10 Things You Didn't Know About Yoda
6. The Puppet Was A Swine To Work With
The puppet Yoda created a unique set of challenges for the filmmakers on The Empire Strikes Back, which is a polite way of saying it was horrible to work with and everybody hated it. The set needed trenches dug and covered for puppeteers, led by Frank Oz, to squirm around in, and Mark Hamill found himself left to his own acting devices with all the directorial attention based on whether Yoda looked too goofy in any given shot.
Frank Oz's lines were relayed to Hamill via a radio mic, cunningly concealed in Luke Skywalker's shaggy blonde mop.Depending on where Hamill moved the mic would change frequencies and start picking up local radio stations, leaving the actor with no idea of where he was in the scene.
Yoda-related problems helped the budget for Empire balloon to a then-crazy $22 million, meaning Lucas had to rely on the sweet, sweet licensed toy money from Christmas 1979 to keep the cameras rolling.