Star Wars star Liam Neeson couldn’t stop making lightsaber noises while filming Episode I.
Appearing on Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, the Star Wars star revealed that he and Ewan McGregor kept making those iconic lightsaber noises on the set of Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
“The first time we actually had to use the lightsaber to start a little fight… We both automatically [made the noises],” he confirmed. “George said, ‘Let’s cut there. Boys, we can add that in later.' ”
Obviously, he’s not the only actor that’s had that problem.
McGregor famously couldn’t stop making swooshing sounds when making the Star Wars prequels, revealing in an earlier interview with Graham Norton that he had a similar problem.
“To begin with, it was quite difficult not to make the sound,” he admitted, mimicking the hum of the lightsaber. “And when it goes away it makes that nice [noise] when it goes down.
Even Hayden Christensen who played Anakin Skywalker admitted during a panel at Star Wars Celebration that he couldn’t stop himself from making lightsaber noises.
“‘Hayden, that looks really great,’” he recalled George Lucas telling him. “‘But I can see your mouth moving. You don’t have to do that. We add the sound effects in afterward.’ I was just so focused I wasn’t even aware I was doing it.”
Hayden Christensen used to make his own lightsaber sounds and well that's adorable #SWCO pic.twitter.com/G2FtewBCL7
— Rachel Paige (@rachmeetsworld) April 13, 2017
Hilariously, it’s not just the lightsabers causing problems. It turns out that The Last Jedi star Laura Dern also couldn’t stop making ‘pew pew’ noises whenever she fired off her blaster.
“You can see Laura Dern say ‘pew’ when she fires the gun, which she could never not do every time she shot it,” said director Rian Johnson on the film’s bonus features (as reported by Vanity Fair).
“I was back in my bedroom at eight years old,” she told Stephen Colbert about her time shooting the film. “Doing the scene, I went, ‘Pew-pew!’ They’ve taken the sound out, I don’t think you’ll hear that in the movie. I was so excited! I mean, it’s Star Wars!”
Want to read more about Star Wars? Check out how the Old Republic era was made canon and find out about Ahsoka’s Star Wars journey so far.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
