out whether any of his scenes had even made the final cut.
Star Wars is Born
Blake, like many involved in its production, underestimated how successful Lucas’ film would be. When Star Wars came out in the summer of 1977, he was working in Greece and didn’t make time to see it. To him, Star Wars was just another gig, some “shitty science fiction thing.”
While relaxing on a beach in Greece, he met some Americans and it came up in conversation that he worked on Star Wars. The Americans were star struck that he was involved in the film, so he figured then it was worth seeing.
In the theater, he was gripped from the opening crawl! He still didn’t know whether or not he’d appear in the film or if his scenes had been cut out. So when Greedo did show up on screen, Blake jumped out of his seat in the middle of the theater and exclaimed, “That’s me!!”
Behind the Mask
One of the fans at the panel said that Blake has a reputation for being generous and caring. I would have loved to learn more about the things he’s done over the past forty years, like performing Shakespeare, working in Hong Kong, and supporting his son, Paul John Blake, who is a Paralympic champion!
Yet I also understood what brought Blake to our corner of this galaxy.
A member of the 501st Legion Mexican Garrison and a young fan from The Galactic Academy Kamino Campus México traveled to the Con from Hermosillo, Sonora specifically to meet him. They presented him with an honorary membership on behalf of The Galactic Academy, an international costuming group for kids.
To the world, he’ll forever be known as Greedo. Paul Blake definitely couldn’t have imagined the path that life took would take him on when he put on a stinky mask and a smoldering jumpsuit over forty years ago. With irony and humor, he has embraced the time he spent in a galaxy far away and has enjoyed the ride ever since. So while Han may have shot first in 1977, at Tucson Comic-Con, Greedo brought the house down.
We received media passes from Tucson Comic-Con.
