Peter Mayhew death: Chewbacca actor recalls getting 'goose bumps' for The Force Awakens, in unearthed interview
Mayhew's comments date back to 2015
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Your support makes all the difference.Peter Mayhew, the beloved Star Wars actor who played Chewbacca, once recalled getting “goose bumps” when returning as the cult character for The Force Awakens.
Mayhew made the comments whole speaking to Rolling Stone in 2015, as part of the promotion for the first instalment of the franchise’s sequel trilogy.
The actor, who died aged 74 on Tuesday, played the Wookiee in the first Star Wars film in 1977, in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and in Return of the Jedi (1983).
He reprised the role in 2005 in Revenge of the Sith, then in 2015 for The Force Awakens – in which he got to step back into the Millennium Falcon, the starship commanded by Chewbacca and Han Solo (Harrison Ford).
“I had goose bumps, I tell you,” Mayhew told Rolling Stone of the moment the trailer for The Force Awakens debuted at the Star Wars Celebration convention in California.
He added: “You can imagine how weird it felt to have seven thousand people looking at that trailer and standing up cheering because they wanted Chewie in the movie.
“It was a phenomenal experience. And I won’t ever forget it.”
Chewbacca is now played by actor Joonas Suotamo, who shared the part with Mayhew in The Force Awakens before taking it over.
Mayhew’s family announced on Thursday that the actor had died on Tuesday at his home in Texas.
The London native was working as a hospital orderly when George Lucas decided to cast him as Chewbacca in the 1970s.
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