10 Ways Star Wars Actors FIXED Scenes They Hated
9. Tim Rose Refused To Have Admiral Ackbar Celebrate The Empire's Defeat - Return Of The Jedi
Return of the Jedi of course ends with the destruction of the second Death Star, and all the Rebels around the galaxy euphorically celebrating their victory over the Empire.
But Tim Rose, the puppeteer who portrayed Admiral Ackbar on set, objected to a request from director Richard Marquand, that he and the other Mon Calamari characters onboard his ship "dance around and celebrate" following the victory.
Rose strongly felt that Ackbar would react in more solemn fashion to the Empire's defeat, and so refused to perform the scene as Marquand requested. In a 2019 interview, Rose said:
"I was at the stage where I came within 200 numbers of being drafted for Vietnam. So I had very strong views about war at the time. While I think it's something to be proud of but not something to celebrate. There's a big difference. So in Akbar's last scene they put the camera on him… I thought about our people who died, their people who died, and the weight of it sunk me down in the chair.
And [Marquand] got really angry and he said, 'Right, we're gonna do this again and this time you get up and dance around.' I said, 'If you want Akbar to dance around, you can put somebody else in the suit. You got my performance.' And they left it in."
Rose was absolutely right here - seeing Ackbar slump down in his chair is infinitely more suitable and impactful than watching him do a jig around his ship.