Meet the man who worked inside Jabba the Hutt's stomach — theverge.com

It might come as a shock to discover that Jabba the Hutt wasn't actually born on his species' adopted homeworld of Nal Hutta some 660 years before the destruction of the first Death Star. Thanks to film-maker Jamie Benning, we now know the crime boss — who saw his first movie appearance in Return of the Jedi — was actually portrayed by a puppet. Benning interviews puppeteer Toby Philpott, one of three men tasked with climbing inside Jabba's massive frame and working the controls, about his experiences as one-third of the galaxy's most hated Hutt in his short documentary Slimy Piece of Worm-Ridden Filth — Life Inside Jabba the Hutt. Philpott details the creation of the world's most expensive puppet, explains how he was able to work Jabba's long tongue with his free hand, and remembers George Lucas' muted reaction to the eight-foot-long slug. According to Philpott, Lucas would have preferred to use CGI to create Jabba, even in the early 1980s.

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