LESLIE DILLEY | INTERVIEW
This year’s recipient of the BAFTA Cymru Outstanding Contribution To Film And Television Award is Rhondda Valley-born Leslie Dilley, whose art and production credits include Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Alien. Carl Marsh hit him with a few fanboy questions.
You’ve been the art director and/or production designer for three of my top five films: The Abyss, Raiders Of The Lost Ark [pictured below, with Dilley on set] and Star Wars! Of these three, which was the most gruelling for you?
The Abyss was the most challenging for me. It was over a year’s worth of work, very long days with a few nights until 3am, and on weekends the art department did not stop, so I was continually checking on the construction being done. I had worked with water on Legend, Never Say Never Again and Lucky Lady, so I had some experience with water, but nothing close to the scale of The Abyss. Also, my wife Leslie and I had the first of our four children during that film, so that made that time even more memorable.
It sounds like all that water, and that work environment, tested your skills.
With water, you’re always learning as you go. I knew some basics from previous films, but the circumstances are never the same on any given film, so we all knew that it was going to be an everyday challenge for every department on The Abyss. As strenuous as it proved to be at that moment, it was a deeply stimulating and challenging project to work on. During principal photography, there were some exciting and nailbiting days witnessing the actors interacting with the water and the sets.
You built R2-D2 for Star Wars, too…
I was always responsible for R2-D2 on set. We had Kenny Baker inside a working model, and we had another practical working model. I actually had to go to Kenny’s home and convince him to take on the role! It’s hard to imagine that at the time he was vacillating between Star Wars and appearing with a partner on Opportunity Knocks. Thankfully Star Wars won out. Peter Childs, a very talented UK draughtsman who passed away a few years ago, did the architectural drawing of R2D2 based on the artwork of Ralph McQuarrie.
What other characters from the Star Wars films did you build? Which one was the hardest to make?
On the first Star Wars I was very much involved with all the Tunisia locations: Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle’s home, the Sandcrawler, the exterior of the Cantina, Luke’s Landspeeder, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s exile home etc. I wouldn’t necessarily classify any as the hardest to make, but the Sandcrawler I was very proud to have worked on – I was pleased with how it turned out. The Landspeeder was originally a much larger vehicle and evolved into a much smaller version.
As on-set art director, it meant that when shooting started that I was not draughting back in the art department but working with the shooting crew – doing on-the-spot problem solving during filming, and helping with the practical effects and illusions as needed. Back in the UK, I worked again as on-set art director for George Lucas at the various soundstages on those glorious built sets.
You also did An American Werewolf In London – that must have been one of your favourite fun films to have worked on, even though it was a horror production.
Shooting in Piccadilly at night was a highlight. And shooting in Wales was a great experience, of course. Werewolf, like all film projects, had its share of challenges; night shooting is one of them. I had the opportunity to create a Moonbox for the full moon scene in the hospital. Funnily enough, I used the same practical effect in another film 25 years later: The Mask II, in Australia. It’s a very old-school effect involving a box and lighting, suspended by a crane. That’s not a big deal to anyone else, but for me it’s a memory that has never faded, because it’s an art director’s trick that came in so handy on two completely different projects.
When you see modern films, with all their use of CGI, does it make you scratch your head in frustration – or is it admiration for how things have evolved, for better or worse, in film?
I think it’s all good when it helps to tell the story for the big screen, and the small screen too. From matte paintings and miniatures to CGI and beyond, they all contribute in their own way to the visual telling of the written word, or story.
For us old guys, we had it all because we did learn how to create illusions using practical effects with much smaller budgets, and most of the time it gave us great satisfaction creating these special effects to the director’s liking. In Teacup Travels, the last project I worked on before retiring, we used a lot of green screen; it was a handy tool in telling the stories of each episode.
The thinking and engineering done through CGI comes from a different skillset than the one I was trained on, so of course I am less enamoured with it compared to old-school techniques. Still, I recognize that our profession is always evolving and moving forward with the times. Ultimately, I feel so lucky to have had a career in the motion picture and television business when I did, and in retrospect I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Read more about Leslie’s BAFTA Cymru award here.
words CARL MARSH
