Star Wars' Boba Fett Actor Constantly Battled Intense Heat Inside The Armor
Many kids dream of one day getting to play a superhero/villain in a major Hollywood motion picture. The thing is, while it must be incredibly edifying to see yourself performing fantastic feats on the big screen via the assistance of wires and computer-generated effects, actually making these movies can be a slow, arduous undertaking.
While film production in general is often a frustratingly piecemeal process, it gets particularly drawn out when you're dealing with people in complex make-up and tremendously uncomfortable costumes. There are myriad horror stories of actors getting stuffed into suffocating suits that can't be donned or removed easily. You may look and move like Batman in the finished film, but, on set, you feel more like Frankenstein's monster.
Indeed, it often feels like the cooler the outfit looks, the more uncomfortable it is to wear. And if you want proof of this, you need look no further than the man who once wore arguably the coolest-looking costume in the history of fantasy movies.
It's not easy being Boba
Having made his (uncredited) film debut as a boy jumping into freezing water in the 1958 Titanic epic "A Night to Remember," Jeremy Bulloch was well acquainted with suffering for his art. Though his acting career appeared to be on the rise throughout the 1960s as he landed significant roles in movies like Peter Yates' "Summer Holiday" and Alvin Rakoff's "Hoffman," by the late 1970s, he was mostly back to bit parts.
Then George Lucas came calling with the most thankless role of a lifetime: the ruthless bounty hunter Boba Fett in "Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back."
Though Bulloch's screen presence was driven by Joe Johnston's masterful design work, he at least got to wear that iconic suit, right? Well, that wasn't much fun either. During a 2013 Reddit AMA, Bulloch revealed that his visor fogged up all the time, while his jetpack was a bear to lug around.
Worst of all, when it came to getting out of the suit, he felt like he had to live up to the badassness of the character. According to Bulloch:
"Really, it was like being a statue, just standing there. It would get hotter and hotter. Every time you had a break, you were waiting for someone to say, 'Can we have a break, please? It's terribly hot in this costume!' But you see, Boba Fett can't do that. No, he will stand there until someone takes him out of the costume. You don't want to be the sissy."
Okay, it ain't exactly digging ditches, but if you ever dreamed of strutting around in that battle-scarred armor, know that you'd look a heck of a lot cooler than you'd feel.