Temuera Morrison And Ahmed Best Shine At Motor City Comic Con

Star Wars

May 27

Although the weather was chillier than usual for mid-May in Southeast Michigan, there was definitely a warmth inside the Suburban Showplace Collection in Novi. Just walking through the parking lot showed that there were plenty of people (as evidenced from the amount of time it took to find a parking spot) from many different places who came together to have fun celebrating all sorts of fandoms.

They came from neighboring Midwest states like Ohio and Indiana, and as far away as Arizona and Quebec. Amidst the out of state plates were ones from the metro Detroit area that said BANTHA, NRDTRK, and ITSATRP. While we enjoyed perusing the vehicles, my boys and I hurried inside to catch the panel we had been looking forward to for days; The Star Wars Panel featuring our favorite Bounty Hunter and Gungan, respectively.

RELATED:

Featured

What Do We Know About The Jedi Master Who Discovered Ahsoka Tano?

We were a few minutes late getting to the panel room. When we entered, Temuera Morrison was in full swing, happily singing a catchy tune he made up himself - the lyrics going something along the lines of “I’m a bada— Bounty Hunter, riding my Bantha on the sands of Tatooine!” What can I say - you just had to be there! The three of us knew we were in for a treat at this panel.

After the musical entertainment, the conversation turned to Morrison’s relationship with the young man who played his younger self in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Daniel Logan. It turns out that the two New Zealanders still have a father/son relationship - to this day, they will call each other on the phone and say “This is your father”, or “This is your son”, occasionally confusing the people around them.

Logan, Morrison, and Best were all at Star Wars Celebration in Japan, and this became the next topic of conversation. Ahmed pointed out that so much of Star Wars is based on Japanese cinema, bringing up Hidden Fortress as an example (definitely a different choice from The Seven Samurai most people are fond of mentioning). Best said that being in Japan was like a “spiritual homecoming” based on the Japanese connections to Star Wars. He himself is a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so while not originating from Japan, Best still feels a connection to the region through his martial arts.

Ahmed and Temuera then got into an involved conversation about Okinawa, talking about how the community pulls together, eating, fishing and being part of the society. They got so into this chat that the moderator chuckled and stopped them, saying that the two of them should have their own podcast.

The moderator then opened up the floor for questions. The first person who came up to the mic was met with groans from the audience when they asked what was the gentlemen’s worse experience with Star Wars fans? Morrison piped right up and said that “all Star Wars fans are nice”, and went on to explain, to thunderous applause, that “We are all just simple people making our way in the Universe”. Morrison went on to explain that [once you are a part of the Star Wars Universe] you are a “strangely dysfunctional family that you are never apart from”. You’ll think that you are forgotten about and “then you’ll get that phone call”.

Another person asked what was Morrison’s and Best’s favorite part of being in the prequels. Morrison immediately piped up, “Lunch!” On a more serious note, Morrison went on to say that he loved working with Ewan McGregor. He described his first day of filming Attack of the Clones and how it took place on Kamino: “Do you like your army?” Morrison was in awe at how “cool” McGregor was in his acting and how he only moved his eyebrow. So, Morrison decided to “out-cool” Ewan McGregor by only moving his eyebrow.

Ahmed Best sat down with George Lucas himself when he studied for his role as Jar Jar Binks, as he explained in response to a question asking if, indeed, Jar Jar Binks was supposed to be the true Sith Lord. Best said that he and Lucas studied Buster Keaton for Jar Jar’s demeanor. Best, as stated above, has a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He wanted to combine Buster Keatons’s comedy with Jackie Chan’s movie fighting style. But, Ahmed Best’s inspiration actually came from an altogether different source: watching Rick Moranis’s performance in Ghostbusters. Moranis, playing the Keymaster, was in the background of a scene, imitating the three Ghostbusters with his hand gestures and motions. So, when Best played Jar Jar Binks, he played him by imitating the Jedi in the scene, giving rise to the theory that Jar Jar Binks was actually manipulating the Jedi.

One of the last questions was what did Morrison and Best think about themselves being Lego figures? Best enthusiastically said that he had them all! Morrison admitted that they were too hard for him to stick together, and then ended their panel by singing a traditional New Zealand Maori song. After watching the two of them together, I can only hope that they will stick together and have more panels and perhaps even their podcast!

READ NEXT:

Featured