About His Character

December 5, 1998
Brian Blessed on BBC Radio. Brain Blessed was on BBC radio 1 chatting away about his part in Episode 1. Unlike Liam Neeson, Samuel L Jackson, Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor Blessed is just yakking away about his part in the film. Is he supposed to be doing this? Why is he even doing this? What is Lucas going to do about this? For now we can just hear what BIG spoilers this man has to say. Here is a link from the official BBC site on the interview.

Brian Blessed Talks On British Radio About STAR WARS EPISODE ONE. SPOILERS
Here is a report from England about an interview Brian Blessed did this morning on RADIO ONE. Blessed plays Boss Nass, if memory serves, who is not a Jedi as he claims in this article, it's been established for quite some time that Blessed played a member of Jar Jar's race. But here's the interview anyway...

I've not been in touch before but here's some amazing news i've just heard here in the UK.
Brian Blessed has just been a guest on Radio One on the Simon Mayo show. Now, he's starring in Episode One (which i wasn't aware of) as some sort of leader of '50 million Jedis' and apparently he has to appear in front of all these Jedis as their leader!!! He said he rides around on a dinosaur throughout the movie (i'm sure he doesn't literally mean a dinosaur - probably some sort of mammoth or similar Star Wars entity??). He also said his character lived on a world which was covered in water and was full of 'mechanical fish' and strange creatures!!
He said most of the work he'd done had been in front of a blue screen and that he'd worked with Liam Neeson and George Lucas had been great to work with. He was EXTREMELY enthusiastic and said the film would be brilliant. He was very genuine.
Hope this confirms things you may already know or even surprise you with new info.
KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE!!!
Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder

And here's how Colly heard it....

I've just heard Brian Blessed talking on (UK) Radio One FM, he was on the morning DJ Simon Mayo's regular God of the week slot, Thursday 3/12/98 11.15 am. Apart from talking about films & TV he talked about his role as Boss Nass in Star Wars Episode One. I didn't get all of it down, but he tried out for one role but thought he'd come over too strong. Then while working on something else and staying in a run down hotel he got a fax from Lucas asking him if he could build something up, around a Jamaican/something else accent. Brian then went on to talk about how he's playing Boss Nass on a CGI world which is mostly water but with some stunning landscapes, it includes electric fish and dinosaurs [he could have meant cgi]. The Boss NAss character plays a reluctant hero, and Brian has some scenes with Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. Apparently Boss Nass gets the last line in the film. Most of Brian's scenes were against a blue screen and apparently the effects guys will be making the cgi of the half-man seal really convincing so that they come across as people more than the human parts. They will also be getting 6-8 track recording for their vocals so that they come across better.
In one scene Brian's character apparently is in front of an army of jedi and Naboos and has to inspire them, according to Brian [doing a Lucas impression] he's got 5 million guys in front of him to inspire and Lucas wants a key line form him. Brian goes "blurlahlahlahlah", and as he says Lucas loves it and goes print that.
Sorry I can't give you a complete transcript but I was listening and now typing at work.
all the best
"Colly"

12/03/98: BRIAN BLESSED ON UK RADIO
8:30 am CST
David Harrison sent us the following report:
I just thought I'd let you know that over here in the UK, on BBC Radio 1 this morning, they aired a live interview with Brian Blessed who, although not revealing anything too paramount to the plot, he let go of a few interesting facts.
Firstly, Blessed revealed his awe at uttering the final line in Episode I as Boss Nass, describing himself as a 'reluctant hero'. Apparently, he was originally hired by Lucas for another part, but Lucas decided Blessed was 'too loud' for that particular role. Anyone who is familiar with Brian Blessed will fully understand the logic behind Lucas' choice here.
Secondly, he told the interviewer of his transport during the film being 'some kind of mechanical dinosaur' which he 'rides all over the place'. He discussed the planet Naboo by name, adding that an assortment of 'wonderful submarines, mechanical fish and an assortment of watery type creatures' adorned the set. Also worth note is his description of one particular scene where 'tens-of-thousand' of Naboo inhabitants are begging him for his help. I think that I've included anything of worth here, and as I say, although not overly revealing, these little details are quite interesting - at least we know that Boss Nass doesn't get killed during the film now, as revealed in Blessed's admission to having the last line in the script.
One other thing worth mentioning is the way in which Blessed pronounced the name of Liam Neeson's character, Qui-Gon Jinn. The 'Jinn' seems to be pronounced with a French tinge, as in Jean Reno.

Gren Cropper added the following:
Anyway, highly entertaining (very funny man) and Star Wars E1 was brought up. Much of what was said was already known. He mentioned his character BOSS NASS King of the Gungans and that the Jedi?Naboo go for their help. He also mentioned that Lucas asked him "you've got the Jedi and Naboo bowing at your feet begging for your help what does BOSS NASS say to them, how does he convey his response", Brian answers with a loud, deep war cry. Lucas replies something along the lines of"thats why I hired you, your mad!!"

Thanks to Gary Bethel who also sent in a report.

November 2, 1998
More The Force Net Episode information. The Force Net has also posted up more goodies.

On Boss Nass
It's also worth noting that Boss Nass and other underwater city officials look completely different. Not only much fatter, but totally different, although they have some vague fish characteristics like Jar Jar. They also have completely different speaking patterns from Jar Jar. It seems very unlikely that they belong to the same race. Also, in one scene, Jar Jar refers to "Da Bosses". The following is example of what Jar Jar speaks like. In writing it looks like this: "Mesa cause-ed mabee one or duey lettal bitty ax-adentes... yud-say boom da gasser, un crash Der Bosses heyblibber... den banished." Do YOU understand that??? I have some difficulties.

Hmmmm....we're not so sure about them being different species, but we do know that there seem to be variations on the Gungans. Keep watching for more details!

"Next up, Flaming Jawa has returned to give us some really cool news. They were able to get some lines from many of the prequel characters. We were able to confirm many of these with our other sources. They are really big spoilers, so you'll have to highlight them to read them:

Boss Nass: "Wesa no like da Naboo! Da Naboo tink day so smarty. Day tink day brains so big."

February 20, 1999
This Bio came from the back packaging of the episode 1 action figures. Along with the bios are Commtech chip lines that the figures say to one another. Only time will tell if the bios and the lines are real. These were posted on SirSteve's Star War Guide.

"Boss Nass is the leader of the amphibious Gungans who live in the Naboo underwater city of Otoh Gunga. He initially resists the Jedi's Pleas for help against the Trade Federation invasion, but later comes to realize that the fate of the Gungans and Naboo are intertwined."
Commtech: "Wesa no like da Naboo." ; "Yousa no tinken yoousa greater den da Gungans. " ; and "Maybe wesa bein friends."

About Brian Blessed