July 2000, by Scott Chitwood

On July 29th, 2000, we had the good fortune to be able to meet Ray Park at the Sci-Fi Expo in Austin, Texas. In attendance at the convention were members of FanForce from Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and even Lubbock. We also had a few of the webmasters from CollectStarWars.Com there, too.

I talked to the Sci-Fi Expo organizer Ben Stevens and Ray Park's manager Larry Bore. They were gracious enough to allow us to interview Ray Park at the end of a long, busy day of signing autographs and meeting people at the show. The whole gang was able to chat with Ray one on one, take pictures, and meet him a little bit longer than usual. (FanForce! Membership has its privelages!)

After saying our initial Hellos, we set up the video camera and conducted the interview. I apologize for the sound quality. The convention floor was a bit loud and it was sometimes difficult to hear Ray. But you should be able to understand what was said without too much problems. I also apologize for the quality of the video. I'm only able to digitize in MPEG format. It's not as compressed as Quicktime, but it gets the job done.

This is the first part of the interview. In this portion, we talked primarily about Star Wars and his role as Darth Maul. The second part of the interview is posted at MovieHeadlines.Net and we discuss his role as Toad in the X-Men movie.

Part 1 - 2.76 MB, MPEG File We started out by asking Ray Park if he has any role in Episode II at all. There had been a lot of rumors about his involvement, and this time he set the record straight himself. Ray also tells us about his travel schedule coming up after the convention. He's going to be traveling all over the world to various conventions and premieres of the X-Men Film. First stop - Mexico!

Part 2 - 3.73 MB, MPEG File Next we asked Ray if there were any accidents or close calls on the set. He told us about a bit if a painful accident during one of the lightsaber fights. And if you're asking about lightsaber fights, you've got to find out if he made the noises to go along with them. Ray demonstrates how Darth Maul swooshes his lightsaber.

Part 3 - 3.04 MB, MPEG File If you saw X-Men, then you know that there's a part where Toad picks up a bar and twirls it around in a similar way to Darth Maul in Episode I. We ask Ray if that was a tip of the hat to Darth Maul. He tells us how it came about. Not only that, we actually talk him into demonstrating the move for us (much to the delight of the everyone around).

Part 4 - 5.55 MB, MPEG File The next question for Ray was about his next project. What will it be? Will we see his face again? Will it be a speaking role? Would he like to do a comedy? Ray tells us what he's allowed to. We beat the rest out of him. (OK, just kidding there. He could take all of us.) Finally, we asked Ray a bit about his website RayPark.com. How involved is he on it? What can people find there?

This concludes the Star Wars portion of the interview. We continued on talking with Ray Park about his role as Toad in X-Men. This can be viewed at MovieHeadlines.Net. In the second half, Ray tells us if he'll be back in an X-Men sequel, close calls during stunts on the set, the toungue effects, and more!

Again, thanks to Ben Stevens from the Sci-Fi Expo, Larry Bore, and RayPark.Com. Also a big thanks to Eric Desormeaux who was the cameraman on this interview.

If you'd like more information on FanForce, click on the link! This won't be the last time we have a close encounter with Star Wars celebrities! Be there with us next time!