Passport to stars

AS the world forms orderly queues at the cinema to see the latest instalment of the Star Wars saga, one Dorset fan will allow himself a wry smile as he recalls what it's actually like to be close to the source of the Force, legendary film maker George Lucas.

For back in the late summer of 1997, James Cameron, from Winterborne Kingston, spent three months on the set of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace as understudy and blocking double for Ewan McGregor, who starred as Obi Wan Kenobi.

"It was great to be involved, really exciting. The original Star Wars was the first film I saw - I was only four - and I was hooked. So to actually be involved in the making of a Star Wars movie was a huge thrill," says James, now 28, rightly proud of the part he has played in cinema history.

But it was far from glamorous. His job was to stand in for the star while the crew set lighting and camera positions. It was to save Ewan McGregor hanging around the film set when he wasn't needed to perform.

But James also had to be prepared to jump into the breach should the star not be able to do the shot. He had to know the lines and the moves.

"Once they had cast the film they looked around for people who had similar physical looks to the stars. Someone at college had said to me I looked a bit like Ewan McGregor when he was in Trainspotting, so I decided to go up for the Star Wars casting."

James got the job through an agent he enlisted to find him acting work as an extra, in the run-up to starting a degree in archaeology at Bournemouth University, in September 1997.

He had done a few TV adverts and promotional videos, but Star Wars is the highlight of his career so far.

And it's a serious business. "I'd heard about George Lucas's non-disclosure agreements and it was made very clear - crystal clear - from the beginning that if we broke the agreements we signed we would be in a lot of trouble.

"Basically we had to say that if we spoke to anyone about the film before its release we had to clear it first with Lucasfilms.

"As I was hardly involved at all I didn't get many offers of interviews unfortunately!

"Having said that, signing those agreements made it all the more exciting really. There wasn't any 'We'll send the boys round' stuff but it felt like some kind of covert operation and they would do things to put us off the scent.

"Most of the scenes were shot out of sequence so not even the stars had a full idea of what was happening in the story."

James remembers George Lucas as "very focused" and completely professional on the film set in Watford, not displaying any signs of the rages and rows that have been reported.

"Oh, he knew exactly what he wanted and that's what he got. The days weren't all that long really as he wasn't up against any sort of time scale, unlike some movies. We did five- or six-hour days.

"He had all these subplots and back stories for every aspect of Star Wars - things you would never know about just watching the films - it's incredible the work that has gone into it."

James also recounts the day the entire crew came in dressed in checked lumberjack shirts in honour of Lucas's preferred casual dress style. "He must have those shirts in every colour!"

James spent some time talking to Ewan McGregor the few times they met on-set. He found it slightly unsettling to meet the celebrity he was meant to look like, but they got on well and found common ground in James's Scottish ancestry.

"He was a nice enough bloke. There wasn't as much fun and larking about on set as I had expected - they were all very professional.

"I can't tell you what I got paid - not as much as Ewan - but it was enough to mean I could start college comfortably that September."

James couldn't follow the production to its next location in Italy - they employed local extras as stand-ins - but he had always intended to follow up and try to get on the next Star Wars film.

However, the intervention of fatherhood prevented him joining Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones as he helped his partner Beverley with their twin bundles of joy: Oakley James Sunshine and Olivia Aphrodite Moonshadow.

They're names and a half... "Well, we always wanted them to have interesting names and they'll hate us when they're older.

"Sunshine is after my favourite movie - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - and Olivia's name is purely for comedy value!"

The acting work dried up a little in the face of fatherhood and teaching English to language students, but he has started going for auditions again.

"It's quite interesting as you never really know what you're going into. I did one for the ITV show The Premiership where I had to look like a football fan. I had to stand next to a fat, sweaty Geordie and pretend to celebrate a goal. I don't know if I'll get it. We'll see..."