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The High Aldwin
Billy Barty
by Bill Warren
When Ron Howard, George Lucas and the Willow team selected Billy Barty to play the High Aldwin, the magician ruler of the Nelwyn, undoubtedly they chose the 3' 9" actor due to his acting talent and star quality--Barty is probably the best-known little person in the acting profession. But the choice was also soundly rooted in reality, for Barty is the founder of Little People of America, the most important and influential organization of its kind in the world. In real life as in the world of Willow, Barty is a leader of little people.
Barty is also a show biz veteran. He began in films as a child in 1928 and worked in them for decades. During the 1960's, Barty played many different roles on various Sid & Marty Krofft television shows, including The Bugaloos and H. R. Pufnstuf. In the 1970's and early '80's, he had oportunites, rare for a little person, to play dramatic roles. He's proudest of his appearances it Day of the Locust and W. C. Fields and Me.
Because he has been in Hollywood so long, it's hardly a surprise that Barty and Willow director Ron Howard are old friends. "I've known him since he was a boy," Barty notes. "During the shooting of Willow, I called him aside at one point and said, 'Ron, I don't know how to address you. Mr. Howard, Ronald, director, or how?' He said, 'Billy, you've known me since I was nine. Call me Ron.'
"I always find out how the director wants it done. Everybody interprets things differently, you know. First of all, you hire people who are going to do the part right. So by directing, you help them, you don't teach them. In the case of Willow, there were many novices among the actors, and Ron Howard still didn't teach as much as he helped.
"If I thought something should be done a different way, I would ask him. If he liked it, we would do it. I work this way with almost any director. Sometimes I even rewrite scripts, to make it what I feel is better. Sometimes, writers write for the writer and not for the performer. Ron Howard was very nice about this. If he thought I should do something another way, if he thought I was overacting, or overdoing it, and he wanted me to bring it down, he would tell me. Being a varied type of performer, who ranges from boisterous to quiet to whatever, I appreciated it."
George Lucas made his presence more known than felt, according to Barty. "He was and he wasn't on the set. He knew what was happening all the time, but he didn't make it that noticeable. You knew he was around, you knew he was listening, you knew he was watching. It was his movie. Willow is a very personal movie because you're dealing with a beautiful story, you're dealing with sentiment, with heart, with feeling, and you don't want to look at it as a bunch of little people who are jumping around in a circus. This is the way it should come across to the public--you're dealing with human beings."
Barty was surprised when he was called in for Willow. "My agent said Ron Howard wanted to see me for Willow. I thought the movie was completely cast, but apparently it wasn't. I think I was the last one picked for Willow. The brought in some other little people then, we read, and next thing I knew I had the part."
In Howard's film, Barty has a role particularly suited to his crafty charm. "I play the high priest, the High Aldwin. He's like the governor, the mayor, the ruler of this town of little people. I pretend that I have these magical powers, and I bluff my way, using some devices." Explaining the relationship between Willow (Warwick Davis) and the High Aldwin, Barty admits that it's not intense; Willow is just part of the Nelwyn society, a young man who hopes one day to be the High Aldwin's apprentice. Still, Barty says, "Willow's going out on this mission, so I offer him my blessings and my advice. What does a mayor do in a town? That's what I do. I am supposed to know it all, I am the witch doctor, the priest, the leader, the president, the vice-president, the high muckety-muck."
After his strenuous, makeup-heavy roles in the fantasy Masters of the Universe and Legend, the role of the High Aldwin was far more relaxing for Barty. "Masters and Legend were two very rough movies, but Willow wasn't. As the high priest, I had a beard, a wig and a mustache. My costume was so designed to be easy to work in. I've done this a lot." Barty sighs a long-suffering sigh. "Wardrobe people are in their own world, and the build a beautiful wardrobe with all these wonderful props. Then, the poor actor has to step into the costume and do somersaults, and do falls, and run, and do dialogue, and grab 18 instruments at one time. And they don't realize what has to be done. You have to work hard at not being just another prop."
Barty describes Willow as a particularly happy set, though he recalls one problem: "The weather: It rained, it was wet and damp all the time. We were shooting out in the mud, on an estate outside of London. I made them do a great deal of changing; I didn't want any ittle person to have to walk in the mud. I wanted them all to be driven, to be taken care or; I wanted them all to have their rights. I was like a union representative.
"I don't know if I was the leader. I was just more concerned," he explains. Yet, this concern is what Barty has shown in the past, with both Little People of America and his Billy Barty Foundation (which is set up to assist little people in overcoming the barriers that society has imposed upon them due to their size).
Those barriers even include language. When Lucasfilm was casting for little people for Willow, they issued a casting call across England, and they were able to hire 65 people, but they needed 225. So, they extended the casting call all across Europe. The end result has a cast which spoke some 13 different languages, all trying to work together on the set. At first, these little people were just separate foreigners.
But then with his friend Tony Cox, Barty began changing all that. "The other little people, they were all speaking French, German, Dutch, English, Spanish--they all had their little things going. I had my makeup on, and this little French girl, Florence, and her friend came over to me. Florence could speak a little English. She asked, 'What do you do in this movie?' I said, 'I play the high priest.' She said, 'My name is Florence, and this is Roland. He doesn't speak English.' We spoke for a moment or two, and she asked me my name. I said, 'My name is Billy Barty.' Roland spoke up, 'Billy Barty! Founded Little People!' " Barty is genuinely touched by this memory. "He hugged me, and soon, everyone was talking and interpreting for each other, like the United Nations. Then, we went to the hotel and we started getting together. A couple of them were really down on themselves, uptight, and we changed it around. Tony Cox and I and all the Americans gave them a new lift in life. It was really a change. When we left, we were all jugging and kissing, they were crying, no one wanted to see each other leave. It became a good mutual thing. I was on Cloud Nine."
Ultimately, to Billy Barty, making Willow was an incredible experience. "Everybody was having a wonderful time," he says, but the most important thing to him was "the fact that little people were used as human beings. You have love interest, family interest, concern. Very human, only small. The hero of the picture is a little person, Willow. We're not jokes this time, we're real."
Warren, Bill. "The High Aldwin: Billy Barty." The Official Willow Movie Magazine. Ed. David McDonnell. New York: Jacobs, 1988. 40-41.
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