If you’ve picked up the latest copy of Star Wars Insider, then you’ll no doubt have seen the My Star Wars article featuring Catherine Taber, conducted by our very own Mark Newbold and James Burns.
Following up on that, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cat at the end of last year and you can read what she had to say after the jump!
JN: Hi Catherine
CT: Hi, good morning. How are you doing?
JN: I’m very well thanks. And yourself?
CT: I’m good, I was just telling Tracy, I’m just getting over a cold.
JN: There seems to be a lot of that going around at the moment. You haven’t managed to avoid that unfortunately?
CT: Well luckily you probably can’t get it over the phone from me!
JN: Yes, that’s probably very true!
As you can see, I’ve broken [the interview] down into a number of sections, so let’s just jump in with your role as Padmé in The Clone Wars.
Knowing Padmé’s outcome in Revenge of the Sith, how much flexibility are you provided in your portrayal of her character?
CT: Well, it’s funny, because first of all, I always say that I’m still in denial about that, you know, possibly that was a decoy, so we really don’t know for sure! But no, Dave gives me a lot of flexibility within the storyline that we’re already doing, and of course she’s a character that we know, but what’s great about our show is that we’re able to go into a time period that wasn’t really seen before and fully flesh it out and fill it in, so, we keep her in terms of her character, who she is, but of course the circumstances that she’s encountering throughout her life, will change her, and so, unfortunately, I do know where she’s going, but I guess everybody is going there at some point, so it’s not that different!
JN: And how much do you have in terms of your contribution to her portrayal, or is that typically dictated by what Dave and the writers have to say?
CT: Well, ultimately, it’s all coming down from George, who’s created this universe. I think between Dave and the writers and myself and the producers, that everybody is kind of on the same page about where we’re going and everybody has such a love of Star Wars and a love of these characters, that there’s not usually too much discrepancy about what people want to do. But definitely, one of the things for me is that Padmé not come off as wimpy or whiny, or just a damsel in distress and Dave is very very good about letting me, if I say “You know Dave, the way this line is coming out, I feel like it doesn’t sound strong enough”, that we’ll change stuff up, so that we’re true to who she is, and he’s great about letting me do that and he’s also great and the writers are great about thinking about that, when they’re writing and when they are designing the episodes.
JN: So you are able to put some of your own feeling into the role itself?
CT: Absolutely, and Dave has been particularly great with me about that. He knows how much the character means to me and he knows that it matters to me that she not come off wimpy, and also he knows that it matters to me that she not come off unfeeling towards the clones and things like that. So even with some of her really big speeches, while I of course don’t have the final say, but it never really works that way, and it sort of feels like more of a collaboration and he’ll say to me “Here’s the speech that we’re working on” and he’ll ask my opinion and let my opinion be heard and luckily, like I said, we’re all kind of already on the same page, so that it works out really well.
JN: Well that’s certainly good to hear! So in terms of the current season, season four, we’re I think, eight or nine episodes in now, and for the most part it’s been pretty dark. How do you see Padmé’s character developing as the war continues? We haven’t really seen her reaction to everything that’s been going on, aside from when we go back to the movies, how she first felt when the army was created, but in terms of how her character is going to develop as the war continues, how do you see that happening?
CT: Well I think that we have seen her be affected by the war. She’s particularly affected by individual stories as well and stories of suffering. With the character of Teckla (Minnau), I don’t know if you remember her, but hearing of what was going on with her family and that sort of thing really affects her. She doesn’t like the idea of people suffering, and if there is something that she can do about it, she certainly wants to. She’s always coming from that perspective, thinking of the smaller details of what’s going on, and I think that it inevitably affects all of the characters and it does weigh on them and it does start to change them. I think Padmé probably least of all, because she’s so true to her ideals and is such a good person at the core. I think she’s the least changed of all probably throughout the entire thing, but certainly she’s faced many disappointments, and there are more to come of people that she trusted and believed in and she has a tendency to really think the best of people until it’s really blatantly in her face that they have turned, as we know! It definitely does affect her and also I think just the idea that she’s a woman at home, where the love of her life is out fighting and in constant danger, and the helplessness of that would be frustrating to her not just on a political level, as a senator, and what she can do in that aspect, but as the wife of this person who’s out there and in danger, it’s got to be incredibly frustrating and frightening and I think that that certainly starts to affect her.
JN: Well that certainly makes a lot of sense, definitely. So again, sticking with season four, aside from I think the first three episodes, Padmé, along with many of the other main characters, although we had Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and Anakin in last week’s episode, Kidnapped, they haven’t really featured a great deal, so can we expect that to change as the season pans out?
CT: Well, one of the great things about The Clone Wars is also on a personal level, then for me, one of the hard things, and that is that our show tells the story of The Clone Wars from many different perspectives, and so as much as I would love to be in every episode and I’ve told Dave many times that I think that she could at least be in a hologram form in every episode so I’m pushing for that.
JN: Absolutely.
CT: But you know we joke that Tom, our narrator, Tom Kane, who of course also plays Yoda, is the only one who’s in every episode and I think that although, if you have a favourite character, if Anakin’s your favourite character for instance, and he’s not in every episode, it can be frustrating, but at the same time, Star Wars is sort of one of those things that we always say it’s for everyone and hopefully there’s something for everyone in there and if the characters of one episode aren’t quite your favourite, wait until next week and hopefully yours will show back up and it’s just the design of the show to be showing the war from these different perspectives which unfortunately means sometimes that we’re not all there, and I fight for it all the time.
JN: Well I think that that’s actually something that was talked about with regards to the Umbarra arc, in the fact that it didn’t feature really any of the main characters, Anakin was there very briefly in the first episode, but it was very much focused on the clones, and I think people were saying well, this is called The Clone Wars, and it’s a four-story-arc looking at the clones more closely, so it kind of backs-up what you’re saying about these different perspectives from all of the different characters.
CT: Those really do end up being sometimes just some of the best episodes. As much as I of course love Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padmé, Rookies from season one was one of my favourite shows ever and so sometimes it is really an interesting take on what’s going on in the world, to see it from these different perspectives and I think that’s a similar thing too that makes our show so much more than just a cartoon. I mean it really is a show in its own right that I think is really interesting on so many levels because of things like that.
JN: Absolutely. So, last question in regard to Padmé. So as Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship deepens, do you anticipate there being any tension between her and Padmé, perhaps to the point of feelings of jealousy?
CT: It almost makes me laugh, because I think we’ve been getting those sort of questions to some extent from the beginning, and we’ve all said and I feel like it’s very clear now that Padmé and Anakin, their love for each other is very strong, although Anakin can have a tendency to have feelings of jealousy, just because it’s his sort of impetuous fiery nature, Padmé is very secure in the love that they have for each other, and really views Ahsoka, and we’ll get to see Ahsoka and Padmé’s relationship deepen, which we have some, and I love those episodes and she really views Ahsoka as a sister, as a younger sister, and I think from Ahsoka’s perspective and from having talked to Ashley, she feels the same towards the Padmé and Ahsoka relationship, so there is no romance between Ahsoka and Anakin, unless there’s some big change or spoiler that I have not heard about! I don’t think it’s going that way!
JN: Ah, well I’m sorry to have asked a question that you’ve had to answer repeatedly before…
CT: No, no, no, I think it’s cute that it’s something that kind of happens in all kinds of different storylines, everyone wants to see which way things go and are they going to go that way and it might make it interesting I suppose, but I just think that that particular turn would be so in contrast to what actually is the case between the love of Anakin and Padmé that I just don’t think it would ever happen.
JN: So it just kind of transcends all of that.
CT: Yes, exactly.
JN: OK, so we’ll move on and I wanted to talk about The Old Republic and your portrayal of the character Vette, and the question would be how different is it for you to play a character like Vette, with whom people are not necessarily as familiar, as they are with somebody like Padmé?
CT: Padmé was a special case for me, because I really loved the character and I felt, even before getting to work on the show, that I knew who she was and where she was coming from. So in that sense, it wasn’t as difficult as it might be playing an historical character, where you have to do a bunch of research and try and become them, she felt very natural for me in that sense. And then with Vette, it’s kind of the same in the sense that they actually knew what they wanted Vette to be like, the producers of the game and the people I was working with, so I had some parameters to work within, but at the same time I was able to put my own spin on her and I say for Vette, that I actually thought a lot about a young kind of Indiana Jones as the portrayal for her because I wanted that kind of self-deprecating humour and adventuring spirit, and so to be able to put that in was a lot of fun, but in both cases for me, it just worked out well. I tend to be lucky and play characters that I really like and I can find a kernel of who I think they are within myself too and so it’s just sort of expanding on that aspect and there’s a lot of freedom in creating a character like Vette but it isn’t just me, it definitely is the whole team saying here’s where we’re going with her and then getting to that place. I think she’s a lot of fun so I’m hoping that people will really like her.
JN: Well that’s good to hear. Now my understanding is that the story is more or less written for The Old Republic, from beginning to end. With that being the case, how does it differ to performing the role of Padmé, where there is still some element of surprise in what adventures she may experience. Now, we said earlier, we know where she’s going to end up, but with something like Vette, where the story is start-to-end, how do you do that differently?
CT: In working on The Old Republic, it’s been such a long time period, that for me, it never feels like we’re even getting near the end of the story actually, because there’s just so much work involved and so much time, and it’s almost like working on a movie or something for four or five years, so it’s really quite the same, and I guess as an actor, you may always know where you’re going or you may not know where you’re going but it’s really most important to be playing in the moment of wherever you are, because the character, like we in life, would never be thinking, OK, well, in fifty pages I’ve gotta be here, and they’re just living their life and it’s not drastically different besides the fact that you may have the luxury of knowing something that you’ll want to highlight about the character in order to help facilitate where you know you’ll be going in the storyline, which is not what we have in life obviously. But otherwise it’s really about being in the moment and playing where they are at that time.
JN: OK, that certainly makes a lot of sense and almost taking each day as it comes.
CT: Exactly.
JN: Now are you completely done with Vette, or is there still more to come?
CT: I believe that there would probably be still more to come; I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty sure there’s more to come. And I also think that with these really new and amazing and fully fleshed-out games that we’ll be continuing, maybe, to add material as we go on. I don’t know for sure…
JN: Of course, well it was Drew Karpyshyn, who has written for The Old Republic, he was saying recently that there was kind of talk of there being extra material that is going to come along as we progress.
CT: Well that would certainly be my guess, and this is me guessing as a fan, who’s familiar with the same things. In general with these situations, and I don’t know any more than anyone else does, even if I wanted to. I’m just told to be here at this day and we’ll be working on it and that’s basically as much as I know, but I also read everything because I like to play games too.
JN: So, a kind of crossover between The Old Republic and the Clone Wars, when I’ve heard about how episodes of The Clone Wars are recorded, there seems to be a sense that there’s a lot of pressure, particularly in terms of having little time to see your scripts beforehand, and then only having a couple of takes to deliver your lines. So, is that a different experience to doing voice-acting work for videogames?
CT: Well it’s interesting, because that’s not really what I would say my experience with Clone Wars is. We do not get our scripts with a lot of time ahead. We do get our scripts, for me, with enough time to sit down and work through it and look at it and see what’s going on. I would think that maybe, when we first started recording too, I probably felt more pressure, because it was all still new and you’re so excited to have this job and to be working with Dave Filoni and George Lucas and you’re just thinking “just don’t get fired!”, but now I think we’ve become this family that works together and we’re very comfortable and just because of the sheer whole aspect of Star Wars and Lucas, and this is with the live shows, it would be with Lost, the TV show, they just don’t want the material floating around, and so you just kind of get used to it as an actor, but we do get enough time, for me anyway, to look at it. It might be harder for a guest star who was coming in, not really knowing what they were doing. I think that would probably be very daunting, although we have such amazing guest stars that are legends, I’m not sure that they would have difficulty with it, but if I was a new actor coming in, I might feel that it was a little bit more frightening to be getting my script and not having a lot of time to work with it. But as far as the takes too, Dave does a really good job about making sure that we feel happy with our take as well as he does, and often times as an actor, if it was left to your devices, you might stay there for four hours, trying to perfect one line, that’s just the actor. So you sometimes need the director to say we really have it. So I feel, for me anyway, in such safe hands with Dave and our whole crew, that it’s actually a joy to record, I have to say. Usually at the end of the day when we’re done, I’m kind of sad, thinking we have to go home now?
JN: And that’s another one out of the way. Getting back to the character of Vette, she has been described as being far from mature and delighting in silly pranks; now is that something that you identify with yourself, or would you consider yourself to be more like Padmé’s character? Or to add to that, perhaps is there more to Padmé than we’ve seen so far?
CT: Well I would say I’m not a prankster necessarily, but I do have what most of my friends think is a sort of dark and sneaky sense of humour and I actually think that you do see that with Padmé though, and some of my favourite Padmé lines are quick aside throwaway lines that are funny and reminds me of the original trilogy sort of thing when she’ll be commenting that Anakin’s always late, that kind of stuff; those are some of my favourite. I would say I’m closer to Padmé who I think is actually pretty funny and sarcastic, but she’s of course usually in some sort of situation where she still has to have an amount of decorum, so I’m definitely closer to Padmé in that sense than I am to Vette, which was why it was very fun to play Vette for that reason.
JN: And again, in reference to the two characters, we’ve obviously had a few Padmé action figures, are you expecting to see a Vette anytime soon?
CT: I really hope so, and you know my first Star Wars character was Mission Vao in Knights of the Old Republic and to my knowledge, they still don’t have a figure of her. Some people have modified Aayla (Secura) figures so I’m hoping that Vette will get a figure and if not, then I’ll just have to have someone modify an Aayla figure for her, with a Vette picture.
JN: The person you need to speak to is Kyle Newman, he’s good at getting characters turned into plastic.
CT: Well that’s good to know.
JN: He did wonders with Ben Quadinaros, so you need to speak to Kyle to make that happen.
CT: I will do that then!
JN: So moving on from The Old Republic, something I know is very dear to your heart, is Games for Soldiers. Now you spoke a little bit about this at Fan Days but I just wanted to, really for the benefit of our readers, ask a couple of questions about Games for Soldiers. So starting with where did the idea for the whole thing originate?
CT: I come from a military family and I just, at a certain point really felt like, I have this great life as an actor, and I enjoy my job and it’s a very easy way of life that we have here in the States, and one of the reasons for that is that we’re being protected, and have been protected, and will be, by our nation’s armed forces and I just kind of felt like I needed to do a little something to say I’m thinking about you and thank you and I appreciate what you do and it was just a no-brainer then to think, well what can I do? And I’m working in games, so it was sort of a no-brainer to say a lot of the soldiers really love video games and they’re the perfect demographic, so I just started talking to a couple of the game companies that I’d worked with and to friends who are gamers and started saying that I would love to get some donations and then I just send them over to troops who are deployed and it’s just a little operation; it’s me with the help of the donations of lots and lots of different people from big companies, to a teenage boy who will send me two games that he’s done playing with and each one helps to fill a box, and send them over and just say in your downtime, here’s something just so that you know that we’re thinking about you, and the response I think is what’s so amazing and so humbling as you have these people who are putting their life on the line and they’re away from their families and they are so thankful, and say things like “it’s just so amazing that somebody like you would take time out of their day” and I’m thinking “somebody like me?”, I’m going to work today to stand behind a microphone and pretend that I’m a princess; it doesn’t get any better than this, so it’s just something that I’m trying to keep doing, like I said, I’m a small operation and I depend on the donations and I really mean the donations of games and comics, not monetary donations, so if people have a game or two sitting around that they’ve finished, that they know they’re not going to play, or maybe somebody bought them a game that’s not really their cup of tea, they can send them my way and it will help brighten the day of a soldier.
JN: Wonderful, well that was going to be my next question, as to how people can contribute, so if we just direct people to the website, would that be the best way?
CT: I think that’s the best way; you can contact me through the website and the website will also let you read a little bit about what we do and I have a lot of responses from soldiers up there, which I think will pretty much say it all, and like I said, I think sometimes people think “oh, I don’t have enough games”, it’s completely not about that. It’s the couple of games here and there that will help me fill a box and get it sent off to somebody and often times too, those are the best games, the ones that are coming in that someone’s played and they’re like “OK, I’m done with this one, I’m never going to play it again” and those are the more recent games, that are the best to get over to the guys.
JN: Absolutely, and it’s not just the guys who are into the games. I know plenty of women who are big gamers as well. Now in terms of raising awareness of Games for Soldiers, what ways have you been able to do that?
CT: It was funny in the beginning, I really didn’t talk about it very much, because I really didn’t want to be like “Oh, here’s what I’m doing”, ’cause it’s not about me, but then I found that with situations like just recently at Fan Days in Texas, it helps for me to talk about it a little bit, because it will let people know who want to do something and maybe they don’t really have an idea about what they want to do and then they hear about Games for Soldiers and they say “wait, I have an old games system, or I have this box of games sitting here”, and so it’s actually been good to be able to talk about it in these sort of forums, and let’s face it, our demographic for Clone Wars and of course, for The Old Republic, a lot of these people are obviously gamers, so they are the exact people for me to say, “Hey, if you feel like doing something and you have some extra games, here’s something that you can do, and it’s guaranteed to make you feel good, I can promise”, so I’ve been talking about it more which has been really good and in doing that, there have been a couple of even organisations now within the Star Wars community who have said “hey, we want to help you and we want to talk about you”, and Sandtroopers(.com) have done that and the 501st garrison in Lousisana. So it’s been amazing and I’m glad I’m talking about it more now, because I realise that it’s going to get me more donations which is going to help the troops, which is what it’s all about.
JN: Absolutely, and it’s kind of that double-edged sword of not wanting to draw attention to what necessarily you’re doing, but it’s the fact that you are, at the end of the day you’re promoting it for somebody else’s benefit, so I can see the dilemma that you face there.
CT: And of course if there are games companies out there too and they read something or hear something, then that is a benefit too, so I definitely appreciate the chance now to be able to talk about it and again like I said, sometimes it’s about giving somebody else that chance to do something, where they would like to do something, but just really don’t know what. If you are a gamer and you have games or comic books, this is something small that you can do that makes a difference.
JN: Absolutely, well we’ll certainly be very keen to promote this as part of this interview, so we’ll be doing that. And kind of tying into that; you mentioned the 501st, so now that you’re an honourary member, are you contemplating suiting-up anytime soon to become a fully-fledged member?
CT: I don’t know; talk about a double-edged sword, because, I’m a good character, not a darkside character, so it’s very funny sometimes and I just posted something recently on Facebook and someone was asking me if I was flirting with the darkside like I was Darth Vader. And if I do suit up, it’s usually going to be as Padmé.
JN: You could always be a double-agent for the Rebel Legion.
CT: That’s true. That’s a good idea; there you go. I’m really proud and honoured to be an honourary member of both organisations and I love them equally, and of course it’s interesting with The Clone Wars, because our clones are good.
JN: Exactly, and there was something on the ForceCast recently about how the clones are good and then how things turn out in Revenge of the Sith and how so many parents are going to have difficulty explaining that to their children.
CT: It’s really amazing, and it’s not only children. Because my parents, who are familiar with Star Wars of course, not huge Star Wars fans, now they watch the series every week and of course they love the clones. My Mum has an inkling of “wait, aren’t they going to?”, so it’s going to be equally difficult explaining as it is for the kids.
JN: I think there’s going to be a lot of need for therapy after that all transpires, trying to explain all of that.
JN: I wanted to talk to you about Hughes the Force. I got to see that at Fan Days and watched it again this last weekend and just some questions about that. So first question is if it wasn’t James Arnold Taylor using a Jedi Mind Trick to persuade you to play the role of Padmé in Hughes the Force, what was it that convinced you?
CT: It was James Arnold Taylor!
JN: OK, so I was right!
CT: No but it really was him. He phoned me and said hey, I have this script, I’m going to be working on it, and I was wondering if you wanted to take a look at it, and then I did, and of course, if James is involved, then it’s something that I want to look at and he’s a really good friend of mine and such a great guy, and it was such a great script and then I met Ruark the producer, and they had such heart and they were doing it so professionally, that I was thrilled to be a part of it and I’m thrilled for the success that they’re having and I hope that everybody checks it out.
JN: Absolutely, and I’m just in the process of writing my review for the website so I will be looking to put that up. And having seen it a second time around and picking up bits that I missed the first time, it’s a great movie.
CT: It’s loaded, absolutely loaded with references from Star Wars and John Hughes, so many that it’s almost like you said, the first time, you may have to see it again to even get all of them and it’s just so clever in that sense, that I was really impressed.
JN: I couldn’t agree more. So the time you spent in front of the camera, has that tempted you to consider doing more live-acting?
CT: Well I actually started with live-action, when I decided to be an actor and moved to Los Angeles and I really didn’t even know what voice-over was, it was just something that I sort of fell into, and I think that’s progressed for me so quickly because a lot of what I do is science-fiction and fantasy based and those are my loves and that is my favourite genre, that’s where I really enjoy working, and so I’m definitely always still auditioning and working across the board, but I would love to do more live-action, and I would love particularly to do more live-action if it’s in the sci-fi and fantasy genre, not that I’m saying no to anything else, that’s just my favourite, and I just re-watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy this weekend. That kind of film and Star Wars, for me I just love great stories, stories where it’s good versus evil, standing up and having to fight for something, those are just my favourite stories of all time, and they tend to be done so well in the sci-fi or fantasy genre, that that’s where I’d love to be working, on-camera, voice, or whatever.
JN: Again, sticking with Hughes the Force, would you say you’re a big John Hughes fan, and if you are, which of his movies is your favourite?
CT: I really did like John Hughes movies and I guess, I really kind of liked Some Kind of Wonderful. I think that that was probably my favourite, and I also remember really liking the music, but I think I’d have to re-watch all of them to really say for sure which one’s my favourite.
JN: I guess there were quite a few, and sometimes it is hard to pick out the best one and I think that having a John Hughes movie marathon wouldn’t be a bad idea.
CT: Yeah, that would actually be really fun.
JN: Definitely, and during the Kevin Smith scene, where you’re holding the Jedi com-link I think it is, did you have anything to interact with whilst he was monologuing?
CT: No, unfortunately, I wish I could say that I did and I was laughing when you say it, because I was thinking that my chest is sharing a lot of screen-time with Kevin Smith, so it was really funny, but to be really honest, at that point when we were shooting that, they knew that they wanted him, but they weren’t 100% sure that they were going to be able to entice him into being a part of the project, which thankfully he did because then he adds so much and so I knew that it was being done as if it was going to be him and we all had our fingers crossed. But no, my chest and Kevin Smith shared a lot of screen-time in that.
JN: OK, well I think we should just move swiftly on to the last question, and it’s just to ask what was it like portraying your animated character in the flesh?
CT: Again, it just feels really natural. I probably would walk around in the costume if I wouldn’t be taken away to the loony bin, but it was really fun, and I think for James and I both, we both identify so much with the characters that we play, and you know, James plays a lot of characters, but really I think Obi-Wan is very true to who he is and is dear to his heart, so for both of us it just felt natural, and even when I would be standing there talking to James while we were shooting and we’re standing there in costume, there was not even one moment where it felt odd; it seemed perfectly, perfectly natural, and maybe in some alternate universe, we are Obi-Wan and Padmé, I’m not sure, but it just seems very natural.
JN: Wonderful, well that’s all my questions, so thank you very much for taking the timeout to answer those.
CT: Sure. And thank you for asking some great questions!
Many thanks to Catherine for her time, Tracey at Lucasfilm for being on the call, and also to Consetta Parker at Parker Publicity for helping to arrange the interview.
Catherine Taber Interview Copyright 2012 Jedi News. No part of this interview can be reproduced without prior written consent from Jedi News.