For all the time he worked in cinema, Scottish actor Ray Park had the opportunity to participate in more than twenty projects. Due to its not very artistic appearance and its mediocre acting skills, the Park did not play any leading roles anywhere. But more than once his talent in martial arts was claimed.
The pinnacle of his career was the role of Darth Maul. The actor played the dark lord of the Sith in the first part of the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace saga (1999).
Personality of Darth Maul
Darth Maul was abducted by Darth Sidious while he was still his very young child. Having become his pupil, Dart studied them in an atmosphere of strictest secrecy. For years, Sidious burned out all his emotions from him except hatred, anger and rage. Thus, having reached adolescence, Darth Maul was a real instrument of death.
He was the only known Jedi to masterfully use a double-edged sword. When the enemy was alone, Dart easily dealt with him and a simple sword. If there were several of them, he released a second light blade, thereby turning his two-handed sword with a wide grip into something like a staff - a real tool of death.
How masterfully he operates with them can be seen in the next short film by German filmmakers, where Darth Maul was played by actor and martial artist Ben Shamm.
The mystery of the personality of the actor
In a single episode of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, the director used a specially invited martial artist from Scotland, whose identity remained a mystery until the very last moment. Pre-premiere trailers released by the film company aroused a storm of conflicting emotions among fans and fans of the Star Wars universe and aroused great curiosity.
From the posters released for the picture, the faces of the dark lord holding a double lightsaber were looking at the fans. But under the make-up and peculiar coloring in no way it was impossible to determine which of the now famous actors had the honor to play the student and the right hand of Darth Sidious. This secret was maintained artificially in order to attract as many people as possible to watch the film.
Ray Park as Darth Maul
For actor Darth Maul who played the role of Ray Park, this was only the second film work. But to really fulfill the role assigned specifically for him, especially such a responsible one, he did happen for the first time. Previously, he participated only in the filming of the second part of "Mortal Kombat", where by and large he was only an understudy for the performers of the roles of Liu Ken (actor Robin Shu) and Raiden (actor James Remar). He also starred in the role of Make-up completely barracks and participated in mass battles and simple extras.
Here, everything was completely different - the responsibility was enormous. The project was grandiose - the return to the screens of the great saga after a 20-year break. Darth Maul was the forerunner of Darth Vader, the first student of Sidious, and therefore it was necessary to keep the mark. If one does not overshadow Darth Vader himself, into whom the young Anaken Skywalker later turned, then at least correspond to the bar he raised.
As it turned out, the success of Ray Park, the actor who played Darth Maul, was a foregone conclusion. Non-standard weapons in his hands, coupled with the sophistication of the fighting scenes and the skill of the actor himself (already at the age of 16 he was the British champion in martial arts) brought him great fame. He was immediately awarded two nominations for the MTV Movie Award, namely, “Best Movie Villain of the Year” and “Best Movie Fight”. And despite the fact that the actor playing Darth Maul for the entire film pronounces only one phrase: “Yes, Lord Sidious”, when he receives a task from the dark overlord, a huge amount of screen time was allocated for his hero.
Further activities
Among the films with the participation of Ray Park were both high-profile projects and mediocre ones. The actor who played Darth Maul in Star Wars was portrayed as disgusting, but dexterous and sophisticated in Toad fights in the first X-Men.
Then there were several more expensive Hollywood projects with his participation. He played AJ Ross in the film Ballistics: Ex vs. Siver (2002), took part in the 2009 film Cast of the Cobra, playing the role of Snake Ice in it.
A particular success was his invitation to the shooting of the legendary and highly rated series about the life of Bruce Lee “The Legend of Bruce Lee” (2008), where he was assigned the role of an unsurpassed martial artist Chuck Norris in his youth.
You can also note his participation in such projects as the series “Heroes” (2006-2010), the film “Throw Cobra-2” (2013), the comedy “Fans” (2009), the series “Nikita” (2010-2013).
Interesting Facts
Interestingly, one of the first shots shot for the movie Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace was precisely the shots where the dark lord Sidious gives his disciple orders to go to Naboo to deal with the Jedi sent there. These shots were used in the very first trailer for the film, which was released long before the premiere and before the start of full-scale filming. Here is a photo of actor Darth Maul, whose identity in makeup could not be established.
For the whole film, Parks hero Darth Maul blinked just a couple of times, since it was difficult for the actor to blink in contact lenses. The result was a villain who never blinks at all, since he does not need it because of the biological characteristics of the eyes.
The battle scene in which Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon try to defeat Darth Maul was filmed for a whole month. Previously, in battle, the Jedi fought against only one Sith. Now things got complicated. Then three at a time waved their lightsabers , and the actor playing Darth Maul operated with non-standard weapons.
Conclusion
The fact that Obi-Wan cut the body of the dark Sith Lord in half does not mean (as it turned out later) that Darth Maul died. He survived, only instead of a pair of cybernetic legs he now had as many as eight, and he himself suffered from a kind of split personality. Subsequently, his personality was corrected, and his legs turned into two peculiar claws. He then appears in some episodes of the series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: The Rebels.