Star Wars’ Secret: How CGI Arms Solved Christopher Lee’s Health Issues!

Here’s a fascinating story about Christopher Lee, who memorably portrayed the infamous Count Dooku in George Lucas’s Star Wars prequel trilogy. According to Nick Gillard, the stunt and lightsaber duel choreographer for the trilogy, during the production of “Revenge of the Sith,” Christopher Lee, described as “one of the greatest sword fighters of all time,” had to submit a doctor’s note to Gillard stating he could no longer raise his hands above his elbows due to a blood or heart condition. By the time the film was released in 2005, Lee was already 83 years old. He passed away ten years later, in 2015, at the age of 93.

At that point, Nick Gillard had already choreographed the entire duel featuring Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) against Count Dooku at the start of the film, and therefore had to rethink everything considering Christopher Lee’s health condition.

“I went to George and I said, ‘What do you want to do?’ And he said, ‘We need to change the fight.’ And it was a really good fight,” Gillard recounted.

That’s when John Knoll and Rob Coleman from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), who Gillard considers the world’s best CGI animators, stepped in: “They said, ‘We’d like to handle this. We think we can maybe do his arms and his sword.’”

From then on, during that duel, Christopher Lee barely moved, and his arms and lightsaber were completely animated.

“So ultimately, in the fights he did in Revenge of the Sith, he didn’t move much at all. He moved like that and his arms and lightsaber are CGI,” revealed Gillard. And the result is simply perfect – as you can see in the video below:

Impressive, isn’t it?

The Star Wars prequels, as well as the entire saga, are available for streaming on Disney+.

Also, listen to Nick Gillard’s interview below: