Attending Dallas Fan Days is always a highlight for me every year. I am a huge fan of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” and each year a group of the voice actors from the show make their way to Dallas for the event. Up until a couple of years ago, it was called “Star Wars Fan Days,” but to branch out the convention was opened up to other fanbases as well.
This year’s “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” cast attendees were Tom Kane (Yoda, the show announcer, Admiral Yularen), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano), Catherine Taber (Padme Amidala), Stephen Stanton (Tarkin, Mas Amedda, Brother Viscus), and Meredith Salenger (Barriss Offee, Che Amanwe, Ione Marcy). They spoke about the show in great detail, and you could feel the intense love the actors have for the series.
If you could choose, what would be each of your favorite episodes of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars?”
Tom Kane: I liked “Ambush” from a fan point of view and not because it was with Yoda. It had a little more of an “Empire Strikes Back” vibe than most episodes of “The Clone Wars” has in terms of Yoda’s personality. That’s my favorite one to watch as a fan.
Stephen Stanton: “Citadel Rescue.” They gave Tarkin a gun. What can I say?
Catherine Taber: I liked “Senate Spy” a lot. I like the interaction between Padme and Anakin in that one. I love “Rookies” because Dee Bradley Baker is amazing.
Ashley Eckstein: I love the Mortis Trilogy. I think the animation in that is stunning and the writing is great. Christian Taylor wrote that three-part story arc. I thought it was great. I thought Sam Witwer (the Son) and Matt Lanter’s (Anakin Skywalker) performances were fantastic in those episodes. Those three episodes are my favorite.
Meredith Salenger: I like “Brain Invaders.” I got to play two sort of different characters in that one. These brain worms invade Ferris, who’s always good and kind, and she has to turn evil. It’s nice to get to play with the dichotomy of that character. My action figure comes with brain worms.
Ashley Eckstein: I had nightmares after that one.
Is “Star Wars” creator George Lucas still heavily involved in the day-to-day activities and writing of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”?
Tom Kane: Absolutely. From what I’ve been told he’s in every meeting. He’s in the pitch meetings, the story development meetings, and such. From what I’m told by [supervising director] Dave [Filoni] he’s more involved in “The Clone Wars” than much of anything in years. He really likes this project.
Katherine Taber: Many times, we have to go in and do pick-ups such as fixing a technical difficulty or adding a line. Often those notes will be directly from George. Things like, “In this scene, yell more loudly because there’s all these spaceship going off” or “Add this to your line because it sounded too this or that.” I definitely would say he’s really not just overseeing this but is very detailed about the vision we’re putting out which is exciting.
For more articles by Eric Shirey, check out:
Actor Clancy Brown Talks About Voicing Savage Opress for ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’
‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Sound Designer/Voice Actor Talks About ‘Nomad Droids’
Supervising Director Dave Filoni Tells Us What to Expect from Season 4 of ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’
Eric Shirey is the founder and editor of Rondo Award nominated movie news websites MovieGeekFeed.com and TheSpectralRealm.com. His work has been featured on Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! TV, Associated Content from Yahoo!, DC Comics, StarWars.com, KISSOnline.com, and other national entertainment websites. Eric has interviewed and worked with actors like Harrison Ford, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Gerard Butler, Brooke Shields, Brendan Fraser, Michelle Monaghan, Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Gene Simmons, Ashley Tisdale, Selena Gomez and many more.