Before he voiced the spider who gave you nightmares in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Julian Glover terrorized Rebels in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and he has now revealed he got his Veers role by neighborly chat.
“Did I ever tell you how I got that role in Star Wars? The executive director on the film was a man called Robert Watts, and he lives right next door to me, here in Barnes. We were just good friends across the garden fence, and one day he said, ‘we’re setting up a second Star Wars film.’ And I said, ‘oh wonderful, the first one was so terrific’ – even though I did laugh, at first, about ‘the force’. And he said, ‘do you want to be in it?’ We couldn’t do that now of course… too much foliage.”
The acclaimed 87-year-old actor reveals the above in an article published by The Guardian today. In the piece Glover also says early negative reviews did not rattle him, talks about his Bohemian childhood and says thanks to his work in franchises like Star Wars and James Bond, he is lucky to always have a source of income by popping out to fan conventions when work is slower.
“At my age, I’m terribly worried when I haven’t worked for six months. I’m making a sort-of living by doing conventions. I’ve been so lucky, haven’t I, with all these big franchises?”
Glover will be seen next in Tár and Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher.