Ray Park, AKA Darth Maul At SciFi World

Ray Park is the actor who played Darth Maul in Star Wars, Snake Eyes in G.I Joe, and Toad in X-Men. He was at the Science fiction event SciFiWorld today doing a Q&A. Here are some highlights from the session.

Q. Which is your favorite Star Wars movie?

A. The Empire Strikes Back

Q. Was it difficult doing the choreography with the make-up and the horns?

A. No, actually it was way more difficult doing it with the thick leather gloves and biker boots. The makeup you tend to forget it’s even there when you’re concentrating on the performance.

Q. What was your reaction when you realized that Darth Maul survived in the animated series “The clone wars”?

A. I started watching it a bit. He (Darth Maul) seems older, and while I would have played him differently it gave me hope that maybe I would play him again some day.

I actually started practicing my lightsaber skills just for fun. But yeah, I like the new Darth Maul. He’s different, but good.

(He has also previously expressed desire to return as Darth Maul in episode 7, so let’s stay hopeful)

Q. What did you have to do for your audition for the part as Darth Maul?

A. I didn’t look for the role, but I was doing another movie in the same building as Star Wars, and a friend I worked with recommended me for the part. So then someone from Star Wars asked if I could do a very physical sort of stunt role.

My performance was actually terrible, I couldn’t stop doing the silly voice I had done earlier when joking around with a friend. But I got the part when I did the action scenes the next week.

Q. Are you familiar with (fan fiction), and what did you think of it?

A. I actually don’t read any things with my old characters in them, for me a part is pretty much over when I’m done playing it. To read fan fiction would be to tease myself that I might get to play the role again.

As a side note he mentioned how he never could have imagined that he would ever have fans, or even be doing a Q&A at a convention. And that he felt right out honored.

Ray Park was very charismatic and quite fun. He told us about how he and his friends used to re-enact scences from Soul Calibur for fun. He even showed us some of his moves:

Then he had a question for the audience. “Have you ever tried turning on the lightswitch using the force?” The audience laughed and essentially everyone said yes. “And there was a moment were you were sure, in your head, that you almost got it that time”

A very fun Q&A that exceeded my expectations.