Blessed hoped to be cast in the original trilogy, but suspects his iconic role in the similarly space- operatic Flash Gordon in 1980 may have gotten in the way. It wasn’t until the late ’90s, with The Phantom Menace entering pre-production, that he finally secured a meeting with George Lucas. “They were keen for me to be in it. They wanted me to be a Jedi called Bibbles,” he says, misremembering the character Sio Bibble, the governor of Naboo, who would ultimately be played by Oliver Ford Davies. It was obvious to all that Blessed’s famously larger-than-life persona could not be contained by the softly spoken administrator. “George said, ‘You’re not remotely right for Bibbles, Brian. You’ve got too much power. You’ve got too much energy.’”
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It was not until filming began, however, that the actor himself established Boss Nass’ idiosyncrasies. During the scene in which the character finally agrees to join the fight with Queen Amidala and the Jedi, Lucas — apparently concerned the moment was “a bit boring” — asked the actor to jazz it up. “George said, ‘Can you do something for me, Brian? Can you do something totally original? A special effect of some kind?’ ‘Yeah, George!’ I remember going [speaking at an incredible volume], ‘MEEEEESAH LIKA DISS!’ And I did this huge, wonderful wobble with my face. George said, ‘You mad bastard, Brian! That’s exactly what I want!’” During the filming of this scene, Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson reportedly struggled to keep straight faces.
A self-described “expert on amphibians”, Blessed drew much of his inspiration for this distinctly alien performance from nature. “I do a tremendous amount of work on various crocodiles,” he says, entirely seriously. “And so therefore, I studied certain reactions.” He also entered into “a study about noises that I felt dinosaurs would make”. As he summarises, as succinctly as he is able to, “You can’t just turn up there and just do a voice. That’s bollocks!”
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After Flash Gordon, Boss Nass remains the role most revered by his fans. There is some similarity, he explains. “The energy that I use as Vultan in Flash Gordon, I bring very much to The Phantom Menace. Not sitting there on your arse and just being meditative and quiet and still. NO! I bring great energy to the whole fucking thing. I love it. I just love science- fiction.” Or, as Boss Nass would say: heesa lika diss.
I watched it again the cinema last night and he was the perfect casting for the role. You could tell he was having great fun with it.