Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed pic from HAMLET
Brian Blessed - was in Flash Gordon, Hamlet, and Robin
Hood: Prince of Thieves
8:30 am CST
If you'd like to hear the BBC's interview with Brian Blessed, you can download a Real Audio clip of it here. [UPDATED - They moved the link on us. This link now works] Worth checking out!!! (Thanks to Andrew Clark for the info.)
8:30 am CST
David Harrison sent us the following report:
I just thought I'd let you know that over here in the UK, on BBC Radio 1 this morning, they aired a live interview with Brian Blessed who, although not revealing anything too paramount to the plot, he let go of a few interesting facts.
Firstly, Blessed revealed his awe at uttering the final line in Episode I as Boss Nass, describing himself as a 'reluctant hero'. Apparently, he was originally hired by Lucas for another part, but Lucas decided Blessed was 'too loud' for that particular role. Anyone who is familiar with Brian Blessed will fully understand the logic behind Lucas' choice here.
Secondly, he told the interviewer of his transport during the film being 'some kind of mechanical dinosaur' which he 'rides all over the place'. He discussed the planet Naboo by name, adding that an assortment of 'wonderful submarines, mechanical fish and an assortment of watery type creatures' adorned the set. Also worth note is his description of one particular scene where 'tens-of-thousand' of Naboo inhabitants are begging him for his help. I think that I've included anything of worth here, and as I say, although not overly revealing, these little details are quite interesting - at least we know that Boss Nass doesn't get killed during the film now, as revealed in Blessed's admission to having the last line in the script.
One other thing worth mentioning is the way in which Blessed pronounced the name of Liam Neeson's character, Qui-Gon Jinn. The 'Jinn' seems to be pronounced with a French tinge, as in Jean Reno.
Gren Cropper added the following:
Anyway, highly entertaining (very funny man) and Star Wars E1 was brought up. Much of what was said was already known. He mentioned his character BOSS NASS King of the Gungans and that the Jedi?Naboo go for their help. He also mentioned that Lucas asked him "you've got the Jedi and Naboo bowing at your feet begging for your help what does BOSS NASS say to them, how does he convey his response", Brian answers with a loud, deep war cry. Lucas replies something along the lines of"thats why I hired you, your mad!!"
Thanks to Gary Bethel who also sent in a report.
7/26/98 - Alert readers Nigel Forbes and Darth Maul brought to our attention that prequel actor Brian Blessed (Boss Nass) just had a brush with death in a plane accident, which occurred in Venezuela.
Fortunately, he and the other passengers survived. Here's the article from Yahoo UK:
My Jungle Plane Ordeal, By Actor
Actor Brian Blessed has described how he cheated death when his plane crash-landed in a South American rain forest.
He and seven other passengers miraculously escaped with their lives when the twin-engined 410 Lett plane came down in dense forest in the Venezuelan mountains.
It landed in a swamp and the passengers were forced to swim for their lives in case of an explosion.
12/17/97 - BRIAN BLESSED REVEALS HIS CHARACTER'S NAME - Alert reader Gaven McCarthy brought this to our attention. Today's Daily Express, a British paper, had an interview with Prequels actor Brian Blessed. The article talks about Brian's fund-raising, and then goes on about his film career which leads to the Prequel:
Brian will also be returning to the big screen in 1999 as Boss Nass, in the first of the new Star Wars trilogy. "It's all a bit hush-hush, but I can say that my character is a goody, and that I was very happy with my fee."
"Landing big jobs like that helps take the pressure off the fund-raising for my climbing expeditions," he says.
Another source of ours was able to confirm that Boss Nass is the name of Blessed's character as well.
8/22/97 - Bart Barenburg found out that Brian Blessed and Femi Taylor (Oola) were in CATS together! Here's his report:
"Both are on the OLC recording of Cats. Brian Blessed plays Old Deuteronomy and Femi Taylor plays several ensemble roles including a siamese cat during "the ballad of Billy McCaw", and a cat named Tantomile in Skimbleshanks' song. So they did work together."
The following pics are from:
Here and Here!.
