Snook Uccorfay

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Snook Uccorfay was a rich alien male who worked as a raconteur. In 34 ABY, he spent time in Canto Casino in the city of Canto Bight on the planet Cantonica. While Uccorfay was at the casino, Resistance agents Finn, Rose Tico and BB-8 arrived in search of the Master Codebreaker, but were arrested by the Canto Bight Police Department before they could reach him.

Biography[]

Snook Uccorfay was an alien male who worked as a raconteur^[2] and spent time in the city of Canto Bight on the planet Cantonica^[2] in the year 34 ABY.^[3] Along with Derla Pidys, he was present at a table in the Canto Casino when the Resistance agents Finn, Rose Tico and BB-8 entered in search of the Master Codebreaker. Before the trio could make it to their target, they were arrested by the Canto Bight Police Department in front of Uccorfay and the other patrons.^[1]

Personality and traits[]

Derla Pidys Canto Bight — Uccorfay at the casino tables in Canto Bight

Uccorfay was a rich and villainous, mole-like alien^[4] who lived life to the fullest in order to build a catalogue of outlandish tales. He was strongly drawn to wealthy females, whom he dazzled with his exceptional dancing skills.^[2] Uccorfay had black eyes and mottled brown and pink skin,^[1] which was freshly exfoliated on his face while he was in the casino. He was a member of a bipedal species with five stubby fingers on each hand and a long, round snout ending in a flat circular muzzle containing his mouth and nostrils. The end of the snout was circled by protrusions of skin.^[2]

Equipment[]

Uccorfay wore a black suit jacket over a patterned white shirt with black pants and black and white shoes. His snout and ear were pierced with traditional hoops that showed that he was unmarried.^[2]

Behind the scenes[]

Design[]

"At this point I must give credit to the team that designed and made Snook Uccorfay. These artists, fabricators and engineers are the unsung heroes that make these creatures look as amazing as they do."

―Kellington praises the designers of Uccorfay^[5]

Snook Uccorfay was portrayed by Nick Kellington, with facial puppeteering mostly by Patrick Comerford with additional work by Phill Woodfine in the film Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi,^[5] which was released on December 15, 2017.^[6] The character was revealed prior to the film's release on December 15, 2017^[6] in an issue of People magazine. Neither the magazine^[7] or film^[1] revealed Uccorfay's name, and he was first identified in Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary, a reference book written by Pablo Hidalgo^[2] and released the same day as the film.^[8]

The original design for Uccorfay was titled "Casino Alien 02"^[9] and was drawn by Jake Lunt Davies, after which the mask was sculpted by Louis Wiltshire and the body suit fabricated by Alan Murphy, Caz Gladwin and Fiona Pollard. The character's hands were created using the moulds originally produced by Scanlan's team for the character Unkar Plutt in Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, but then re-worked and painted differently by Goran Lundstrom, who painted all of Uccorfay's skin. The alien's hair was produced by Maria Cork's hair department and the animatronics designed by engineer Giles Hannagan. Michael Kaplan, Samantha Keeble and Gary Page produced Uccorfay's costume.^[5]

Creating a character[]

"At my first fitting for Snook, Neal described the character as a mixture of the British actors Terry Thomas and Brian Blessed to give me a starting point to work from. I took that to mean that Snook was a cad, a bounder and a bombastic randy bugger too! From that moment I knew that Snook Uccorfay was going to be a really fun character to play."

―Nick Kellington speaks about the character of Uccorfay^[5]

The alien's portly body shape was created using a body suit underneath the costume, that was light enough to move around in, but strong enough to hold its shape during long period of movement during a shoot. The character's mask was fairly spacious inside, but extremely front-heavy due to animatronic servos used to move the mouth and individual nodules around it. To counterbalance this, a bungee cord ran from the top of the costume's skull cap down to the center of its back. The only eye holes in the mask were the two nostrils of the snout, which were some distance from where the head of the performer wearing the costume would be, and so it provided extremely limited vision.^[5]

Kellington was asked to perform in The Last Jedi by Special Effects Creature Supervisor Neal Scanlan, who had worked with the actor previously when Kellington had played the part of Bistan in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story the previous year. Initially Kellington was meant to join fellow performer Paul Warren in bringing^[5] Gatha Elbaphay,^[10] an alien known on set as "the Dowager," to life; however, it was decided that only one man was needed to operate the Dowager and so Kellington was given Uccorfay's suit instead. During Kellington's first fitting, Scanlan described the character as a mix of British actors Terry Thomas and Brian Blessed.^[5]

Adventures on-set[]

"In between takes we'd find ways of amusing ourselves. Patrick would put on different voices and make up conversations Snook would be having with an SA who just happened to be stood next to me. Sometimes he'd even sing daft songs to make me dance. I would react to him and play along physically, not only because it made us laugh and took my mind off the physical restrictions of the costume, but also I think we were subconsciously developing a shortcut to performance between us."

―Kellington recounts his work with Comerford^[5]

After seeing the costume, Kellington decided that due to his stubby hands, Uccorfay would have trouble holding onto his money and so would probably be a terrible gambler. While on set, Comerford had to constantly direct Kellington due to his limited vision, with the actor only being able to respond with hand signals to the puppeteer. Comerford would let Kellington know when he was on camera and provided Uccorfay's voice, even continuing dialogue with other extras between takes in order to keep Kellington amused, even when the bungee holding up Uccorfay's head was broken for the majority of a two hour shoot. The actor would respond to the dialogue with physical movements to match, leaning in when Comerford had Uccorfay whisper amorous advances to the character Derla Pidys, portrayed by actress Latesha Wilson.^[5]

Other scenarios the pair devised and performed in the background included Uccorfay getting too drunk and being escorted out of the casino by the bouncer Pemmin Brunce, portrayed by actor Cavin Cornwall with puppeteering by Mark Jefferis. Despite Cornwall being totally blind in his costume, the two actors and two puppeteers managed to organize the sequence so Brunce was dragging Uccorfay by the scruff of his neck while the patron thrashed his stubby legs beneath him. Puppeteer Tim Rose pointed the sequence out to actor Anthony Daniels, who was impressed and said he would speak about it with director Rian Johnson, who never personally directed Kellington while he was on set.^[5]