Fluke Radio Signals Made A Difficult Return Of The Jedi Scene Even More Challenging
Movie sets are chaotic places, and not just when there's crazy action, breakneck fight scenes, or Michael Bay explosions going off all over the place. Even those somber, dramatic moments that happen on a comfy sound stage can be way more hectic than they appear in the final film. Most sets are like construction zones, especially for big productions like the "Star Wars" films. While the crew is shooting in one stage, odds are another set is being constructed for the next day somewhere close.
And "Star Wars" sets in particular are big jobs, especially back in pre-CGI days. For instance, any time they had to build a set that Yoda would be on they had to build it elevated so there was room for Frank Oz and his fellow puppeteers to be under the floor operating the puppet.
So you have that complication to deal with and then you add in having to perform with Mark Hamill and suddenly you realize that doing a big dramatic scene like Yoda's confession of Darth Vader's true identity just before his emotional death might not be as easy to pull off when one half of the duo onscreen is talking from underneath the floor.
Their fix for this was to give Hamill an earpiece so he could hear Oz delivering Yoda's dialogue for this very important scene. The problem is, the radio transmitter in his ear would also pick up the occasional Rolling Stones song.
Yoda's death scene was even darker than what ended up in the movie
Hamill revealed this bit of trivial on Twitter when a user named @ponygal1986 asked Oz about the scene.
"I wore a small ear-piece to hear @TheFrankOzJam speaking. Occasionally I'd pickup radio signals & instead of his dialogue I'd hear The Rolling Stones' 'Fool To Cry' or other pop singles. I learned to ignore that & wait for Yoda's lips to stop moving to cue my next line. #TrueStory"
Another interesting bit of trivia about this scene is that there was originally more to Yoda's conversation with Luke about Vader in which he reveals that he's the one to who told Obi-Wan to conceal the truth about Anakin Skywalker. Yoda views it as unfortunate that Luke knows and goes so far as to call this knowledge that Vader is actually Luke's father "a weakness" that Luke must carry with him.
The implication is that Luke's feelings for his father is a detriment, not the strength it turns out to be. Does that mean Yoda wanted Luke to just straight-up slaughter Vader? Because it sure as hell doesn't seem like he wanted Luke to try to redeem him. Pretty dark stuff.
In hindsight, I guess there's a reason why they cut that small moment, but it's an interesting glimpse at what they were thinking in the moment.
Anyway, movies are magic and it'll always be fascinating to me to explore these blind alleyways, alternate versions of my favorite scenes, and hear deep cut trivia from the stars themselves.