“So her head moves a lot because her ears are always kind of like looking at and trying to separate her surroundings and analyze things the way that our eyes would. ![]() She has these amazing massive ears and she can’t see very well, so with Deet I would always focus on the energy that she is assessing everything around her through her ears and not her eyes,” said Henderson. ![]() “Deet is Grottan, so she was from underground and she’s come up. You can’t just pick one up and then go for it.”ĭeet’s outward presence and movements are also unique, and wouldn’t be the same as say, Brea’s or Rian’s. “You have to practice with it and find the different nuances and find what their neutral position is, to get the way they move differently from the other Gelfling. The mouth might be harder to close on this puppet than that puppet and there’s a different stiffness to each one,” said Henderson. “Every Gelfling moves a little bit differently and sits a little bit differently on your hand. Puppeteers must push past those difficulties to create a nuanced performance, making unwieldy but beautiful objects come to life fluidly. The performers must rely on monitors and playback to make sure their puppets hit their mark, have the right eyeline, and meet any other number of intricate spatial specifications. I can just put her on and just have her look around a bit, and everyone’s like, ‘Ah, Deet!’ because she’s just stunning.”Ī post shared by Beccy Henderson seen in the making-of documentary “The Crystal Calls,” there’s a physical hurdle that the puppeteers must surmount because the puppets themselves are large, heavy, and cumbersome. “The sculpt for Deet is just beautiful, and there’s a certain amount of work already done for you. It’s a beautiful coming-of-age story.”ĭeet’s physical design by Brian and Toby Froud also informed Henderson how to play Deet. She said, “You can see from her lines that she’s gentle, she’s bit naïve, she sees the good in everything. Every inch of it is performed and puppeteered and it’s just amazing.” Finding Deet’s Essenceįor Deet’s voice, the actress leaned into what was on the page. Everything’s there, every tree and root and wiggly creature. There’s so much energy so easily put into Deet cause it’s like being overwhelmed by this new place and new people and just checking everything out and also just being able to walk into these crazy sets that just blow you away. “I was just blown away that I was there with the Hensons. I’m from Belfast but I flew over and just moved to London to be here and I didn’t know anyone,” she said. “My story is almost very similar to Deet’s because I was this new puppeteer coming into a core team of these people with like 30 years’ experience. Henderson’s natural wide-eyed enthusiasm for the project mirrors Deet’s experiences with the world above ground. Or, to borrow “The Dark Crystal” parlance, Henderson gives Deet her very essence. ![]() Henderson doesn’t just make puppets move, but gives them personality and life through expressions, movement, intonations, and phrasing. In some ways, Henderson is the perfect person to embody Deet, since this is the actress’ first real character that she could originate. The day I turned up on set I was still waiting for them to be like ‘Oh, we thought you were a different Beccy Henderson.’ I was terrified.” Beccy Henderson (left), “Derry Girls” Netflix “Then lo and behold I got this crazy email a month later saying that I was cast as Deet and I couldn’t believe any of it. You need to have a souvenir of this event.’ I got to puppeteer Gelflings and that’s never going to happen again in my life. “I thought, ‘That was just an incredible experience. I bought the Kira one that came with a little Fizzgig,” said Henderson. “I did the audition in London and then I went to a Forbidden Planet across the road that was selling these Gelfling Funko Pops of the original movie. ![]() ‘The Dark Crystal’ Gelfling Guide: How to Tell the 7 Different Clans Apart Casting Sweet Deetīeccy Henderson had been an assistant puppeteer on a number of UK projects, but before “Age of Resistance,” she was probably best known as the bespectacled Aisling in the breakout Netflix series “Derry Girls.” Auditioning for the role of Deet was an unimaginable dream come true for the actress, since Jim Henson’s original 1982 film “The Dark Crystal” looms large as the pinnacle of puppeteering artistry and creativity.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |