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Airk Thaughbaer
Gavan O'Herlihy
by Robert Greenberger & Adam Pirani
Airk Thaughbaer is a military leader, one who commands an army in epic battle against the evil Queen Bavmorda. He is one of the key players in the world of Willow. The movie gives actor Gavan O'Herlihy his largest role in a feature, but more importantly, it reteams him with his television brother, director Ron Howard.
Just five months after landing in Los Angeles, a 20-year-old O'Herlihy was cast as Chuck, older brother to Richie Cunningham (Howard) on Happy Days. Since then the two actors lost touch, so it came as somewhat of a surprise when, 13 years later, O'Herlihy and Howard met again at a casting session for Willow.
"It was marvelous to see Ron because I've always respected him and thought highly of him," O'Herlihy says. "What you see is pretty much what you get. He has a strong sense of values, a strong sense of priorities. And we met, and talked about Willow. We read through some stuff, and looked at it some more, and they ended up offering the role to me. I had the greatest time of my life working on this movie. It was a pleasure from day one. Ron's a very talented guy--he has pretty high energy, and I tied into that. I like someone who's that alert, and he's very alert."
The film may have been fun to shoot, but it was also a great deal of work for O'Herlihy, who prides himself on keeping in shape at 34. "It was very physical," he says, "which suits me to a 't.'
"I had ridden some before, but I had to learn how to lead charges, and how to ride one-handed, wielding swords. That was just winging it. When you had to do it, you got on the horse and you tried to llik like you knew what you were doing. Greg Powell, the horsemaster, is tremendous. He's a great, great bloke."
However, O'Herlihy's worst day on Willow involved horses. He only had to ride down a hill, following dozens of horses lined four abreast, yet had to fight his animal all the way through the shot. "They had a camera on top of this huge crane, shooting, and I know I'm in the shot and I'm trying to keep it together," O'Herlihy recalls. "I finally got past the camera, and I just pulled him off, and went out. There was some virgin forest next to me, and that's when he started losing it and when I took a hike. I got him 30 yards from everybody, and I just dove and let him go."
Later that day, Powell brought O'Herlihy another horse to shoot a new scene. The actor was reticent yet Powell convinced him this horse would behave.
"He got Silver down there and they were holding him, reining him ready for the shot. He ahd to be dead still--I'm doing a close-up, the horse can't move out of the shot. And I said, 'Let go of his rein. He's not going to stay still when you let him go, so let me see if I can get him under control.' Silver was sweating and flipped out and crazy with all the other horses around," O'Herlihy says.
Just then, the horse reared up, its neck straining. The horse's head knocked into O'Herlihy's face and shoulder, sending him to the ground. The horse rolled on top of him and, while O'Herlihy didn't break any bones, he bore the bruises for several days afterward.
To finish the shot, Powell agreed to substitute for the horse and O'Herlihy climbed atop his shoulders for the close-up. "The funny thing was," O'Herlihy comments with a laugh, "at the end, I was trying to decide whether I should mime my original shot [for continuity reasons], which was kicking the horse and taking off--at its end, I sprint away. So, I kicked Greg in the ribs and you can hear him gasp, 'What are you doing?' He's prancing off-camera, and he was to run out of shot--and I'm slugging him in the ribs with my heels."
Battered and worn out by the day's experience, O'Herlihy was surprised to find himself approached by executive producer George Lucas. "I was a little out of shape about the quality of what I was doing, just because I was thinking so much of just surviving, and George came up and he jsut said, 'Thanks, that was good work.' He chose that moment to say something and I really appreciated it," O'Herlihy explains.
On the subject of the quiet, but ever-present filmmaker, O'Herlihy confides that "he doesn't say very much at all. George appreciates it if you put out, you know, if you get thrown and get up and keep going. He's appreciative of doing a pro job, he's a pro. It's a cliche but it's true."
O'Herlihy knows about great filmmakers since he grew up as the some of prolific actor Dan (Robocop) O'Herlihy. However, at age 13, young Gavan was shipped off to boarding school in Ireland. He attended Trinity College in Dublin, where he became adept at tennis but split his interests between acting and the courts. Eventually, he became Irish National Tennis Champion and it came time to choose between acting or tennis. Confident in his athletic ability, he decided to return to America and try his hand at professional acting.
During the 1970's, O'Herlihy went from Happy Days which he left after 10 episodes, to numerous guest starring roles on such TV series as The Six Million Dollar Man and Matt Houston. O'Herlihy remains dissatisfied with those performances. He began to hate the fast-moving, production line quality of American primetime television. Ultimately, he decided to move to the more leisurely pace of British television, appearing in the series We'll Meet Again and other projects. O'Herlihy also appeared in such films as Never Say Never Again, Death Wish 3 and Superman III. The experience was good for O'Herlihy, who enjoys his foray into the world of Willow.
"It was a strong company, a talented cast," O'Herlihy notes. "The whole thing was memorable, the fight scenes, the horsemanship, the sets in Wales were all incredibly memorable.
Warwick Davis is a gold mine," O'Herlihy comments, describing his youthful co-star. "Warwick's a tremendous talent. The tough thing about being on a film is, say you have a scene with five or six people: You shoot the master, then everyone gets their close-ups, and everyone else has to run through, and give them their rhythm a few times, before they shoot the close-up. Some actors won't give the energy or they'll just kind of lose their rhythm, and the people who have the close-up are hurt by that.
"I hadn't seen Warwick's work, and it was inside a tent, and we were running through the takes. I had no idea what level of concentration and energy and talent he had. He didn't really get a good run-through, but he came out and banged it, just nailed it right away. you can start a scene and build onto it, or you can really start it at the top, and keep it rolling. He started it right at the top.
"He's a massive talent, a very talented young guy. And I was tickled pink when I saw that, because I realize that his being Willow is going to make the film much better. You have to follow and stay with this guy."
Throughout the years, O'Herlihy has played a mix of roles and continues to search for interesting characters. Airk Thaughbaer is certainly one of those. "I've played a lot of bad guys," he observes, "it was fun to play Airk because it was a flash. It was load, it was a lot of roaring. I roar the whole movie. I'll never roar that much again as long as I live. I'm sure. It was nice to play a good guy, a good guy who dies.
"The death scene was good. It's short, but it has what I wanted out of it. I have a thing about death scenes. I like death scenes to look like someone is actually dying, not like you just sit there and suddenly your eyes are shut, and that's it. I hate it when people do that, because it's just so dull.
"I've seen a number of dead people: I've pulled guys out of the ocean who are dead, in California; I pulled guys out of an accident once; I was an altar boy as a young kid, so I saw many dead bodies in Requiem masses.
"It's a choice: It can be interesting or powerful. Dying is a powerful thing, and I imagine the feeling is powerful; we'll all deal with it, sometime, when we do die, if we have time to contemplate it, as many people do"
For Airk Thaughbaer to die well, split second filming was required in--under less than perfect conditions. "When we're doing the fight with General Kael [played by Pat Roach] that ends in my death, I'm hung up on this dagger, and I said, 'Can I spit?' Ron said, 'All right, let's try it.' Ron's open to ideas: If I came up with an idea that I think is good, and it works, then great.
"So, I pull the dagger out of my boot--it's my last line of defense--and Kael turns it into me, and sticks it in. And I said, 'Let me spit in his face after he stabs me, as my last stand.' I did, and it worked. And then the dagger goes in again."
Filming the sequence had its own touch of unreality when the knife disappeared. "In the actual fight, it was six hoses raining down on us. We were in a foot of mud, slip-sliding all over the place. At the end, Kael knocks me down. It's at the top of a ramp, and I'm on my hands and kees, and I'm reaching for my dagger . . . and the take that was the best, out of four or five takes, I reached down for the dagger, and it wasn't there.
"And the literal split second that I realized that it wasn't there, John, who was the prop guy, saw that it was gone, and he had a spare dagger in his hand, and he snapped it 15 feet, and it landed three inches underneath my hand," Gavan O'Herlihy explains. "I picked it up in one motion--I think I lost half a second--the moment that I realized it was gone, it hit the ground immediately, and I picked it up, and kept on going through the scene and Airk Thaughbaer died."
Greenberger, Robert, & Adam Pirani. "Airk Thaughbaer: Gavan O'Herlihy." The Official Willow Movie Magazine. Ed. David McDonnell. New York: Jacobs, 1988. 37-39.
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