Darth Maul was really, really hard, because all I had as a precedent was Darth Vader. I think, maybe for two years, I was trying to out-helmet Darth Vader, and I almost had a nervous breakdown doing that because you canāt. You absolutely cannot! Itās a perfect design ā you know, skull and a Nazi helmet, it does not get better than that. So finally I decided, āAll right, well, heck, take that darn helmet off. Letās see whatās underneath.ā
Thatās when I started playing around with the face. I thought there should be some sort of connection with the face underneath and the machinery of the helmet, so I started putting things on the face. Patterns and things, which I intended originally to be circuit boards, or I would carve the face up and let it be light from inside the head that would connect with whatever it was. Just crazy stuff.
For my designs, I never just generically design a person and try to impose a design on it. The design comes from the personality. So I would get everyone in the art department to pose for me, and you just stare at them and say, āWhat kind of Sith Lord would you be?ā
Gavin [Bocquet], the production designer, said, āDonāt make me look fat.ā [Laughs] So I put a headdress that covered his chin and then I put a Rorschach pattern on his face, and George seemed to respond to that really well.
And then, and this is several years into it, the script shows up. And Darth Maul is described as āa vision from your worst nightmare.ā That was all I needed, because thatās a very clear direction, and I know my worst nightmares.
I drew my worst nightmare, which was that face thatās peering in the window at you late at night, and itās barely alive. Like a cross between a ghost and a serial killer staring in at you, and itās raining, and the rain is distorting the face. So I drew that, a stylized version of it, red ribbons instead of rain, and put it in a folder, and at the meeting passed it over to George. George opened it up and went, āOh, my God,ā slammed it shut, handed it back, and said, āGive me your second worst nightmare.ā
I tried to figure out what Iād done wrong in my thinking, because you donāt want less, ever. I started thinking, āStar Wars is not real life. Itās mythology.ā So I looked for my first best mythological nightmare, and thatās easy, because thatās clowns. I was scared to death of Bozo the Clown as a kid. So I made my big scary clown, and Iād run out of faces to draw, so I used mine. I drew myself into a clown. The patterns became very stylized patterns of the muscles underneath the skin that give expression to the face.
I think that wonderful performance from Ray [Park], put into that makeup, with Nick Dudmanās awesome misunderstanding of my drawing ā because I had given him black feathers, and he thought they were horns ā is what created Darth Maul.Ā
- Iain McCaig on designing Darth Maul
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