Charles Ross interview

Charles Ross is the world-famous Canadian actor who has been performing his trademark One Man Star Wars Trilogy show on and off for the last six years. He's staging it for the final time ever this month before starting new projects, and you can find the details here.

We had the chance to interview Charles Ross recently, and find out just where he gets all the energy from.

Charles Ross: After doing the whole show it's still pretty exhausting but you'd be surprised - having done the show for about six years you learn the pattern. It's almost like going for a run where you take the same route every day. You eventually learn the geography that you're going to have to contend with, when to push and when to hold back, and it actually becomes second nature. You always have a different audience, which is fantastic.

Do you think you could do it in your sleep?

Charles Ross: I hope not. [laughter] I've had it happen sometimes, I must admit.  I don't wake up in the morning screaming Yoda's lines or anything like that, but I've definitely found that it just rattles off without me even thinking sometimes.

Do people always expect a performance from you when they meet you?

Charles Ross: Sometimes, yeah. I've heard people ask me about going to parties, and if I'd bring 'the entertainment', so to speak, in the form of Star Wars. The answer is no. I think at some point I may have done that a long, long time ago.

In a galaxy far, far away? (We couldn't resist.)

Charles Ross: Yeah. And since then I think people know me more for who I am. I never intended for all this to happen. I'm quite thrilled that it has and that it's gone well, but I would never have classified myself as a typical Star Wars geek before doing this show. But now of course I can't get away from it. I'm positively a Star Wars super-nerd because I do Star Wars for a living. I guess you can't escape your doom!

I'm sure George Lucas can sympathise.

Charles Ross: Yeah. He can. But, I know he can count a lot more stacks of money than I can. [laughter].

You mention you've been doing this for years. Do you ever mix it up, just to keep it fresh for yourself?

Charles Ross: Sure. You're always trying to keep things fresh in some way. As I said, it's nice that the audience is always changing and because I tour the show, the environment is always changing. I mix things up in the pace a little bit. If a new joke comes to me I just try it out right there on the audience because I really don't have anything to lose, other than the fact that people will either laugh or not laugh and if it goes well I'll add it to the show for a while and see if it should be put there permanently.

What gets the biggest laugh?

Charles Ross: Luke Skywalker. I think I kind of look like him, unfortunately. My hair has at times been sort of like his horrendous, feathered, 1970s hairdo. There are a couple of specific jokes that just get laughs consistently, but I think anywhere in the world people have noticed that Luke Skywalker was a completely whiny guy and I don't really have to send it up any more than what he already did!

Your show has had rave reviews - Lucasfilm themselves are fans.

Charles Ross: Well, I'm licensed by them.

Exactly. There's no greater compliment, really. Do you have any other celebrity fans?

Charles Ross: Oh, I don't think so. I mean, Vin Diesel came and saw the show. He and Ian McKellan. I'm trying to think of who else... I think some Star Wars ex-cast members have seen it, when I was in New York performing it there. I have had quite a few, you know, television stars and the odd movie person come out and see the show. But I've honestly just tried to not think about it because when you have somebody like that in the audience it can be a bit unnerving, especially if you're a fan of theirs. Ian McKellan actually stuck around afterwards and we chatted for a while and I ended up going to lunch with him a couple of weeks later.

Am I right in thinking you've done a One Man version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well?

Charles Ross: Yeah. That's what he came to see. At the time he was really coming into international stardom, because of The Lord of the Rings. All throughout university we studied the RSC [Royal Shakespeare Company] and I remember we watched old videos that they had made on how to speak Shakespeare. People like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan and Alan Bates, they're all there teaching people how to speak Shakespeare and I just remember thinking they make it look so freaking easy because North Americans sure as hell can't speak Shakespeare at all. It sounds like shit. But a Brit starts speaking it and it's like, 'Damn it!' All the training that I could possibly have for four years, and in two seconds a Brit speaking Shakespeare sounds better than all the training I've had.

So the tour in the UK this month is the last hurrah?

Charles Ross: I'm hoping so, yeah. This will be the third tour throughout the country. At some point it has to kind of end, you know. I love touring the UK. I was always really worried about the audiences, because of the theatre tradition in the UK, that the audiences would just think I was crap and not bother to come to watch the show. But I found people just have come out and been so supportive and I think generally have loved the show. It's such a different place to be than in North America where there isn't a strong theatrical tradition.

All I ever want to be is a theatre actor. I don't really have any aspirations towards television or film. Making a living in North America can be very difficult and I find that I have to go to where the work can be found, where it can be fostered. So, even though this is sort of the last tour of Star Wars in the UK, at least for the foreseeable future, I know that even in in a place like the UK it has to find it's natural end, otherwise you're just, you know, flogging a dead horse - even more so than I already am with the subject matter. You know, Star Wars is done. We can get past it.

So what's next? Any other movie trilogies begging to be given the One Man treatment?

Charles Ross: Well I've actually done a new show this year. It's the same as the physical style of the Star Wars show, but completely different. Much more pedestrian subject matter. It's the story of a younger man working at a corner store. However, it goes into the realm of this medieval warrior who fights demons and shit. So, that's sort of what I'm doing. I'm just trying it out this summer here. I'm going to tour it a bit and see how it goes.

The new show I have is probably the closest thing to theatrical sci-fi that I can get without it being pure sci-fi and not referencing other work. I just remember seeing a guy on stage doing this sci-fi-esque show, which wasn't taking itself seriously, which was great, and I thought - that's the best damn thing I've ever seen. It has no borders at all and it can use all the theatrical conventions that we're aware of and, and yet it was just one person. And that to me is like the ultimate freedom. If you can make a living out of doing work on your own or in a small group, that's just better, I think.

Thank you Charles Ross.

That link again, if you want to catch his hilarious show, is here.