How did the actor control R2-D2?

By making it talk in a human voice!

This was originally posted on the How I Work blog by the actor who played R2-D2 in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Here's what he had to say about how he made the iconic droid talk: If I'm not mistaken, R2-D2 is the only character in the entire Star Wars saga who actually talks. All the other characters (human or otherwise) are either voiced or lip synched. So, how did I make him talk? In the beginning, I did not have an understanding of what I was doing. At first, I was not sure what to do with my hands, and there was much confusion as to which way was up. But eventually, after a lot of experimentation, I came up with a method that seemed to work the best.

Here's how it worked for me: I decided to record the dialogue from the scene where the droid speaks the first time. I did not know whether I would be able to remember the lines, or how I would sound doing them. I wanted to capture my best performance. I figured if I performed the lines well, it would help me remember the lines better.

Before recording, I did the scene multiple times so that I would get familiar with the lines. Then, I recorded myself saying the lines. After a while, I got the hang of it and forgot that I had been recording the lines. I did this for both the lines in the movie and the lines from the radio transmissions. After I finished the recording, I edited out the mistakes. It was tedious but necessary, because without the mistakes, I could not have learned the lines.

After editing, I listened to the recording and added the effects. For the radio transmissions, I added a slight echo to it to make it sound more mechanical. I then played back the recording. I was surprised at how much I sounded like R2-D2.

The whole process took a couple of months. During that time, I was working on other projects. Fortunately, I had a steady job so I was able to make time for this project.

I would love to hear what you think about this. If you had any problems with the recording, let me know. I hope you enjoyed it.

Who owns the original R2-D2?

If you've ever seen any of the Star Wars movies, you might have noticed that there's always one particular little droid on the side of the Millennium Falcon that always seems to be the star of the show.

That little guy has been around since Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and is still going strong. So who owns that original little R2-D2 droid?

The answer is: Disney. And now, the legal battle over the rights to R2-D2 and other Star Wars characters is heating up, with the new owners finally having their say in court. Here's what we know so far.

Who owns R2-D2? Well, first of all, he was created by George Lucas, so Lucasfilm is the rightful owner of R2-D2. But Disney, who took over Lucasfilm from the bankrupt studio last year, is now involved in a copyright lawsuit over R2-D2, and they're saying that it's owned by them. But when they bought the company, Disney didn't just purchase the rights to the Star Wars films. They also purchased the rights to all of Lucas' characters, including R2-D2.

Disney had planned to get out of the entertainment business, and when they decided to take on the Star Wars franchise, they were planning to focus on the live action film side of things. So their plan was to make films about Disney characters, not Star Wars characters. They then had plans to make sequels and spin-offs, but those plans changed when the rights to the characters reverted to Lucasfilm.

Since Disney doesn't own R2-D2, why does Lucasfilm need to take him to court? Well, Disney is basically the legal owner of the R2-D2 character now, and that means that Lucasfilm needs to bring a copyright lawsuit against Disney to establish ownership. And Disney's argument is that Lucasfilm owns the rights to R2-D2, and since the character is a part of the Star Wars universe, Lucasfilm should own the rights to that character. But Lucasfilm has an interesting counter-argument: R2-D2 is a real, tangible object, and when they made the movies, Lucasfilm owns the physical property that makes that droid. But what does that really mean?

What app do I use to control my R2-D2?

"The next logical step for R2 was to control him with an app.

The first version of that app required you to use a physical remote control. For our latest version, we built a software remote control that can be controlled by the app."

And the next question is: what app? This question answers itself. There are apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. One that won an award for its innovative design is The Droid Factory. As noted in the movie, when Vader needs R2D2 to do something, he holds up the phone as if it were the droid's remote control, and the droid does exactly what the director wanted.