Tim Rose has had an interesting and accomplished career as a puppeteer. He is best known for playing Admiral Ackbar in the Star Wars franchise. He first starred as the iconic character in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) and went on to be featured in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017).
In addition to playing Admiral Ackbar, Rose was one of the puppeteers behind the titular hero in the 1986 cult classic sci-fi film Howard the Duck and contributed his talents to various Muppets projects.
Recently, we talked with Rose at Toronto Comicon about his life and career.
Horror Geek Life: As an actor and puppeteer, what did you start your career doing?
Tim Rose: I was acting first but never wanted to be an actor. I always wanted to make my living puppeteering. There was only one University you could go to that had any degree in puppeteering, this guy in Connecticut, but he was sort of exploiting his students for his plays he wanted to do, so I thought I’d just go someplace and get a degree in acting and directing, with the thought of putting it into my puppeteering. Just so I’d be a better puppeteer. You wouldn’t believe the number of times, because I build all of this stuff as well as perform it, you build this thing and get there to shoot, say, a commercial, and you get introduced to these actors who are going to be doing the puppets, but they’re not puppeteers. But they wanted a proper performance out of the puppets.
So yeah, you had this constant discrimination. Puppeteers are just playing at it, but actors are real performers. I contend that between the two disciplines, puppeteering is far harder than acting because yes, you have to create the character and do a good performance, but then the other half of your brain has to work on the technical side. What physical movements do you do that will have your audience think this thing is alive. You are actually doing two performances in one.
HGL: You entered the Star Wars universe playing Admiral Ackbar and puppeteering characters like Sy Snootles and Salacious Crumb. How did you land roles doing both?
Tim Rose: Well, it started with the puppeteering. I always knew I was doing Salacious Crumb and Sy Snootles. We were working on these other alien characters, and I saw Ackbar and asked who he was. I was told he’s another background character that appears later in the movie, and when I found out Ackbar didn’t share any scenes with Crumb and Snootles, I asked if I could do his character too, and they said ok (laughs). I’d love to say that I auditioned against thousands of people and was so superior that I got the part, but that was really all it was, I asked if I could play Ackbar, and they said yes.
HGL: When did you realize that Star Wars, and your involvement, was really something special?
Tim Rose: Many years later. The first convention, a signing event I did, was in England, and this guy had been bothering me for some time to come to his convention. I couldn’t understand the appeal, and he explained that people collect things that are signed, so I was like, you are going to give me money just to put my name on a piece of paper? I thought it was crazy, but sure enough, I went there, people gave me money to do it. I think that’s when I realized that there was a really long life to this thing.
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HGL: What advice would you give someone who wanted to make puppeteering a career?
Tim Rose: Run (laughs). Actually, Paul Blake, who played Greedo, and I were in Aberdeen last weekend together; we said right, they are going to ask us at the Q&A how you get into the movie business. We both looked at each other simultaneously, laughed, and said we had no clue. We had no idea how we did it, just the right place at the right time. So, of course, the question came up at the Q&A, and I said ok, every single person I’ve met in the movie business was already doing it before they got paid for it. They were using their brothers and sisters in plays, putting makeup on them, and shooting them in these little movies.
Yes, you have to be in the right place at the right time, but if you’re lucky enough to be there when it’s your time to step up to the plate, you better damn well hit a home run if you ever want to work again. (laughs) But really, that only comes for years of playing at it before, professionally, you get a chance to do it, and every one of us went through that.
HGL: How great is it to be back at conventions like this in Toronto and meet the fans again after a few years of not being able to?
Tim Rose: You mean after the time in the wasteland? (laughs). I’ve got a website that I sell photographs from, and, of course, during lockdown, that was the only contact I was getting with the fans. What I was writing on the Ackbar pictures, the headshot, was, “Life in lockdown is like life in space. Very small living quarters and alien lifeforms just outside the airlock.”
You know, I hate to travel, I do, but I love the fans. It’s funny, I read a thing about Neil Armstrong, after he returned from his moon mission, he had to go to convention after convention, and he said, “You know that thing in Star Trek, where they can beam you anywhere, I wish they’d hurry up and invent that.” He couldn’t have said it any better. I mean, why can’t I push a button and then instantly arrive in Toronto? But with everything in the right place when I got there, not like The Fly. (laughs)
