Extracts from the Robert Williams Interview
Star Wars
Rose Bruford
Held in the grounds of Colchester Castle - 22nd June 2007
My name is Robert Williams, I am a journalist and broadcaster. In June 2007 I interviewed Dr Ralph Morse, his professional associates, colleagues, friends and family, and am honoured to contribute to this website.
The various pages on Ralphmorse.com include references and quotes from those interviews, so we thought it would be interesting to include some extracts here not covered elsewhere on the website.
Having begun the interview with Ralph by asking him a few questions about his childhood, he told me how his interest in puppetry at an early age, itself a response to being an only child, had led to him staging shows initially on the living room table. At what point did he move on from puppets to being an actor himself?
"Well the two things obviously overlapped. Firstly, I would argue that since I was writing the scripts, arranging the sets, sound effects etc. and most significantly creating a whole range of character voices I was acting from a very early age. But, appearing as myself, that would have been as the innkeeper's son in the my primary school nativity play. I think I only had one line; "This way sir", or "over there, sir", something like that. Apparently I managed to keep myself on stage for four or five minutes by extemporising much to the amusement of the audience but equally to the annoyance of the teacher who was producing the show. I was seven..."
Was there, I asked a "eureka" moment when he discovered that he might have the power to engage an audience in a more appropriate way?
"I guess there were a couple. The first one starts with reading. Until I was seven, my reading age was very low, in fact I couldn't understand much at all. I also suffered from a minor speech impediment. Suddenly, it seemed like literally overnight, my reading age jumped to something like fourteen and the impediment disappeared too. The second probably occurred during the first week or so I was at secondary school ... rumour had reached them that I was a very good public speaker. One morning I was given the opening of "Wind in the Willows" to read to the whole school. After some initial sniggering, with no prompting they stopped and started listening... it seemed they were eating out of the palm of my hand and to have that affect an audience was a remarkable feeling...."
Even though he was only eleven years of age, teachers started to call upon him for public events and the drama and music departments, as well as the local community cast him in an increasing number of roles.
View of the lake at Rose Bruford College (Taken at the launch of the Alumni Association, 1st July 2007)
His talent would ultimately take him to the prestigious Rose Bruford College. Ralph told me several amusing and sometimes quite serious anecdotes of his time there but which one has had the greatest impact as an actor and teacher?
"The Principal during my time was Professor Jean Norman Benedetti, reknowned for his influential directing and writing, especially on the great Russian practitioner Constantin Stanislavski.... Jean Norman took us for acting class. These could last a while and we had a session before and after lunch on this particular day. We were doing an exercise in tragedy entitled "The Baby in the Bath". This was curiously enough a Stanislavskian exercise. It centres around "units and objectives", the "through-line of action" that form just one element of the "System" as it is called. Basically there are three acting roles and one associated character, the baby who is imagined, or created by a rolled-up jumper or something like that. So the class divides into groups of three: the father, mother, disturbed child and of course the baby.
"Each character has it's own super-objective; (if you like a primary motivation). In the father's case he has brought cash money home from the factory to count. If he fails to balance the books, they will loose their income and their home. His objective is quite clear.
"Mother is balancing several things at the same time. She is preparing dinner, keeping an eye on the older disturbed child while attempting to give the baby a bath.....
"Since the scene is set in Russia it is very cold and there is a fire burning in the grate. The son is obsessed with flames and given half a chance would set fire to the table, curtains, flowers or whatever else is to hand. Needless to say there is no welfare system to support the various social needs of the family.
"The father comes home stressed, totally absorbed with his financial worries. His long suffering wife could do with a little help, while junior wants affection and something to play with. The father reluctantly agrees to keep an eye on things while the wife goes out to the kitchen. He is not really paying attention to anything other than the money and keeping his son away from it. A cry from the kitchen announces that mum has either burnt or cut herself. Father rushes out to deal with the problem. Meanwhile, the disturbed boy takes the money and sets fire to it. Father comes back discovers what has happened and in a fit of rage kills his son. Mother hears all pandemonium, comes out of the kitchen, finds the dead son and then with the ultimate tragedy they discover the baby has drowned in the bath.
"In our group, Kika Mirylees was mum, Adrian Mills father and I was the son. All the groups spent some time preparing and then half of the groups' work would be seen before lunch, the other half after lunch. The acting was intense and emotional but the murder of the child never seemed to quite work because no matter how hard the students tried the deaths seemed never convincing enough. Just before we broke for lunch I suggested to Kika and Ade that I exchange the table we were using for an identical broken one in the cafeteria. Ade could then throw me against it, the leg would give-in and that would look really convincing. As we were the first up in the afternoon session no-one would know.
"Unfortunately, it all worked rather too well. Adrian was sufficiently edgy from the outset, Kika very much the concerned mother and when we got to the murder we really went for it. Adrian threw me really convincingly, I took a quick shoulder roll of his throw and hit the leg of the table with some force, breaking it totally off on impact. The top landed between my shoulder blades with a pleasing crunch and slid down onto my buttocks. I gave my best yell. Kika, as mum, accused my character of being silly before getting hysterical as the truth hit her and attacking Ade in her delerium. I was able to see most of this from my vantage point behind the broken table top; the audience of course could no longer see my face. Finally Adrian buried his face in his hands as Kika collapsed at the site of the dead baby. Job done, I thought.
"But there was no audience response for a few seconds. It was as though they were in shock. Suddenly everyone rushed forward to see if I was all right. Professor Benedetti brought the session to a close and explained a few important issues to us. You see, we had gone beyond the acting remit we had been given and created a dramatic piece where the audience became genuinely concerned for the safety of an actor. They were no longer watching a piece of theatre, but in their minds a real event. This was further established in their minds because a perfectly serviceable table before the lunch break had been well and truly broken during the course of our drama. We had certainly achieved a convincing death but too convincing for our own good.
"While I understood what he was saying, I guess at the time I was quite proud to have actually been believable enough to frighten a bunch of trainee actors. Now of course, I see things differently. As a teacher myself, I would be concerned by the issues Professor Benedetti raised in respect of the acting and also the attendant health and safety issues he discussed in his summing up later. It is all well being clever, but I could seriously have hurt myself if the trick had failled and I'd been genuinely injured. I learnt so much from those sessions."
Ralph went on to play many leading roles at Rose Bruford and subsequently in the professional theatre. But I will leave you with the one question that he has been asked more than any other.
(Public domain image)
May the Morse be with you !
Williams: How did you become a stormtrooper?
Morse: Well I had been put up by an agent for a role as a desk officer in a new film entitled "The Empire Strikes Back" and arrived at Elstree film studios expecting to read for a small part in a film about India.
Williams: You mean you didn't know that this was a Star Wars movie?
Morse: Had no idea. Finding leading roles are of course undertaken by casting directors, but often smaller parts are cast further down the chain, especially if additional scenes are written during the shoot. I guess my picture was seen in "The Spotlight" and my agent got a call.
Williams: So you would have been cast because your face was right for the role?
Morse: Well I am speculating, and may still have had to read, but when you only have a couple of lines in an action movie I do not suppose they are particularly interested that you are preparing to play King Lear.
Williams: Point taken. So you come to audition for this small part but how did you end up as a stormtrooper?
Morse: Well while I was waiting, an assistant appeared and explained that a cast member had gone down with a long-term illness; as I was there I was then asked if I was interested in being a stormtrooper and be ready to start immediately. So that was it.
Williams: And you started filming when?
Morse: Same day. Went to wardrobe was given a costume, strapped into it and straight onto set. We were then asked to half-run down this corridor and I promptly made a complete fool of myself.
Williams: How?
Morse: Well I couldn't see, my three companions moved quite competently while I was staggering about like a drunk. I couldn't see properly. The helmet they had given me was faulty; the material in the eye-holes was crinkled. I think it was the same type of gel they use in stage lights and it had become crinkled so it was like looking through a bathroom window. Fortunately they gave me a new helmet and I was all right after that. It was an experience ...
Before the interview was over, Ralph told me several comical anecdotes about his time as a stormtrooper, but as we would not like to spoil the illusion I shall not be publishing these...
(... but one last thing, we can confirm, in answer to the second most popular question; "Was Ralph Morse the stormtrooper who banged his head," the reply is a definite "No")...
Ralph Morse is member of Artslink, Colchester