millsworks

I don’t rattle on here much about past work I’ve done – not too much anyway – but since it’s the 25th anniversary of the film Labyrinth I thought I’d relent with a wee post about my work on it. I’m also including parts of the behind the scenes documentary called: Inside The Labyrinth so you can see the bits I was involved with.

I was working on Fraggle Rock for Jim Henson, playing Junior Gorg and various other minor puppet characters, and on this one day I was portraying a large Blob that was eating Doozers. It was a hellish costume that required me to roll around inside this small, airless foam sphere. During a break in the shoot I was sitting on the floor – half in and half out of the costume – when Jim asked me: “How tall are you?” I responded: “Right now? About three feet. Why?” That got a laugh from Jim and then he mumbled something about working on a film in London. I did my best not to shit myself – I still had scenes to do inside that horrible costume – and let him know as calm as I could that I would indeed be interested in working for him.

At around the 6:20 mark is the section where they show the Red Riding Goblin with me working out and goofing around in the costume. The concept for the costumes was great but they were very painful to be in for extended periods of time.

I was 28 years old, a skinny, arrogant, ignorant mime with a bit of talent for puppetry and I was in the UK working for Henson. Yowzah! I spent over six months in England – living in Hampstead and working in Elstree. The people I worked with were amazing and fast friendships were built there. I was terribly homesick the entire time and when I was offered further work by Frank Oz on Little Shop Of Horrors I declined and returned to Toronto.

The resulting chronic back pain I could do without. The damage to my right hip when the Ludo harness failed while being lifted up into the tower still gives me trouble. The lung infection I developed while there got worse after my return and forced me to miss the final few episodes of Fraggle. But holy fucking hell – it was frickin’ Labyrinth, baby!

Around the 3:30 mark you can see me and Ron Muek working out the kinks in the Ludo costume.

What I learned on Labyrinth as a performer and as a filmmaker was immeasurably useful for the rest of my career. The opportunity to play with the elite of performers and animatronic designers and builders is one I cherish.

Thanks Jim.