Toby Philpott
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Toby Philpott | |
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Little Shop of Horrors, Who Framed Roger Rabbit | |
| Website | Toby Philpott's Home Page |
Toby Philpott (born 14 February 1946) is an English
The next year, Philpott was approached to serve as one of the puppeteers controlling
Biography
Early life
Toby Philpott was born 14 February 1946 in London, England into a family of performers and teachers. His father,
In the 1960s, Philpott became swept up in the youth movement that rose with the end of the
Discovering the performing arts
Throughout the late-1960s, he worked counter jobs at several nightclubs in Soho, including Bunjies and Les Cousins, where he met many musicians and other performers and formed what he described as some of "my most treasured memories."[1] He also continued working in occasional archeological digs, including mining activities in 1968 in the wells of Sandal Castle, a historic ruin in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. In 1970, he lived in Paris, France, where he sold jewellery in the streets and squatted in an atelier on the Rue d'Alésia with a woman named Nelly Gareau. He spent two years visiting various locations in the United States of America and Mexico with Gareau.[1]
Philpott returned to London in 1972 and
Traveling street performer
Philpott spent the mid-1970s living in the London
Start of animatronics career
The death of Toby Philpott's father in 1978 moved Philpott to get away from solo performing and enter a more collaborative medium.[2] Philpott's first foray into motion pictures was when he and other students in a mime class were selected to play neanderthals in the 1981 film, Quest for Fire. He was dropped from the film when the project changed producers, but the experience opened Philpott to the possibility of entering into a new entertainment medium. That year his mime teacher and movement coach, Desmond Jones, informed him about an audition advertisement for acrobats, mimes and dancers for The Dark Crystal, a 1982 fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, the puppeteer behind Yoda in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back.[5] The Dark Crystal included groundbreaking animatronics, the use of electronics and robotics in mechanized puppets to make them appear alive. The ad called for a variety of performer types because it was unknown what kind of physical abilities and stamina would be necessary for this relatively new artform.[4]
Philpott saw the film as a chance to apply his performing arts skills into a "new and exciting field"
The Dark Crystal
Development work took place at Jim Henson's Creature Shop, which at the time was located in a former-post office across the street from Henson's house on Downshire Hill in Hampstead, London. Toby Philpott began training in bodywork and puppeteering, and worked with the early incarnations of the character puppets, which began to become fine-tuned around the specific puppeteers. Each of the main puppet performers were allocated into crews to work the eyes, eyebrows and arms of specific puppets. Jim Henson personally chose Philpott and fellow puppeteer Robbie Barnett to work in his support crew, which Philpott attributed to a combination of talent and temperament, since each crew would be working very close together. Philpott often played the right arm of the characters Henson animated.[3]
Filming took place at Elstree Studios. Although most of the puppet crews were able to do additional rehearsals while Henson worked the other various aspects of film production, Philpott and Barnett were often given just a quick walk-through before the actual performance due to Henson's busy work schedule. The teams concentrated their efforts through the puppet to create a coherent set of gestures and an individual performance and personality, which involved a great deal of experimentation, discussion and feedback through video playback among the team. Philpott said whenever he made a mistake due to lack of expressiveness or timing in his gestures, Henson remained very patient and never raised his voice or became angry.[3]
The main character Philpott played in The Dark Crystal was urTih the Alchemist, one of the
Philpott's most disappointing moment during The Dark Crystal came during the first day of shooting, when he played a mystic who was featured in the foreground of a scene in the Mystic Valley. The costume's jaw had recently been readjusted and its mouth was stuck hanging open in an unflattering way, but none of the crew notified Philpott and he was unhappy with how it came out in the movie. Nevertheless, Philpott said the puppeteers and filmmakers were a "very happy and engaged crew" and because the techniques and methods were so new during The Dark Crystal, he enjoyed a level of hands-on involvement that would not be matched in his future movies.[3]
Return of the Jedi
While working on The Dark Crystal at the Creature Shop, rumors began to circulate that
Barclay was the chief Jabba puppeteer who planned all the movements and guided all the other performers; Philpott controlled Jabba's left arm, with which he controlled many of Jabba's more active motions, including eating frogs, smoking the Hookah pipe and assaulting Bib Fortuna and C-3PO. Philpott also used his right hand to control Jabba's tongue and animate his head, and controlled the body by swiveling his seat with his leg braces. Cable controls allowed Philpott to swivel the head and snarl Jabba's Mouth.[7]
The rest of the puppet team included Barclay on the right arm and mouth; Mike Edmonds on the tail; and John Coppinger, who controlled the eyes via remote control and gave the others feedback based on what he saw from the outside.[5] Philpott would later describe sitting inside the Jabba puppet with Barclay as being "like a two-man submarine" because it was very hot, cramped and uncomfortable.[4] A monitor inside the puppet shows a general shot of Jabba that helped the puppeteers operate, although they could not tell where the frame of the shot was from the image; the team depended on feedback amongst themselves, and their training under Jim Henson gave them experience in coordinating to create a single creature.[5]
Philpott and Barclay would go inside the puppet early in the day and remain there for almost the entire nine-and-a-half hours of filming each day,[8] so much so that other cast and crew members did not know who they were during breaks. The two would only occasionally leave the suit to discuss Jabba-related business, but preferred to remain in character within the suit. Philpott and Barclay employed an approach by Jim Henson in which they took direction while in character; director Richard Marquand agreed to give Jabba direction as if the character was the actor, and they talked back to the director as if the puppet itself were a live performer.[4]
It took about three weeks to film the
During the scene when
The brief scene in which Jabba eats the frogs took several takes to get correctly since it was difficult for Philpott to reach Jabba's mouth with the left arm; the filmmakers originally tried to use an actual frog but it kept escaping and hopping around the set.
Labyrinth
Toby Philpott served as president of the International Jugglers' Association from 1982 to 1983, and also did animatronic work for the 1984 film, The Company of Wolves.[1] By 1985, Philpott was out of work and in desperate need of money while living in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. On an impulse, he called The Jim Henson Company to inquire about work. Although he had already missed the audition for the new movie Jim Henson was developing, Labyrinth, Philpott was immediately called in for a job.[3]
Philpott operated several characters, including a goblin puppet that sat at the foot of the throne of Jareth the Goblin King, who was played by David Bowie. He also played one of the Fireys, the wild goblins that live in the forest and have detachable body parts that come apart; Philpott, who was credited as playing "Firey No. 1," controlled the various body parts along with puppeteers Kevin Clash and, once again, David Barclay. He also controlled the eyes of the Junk Lady character (played by Fraggle Rock performer Karen Prell) and was one of the many sets of hands among the Helping Hands, hand-shaped goblins that protruded from the walls of Jareth's castle and acted with the other hands to create talking face-formations.[3]
Philpott said his fondest memory during the production of Labyrinth was taking his six-year-old son, Keili, on a tour of the set of the Goblin Village. Philpott did not enjoy his time working on Labyrinth due to a back injury he suffered while playing soccer in Somerset prior to getting the job. The strain puppeteering places on the back left Philpott in agony while working on the set, and he made several unsuccessful attempts to heal himself through osteopathy and acupuncture. His back problem was solved when a friend recommended a clinic on Harley Street in the City of Westminster in London. The therapy proved so effective, Philpott was able to walk up a mountain in Spain to organize a juggling convention after filming on Labyrinth wrapped.[3]
Little Shop of Horrors
Toby Philpott was called to work on the 1986 Frank Oz film
Leaving the film industry
Toby Philpott auditioned before
Philpott, who went into what he called "a bit of a downward spiral" during this point of his life, was working in a circus school and holding juggling workshops when he met a group of people who eventually started their own traveling circus company in 1986, called the
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Among Philpott and the puppet crew's duties were using strings to move objects handled by the cartoon characters, such as the various items scuffled around by an octopus bartender or the gun aimed at actor Bob Hoskins by one of the evil weasel characters. Other duties were as simple as wobbling boxes or other surfaces the cartoon characters stood on. During a scene in which Roger Rabbit flushes himself down a toilet, Philpott spent a full afternoon under the fake toilet, where he used an invisible string to pull the toilet flusher and spun around to make water come up from the bowl.[5] Barclay said the experience was enjoyable, but he felt the computer-effects-oriented crew did not take the puppeteers very seriously. He sensed that his animatronic art form was dying and knew he would probably never work in movies again.[3] Philpott did appear, however, as a juggler in the background of the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy, which starred Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson, and Rowan Atkinson.[1]
Later life
In August 1997, Toby Philpott participated in a public arts performance called The X-Factor: Close Encounters of a Different Kind, which involved various performances scattered throughout a small town outside Cardiff. Philpott played Norman Nesbitt, a geeky man who believes he has been contacted by UFOs. He was placed in a room full of maps, cardboard spaceships and notebooks filled with his own scribblings. Other characters included his girlfriend, who believed his correspondence with aliens was an excuse for breaking up with her, and the "Men in White Coats," who constantly tried to take Norman Nesbitt away but were never successful. Philpott was not paid for the one-day performance, which was completely improvised.[1]
In December 1997,
Following the 1997
Toby Philpott lives with his long-time girlfriend, the artist Julie Shackson, and has a son named Keili Pentaphobe and a daughter named Yo, who gave birth to his granddaughter, Matilda.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | The Dark Crystal | urTih the Alchemist; various roles | Actor and Puppeteer |
| 1983 | Return of the Jedi | Jabba the Hutt | Puppeteer |
| 1984 | The Company of Wolves | Special effects (animatronic wolf and transformations) | |
| 1986 | Labyrinth | Firey 1, Helping Hands, Junk Lady (eyes), Goblin | Actor and Puppeteer |
| 1986 | Little Shop of Horrors |
Audrey II (plant) | Puppeteer |
| 1988 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Puppeteer | |
| 1989 | The Tall Guy | Juggler in "Elephant" Chorus | Actor (background) |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Philpott, Toby. "Toby Philpott's Home Page." Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
- ^ a b c d e f "Toby Philpott Interview." The Bothan Spy. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Habidabad. "Toby Philpott Interview." The Book of Habidabad. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Chatting with Jabba the Hutt." BlueHarvest.Net. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "T-bone's Star Wars Universe: Interview with Toby Philpott." Starwarz.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
- ^ a b c d "Interview: Toby Philpott, Jabba the Hutt."; English translation. ToscheStation.nl. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
- ^ From Star Wars to Jedi. 1985.
- ^ a b "The Lightsabre Interview: Toby Philpott." Lightsabre. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
- ^ "Toby Philpott Interview." YildizsaVaslari.com. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.
- ^ London Evening Standard. 25 October 2013. p. 37.
- ^ NaNoWriMo. Retrieved on 2008-09-19.