Actor Daniel Logan Opens Up About Life As Young Boba Fett - Exclusive Interview
Many of us grew up with Star Wars, but Daniel Logan can say it literally. The actor was barely a teenager when he appeared in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones as young Boba Fett, in which fans learned the mysterious bounty hunter's origin story for the first time. From then on, Logan has been completely immersed in a galaxy far, far away. Not only is he a regular on the convention circuit, but he's returned a number of times to play teenage Boba Fett on the prequel trilogy's animated spinoff The Clone Wars.
Along the way, Logan has become a massive Star Wars fan of his own, and his enthusiasm for both Boba Fett and the franchise in general comes through loud and clear on his social media feeds, during his convention appearances, and in one-on-one interviews. In honor of The Clone Wars' final season, which is airing now on Disney+, Looper spoke with Logan about what it's like stepping into the boots of an iconic character like Boba Fett, his interactions with fans, and all the friends he's made on his two-decade Star Wars journey.
How Daniel Logan learned to love Star Wars
How old were you when you filmed Attack of the Clones?
I was 13 in Attack of the Clones.
That wasn't your first acting job, though?
Yeah, I had been filming in New Zealand. I'd been on Hercules and Shortland Street, which is kind of like General Hospital, but nothing to the mass or extreme of Star Wars, and truly nothing ever since, really.
Were you a Star Wars fan before you got cast?
It was really weird, because one of the first films that Taika Waititi did, he did a film called Boy, and in the film, the little kiwi bird comes on the TV and wishes us all good night and shuts the TV off. I re-watched the movie the other day on the plane, and I was like, "Wow, that's the thing I've been telling everybody about for years."
In New Zealand, at about 11 o'clock, the TV would just shut off. We only had three TV channels growing up. Growing up down there, it was kind of like growing up in the stone age. We were 30 years behind the rest of the world. And people tend to forget that there were 16 years of no Star Wars between Episode VI and Episode I. That's where I grew up. When I grew up, Star Wars wasn't getting played on Spike, or any other channel, regularly, every day, or constantly on re-runs.
Then you get cast, and you're not just anyone, you're Boba Fett. That's a hugely popular character. At what point did it dawn on you what you'd gotten yourself into?
Because I hadn't yet seen Star Wars, or really ever heard of Star Wars, I had no clue who this character Boba Fett was. When I auditioned for the role, they never gave me a script. My agent was allowed to submit two names from her agency, and she just loved me so much that she submitted me and one other kid. I just happened to be short enough, and weirdly looked enough like Jango Fett, that we just matched amazingly.
They did an interview with me when I first got on the set. They gave me this book, and I opened the book, because I hadn't had a script or any lines to figure out what character I was. They told me, basically when I was getting to set, what character I was. And I open this book, and it's all Boba Fett. He's got the gun, the blaster, the jet pack, the helmet. I'm like, "What? I'm going to have a helmet and a jet pack?"
So, I get fitted and suited up, and they make the little jumpsuit for me. Then I see Jango Fett walk in and I was confused. I'm like, "Wait, that's me." So yeah, the world of Star Wars was very confusing to me until I educated myself on it.
But now you're all in, right? A lot of actors end up with complicated relationships with the franchise, but you've really embraced it.
Yeah, Lucasfilm and George have been so wonderful to me. Even Rick McCallum, the producer. Everyone has treated me pretty much like family, or like a nephew or whatnot, even down to the original actors. So I've been very blessed in that way.
Boba Fett himself has blessed me in many forms, too. It's not that I feel like I owe him. I adore this character that George Lucas created just as much as everyone else, but the cool upside is that I can say I got to play him.
So yeah, I've become a huge fan. I was talking to my friend the other day, and I said, "There are so many different forms of Star Wars nowadays." Not only the cartoons, but the movies, the extended universe, the prequels, the originals. Now you have TV shows. Then, outside of it, you have costuming groups. You have regular fans. You have the robotics. People who collect vintage toys. LEGO collectors. There are so many different worlds of Star Wars beyond the film itself.
I actually collect Star Wars toys now, as well. I have four, five thousand figures. I got almost one of each, from '70s to today.
What inspired you to start that?
So Star Wars sent me a whole bunch of stuff. And then I moved from New Zealand to America, kind of rapidly, and left my whole collection. Then I called my little sister, and she basically opened most of the collection up. So, I was like, "Oh no." I had that hoarder's mentality, and I had to buy it all back, but then I just figured, why not try and buy them all? Buy the collection. So, yeah, I've got quite a bit, quite a bit. I've got some vintage, too, but mainly '92 to the 2000s.
Do you have a favorite piece?
I have a really cool one. I have, I think a 1979, Han in carbonite. It's in mint condition. It's been graded. It's pretty nice. It's with the old coin. It was the original cards, with the coins. But I got a lot, I mean they've done so many Star Wars toys. I mean, yeah, I've got a 40-foot container of Star Wars stuff.
What it's like being a young Star Wars star
I know that Jake Lloyd got bullied after appearing in The Phantom Menace. Did you have any experiences like that growing up? Was it weird being around your peers after appearing in a Star Wars movie?
Well, after acting took a big part of my life, it was hard to be able to then go back into a regular school curriculum and keep up with the kids. In New Zealand, it was kind of cool, because no one had ever gotten to the level of acting that I had at a child's age. Everyone in my whole school went and watched the film on the same day.
I started getting bullied when I opened up a... I think it was a Yahoo or MySpace page, and I had a lot of the English fans tearing me apart. I grew up with my brother who brought me up really tough and bullied me my whole life, so I was kind of a tough little kid. As I'm going on Instagram, about to respond, I'm lucky. I catch myself, so then I kind of just get offline and just didn't listen to it all.
Yeah, Jake... He's my friend, you know? And listening to his story, and having shared some of that time with him, it's just a very unfortunate thing. I think we're very, very blessed that we came in during the era right before social media and this whole entire internet explosion, because I think it could've turned out worse. When you can now not only just send him letters or camp outside his house, you're sending him messages on Instagram, any time he ever goes online. That could be even more challenging and hard.
So, you're 13 and you're working with some pretty big-name actors. What did you learn from Ewan McGregor on the Clones set?
Ewan was the nicest and kindest person that I met on the set. We shared a lot of time together, he had a lot of patience for me, and somehow, God bless me, every time he had to go to makeup, I had to go makeup. We would sit next to each other in the makeup chair, and we shared a lot of fun experiences.
My nana had diabetes, and she would just pass out, because it was back in the day. We didn't know about sugar levels and whatnot. She would basically put her head down and pass out right in front of everyone else, sitting in the other makeup chair. And he leaned in one time asking like, "Is she okay?" Because he thought she had died.
He's the funniest. I wasn't really meant to have watched Trainspotting, but because I was kind of raised by my big brother, I had seen quite a lot of adult films that I probably shouldn't have watched at 13. Although I didn't know what the film was really about, I knew a lot of his lines, so when he walked into the makeup room, he was the only other person besides Temuera Morrison that I actually really knew of, because I had seen Trainspotting. I'd repeat all his lines back to him, and he'd scratch his head like, "Oh my God, kid, who's watching you? How are you watching these films?"
But I have the best story about Ewan. So he allowed me to start driving the golf carts. I'd go back and forth in the golf carts and drive people wherever they wanted to go. If you were, say, a prop builder, I'd take you to the workshop. Anywhere. Anytime I had an excuse to drive this golf cart, I would try. And we ended up breaking off this little governor thing to make the golf cart go faster, right? So Ewan comes flying down the driveway, slams on the brakes, and then stops sideways. And as a 13-year-old kid, you're like, "That's the coolest!"
So, he's like, "All right kid, come on." He jumps out. I jump in. And then as I'm about to take off, you hear this, "Hey! Get out of that cart!"
One of the assistant directors was watching from inside the building. She comes running out, and she yells, "You can't be in it." Due to legal fees, or insurance reasons, or whatever, I couldn't be driving the golf cart. We couldn't be doing this. So, for the rest of my time on set, which was only maybe a month anyway, I was no longer allowed to drive this golf cart. I was allowed to be driven in it, but I wasn't allowed to drive it, so I would pout. And Ewan realized this.
The very last day of set was the arena scene, and I got this big goodbye, and it was the coolest thing ever. Then Ewan came up to me, and he's like, "Hey so what time do you leave tomorrow?" And I think I left about eight or nine o'clock. So he told me to meet him at the studio around six o'clock. Meanwhile, it's pitch black dark. I meet him at the studio, and because I had finally finished filming, I was allowed to drive the cart, and there he was, in the pitch black, in front of the studio with the lights on, and the golf cart, waiting for me. So Obi-wan and Boba Fett drove around the back lot of Fox Studios for about an hour.
Why the Star Wars cast and crew are less like co-workers, and more like a family
You also trained in martial arts with Ray Park, who played Darth Maul, right?
Well, more like just a punching bag. That's all he needs. No, just jokes. Have you seen how that guy trains?
Yeah, I trained with him for about nine years. We became like brothers, thanks to Star Wars. That's what I'm saying, even beyond my own movie, and George Lucas and Rick McCallum, I've been able to form more than friends. We're like family, Ray and I. We train all the time, and he taught me a lot about different martial arts and stuff like that. So we've been really, really close. He's actually like a brother of mine.
How did you guys meet? Because you weren't in the same movie.
Well, thanks to Star Wars, we both managed to have the same dream, and we both wanted to come and live here in the United States. I ended up getting adopted by my father, who became my guardian, and basically watched me. Then, Ray wanted to come over here, and then he became not only my manager, but Ray's manager. Me and Ray became very close from there, and then from there, we just never, ever separated. We basically moved to the United States together.
That's how I met Ray. But then again, the convention circuit is kind of where we all kind of met. Thank the heavens for comic cons, because that's where we'd all kind of meet up, you know? We joke that we're like a Cirque du Soleil family. We were on the road most of the year together. We saw them more than we saw our own families.
Like, Peter Mayhew, God bless him, he's beautiful. I went to his funeral. At conventions, he faced a lot of challenges. To see him finally get to relax and get off his feet... He was the bright, happy, wonderful man that we saw in the original films, through Chewbacca. Those eyes that you saw through the mask.
Carrie Fisher, she was a blast. She would always tell me to be quiet, or yell at me from other places in the convention, or call me over and then sign her autograph on my forehead in lipstick. Red lipstick. And not knowing about lipstick, I'm like, "Ah, Carrie!" and I'd just smear it right over my forehead, so for the next couple of days of signing, I look like I've broken out in hives.
The fun part is when she would always glitter you. I didn't mind it, but it looks like you've been to one of those naughty clubs, and glittered themselves on you. Once it gets on you, it goes everywhere. I mean, your suitcase, and your pocket, and your wallet. Places you don't even know.
And Kenny Baker, I loved Kenny Baker. Kenny Baker really took me under his wing, like an uncle of mine. He was four feet with an eight-foot personality, that guy. He really liked to drink Chardonnay. Everywhere we would go, he drank Chardonnay. But if you ever met him at a convention, the funniest thing is, you'd go up and be like, "Hi Mr. Baker, can I get an autograph," and you'd put your thing in front of him. This is no lie, he would be midway through his autograph, then his head would dart down, his tongue would come out, and he'd fall asleep.
So, you wouldn't know what to do, right? I'd watch the fans, they're standing like, "Ummm?" Do you kind of give him a shake, like, "Sir?" Or do you walk away? Let him be? But then, a minute or two later, he'd wake up, straight back at it, and he'd continue where the autograph was as if he'd never fallen asleep. It was the funniest thing.
What it was like for Daniel Logan to come back for The Clone Wars
So, you're in Attack of the Clones, and then years later you're brought back to play Boba Fett on Clone Wars. What was that call like?
You can't even imagine what that call was like. I'd been a fan of The Clone Wars ever since it came out. I even liked the movie. It was an amazing way to be able to explore the Star Wars universe in ways that we hadn't yet been able to yet. I had seen Dave Filoni at a couple conventions, and I'm just an ADHD guy. I'd always joke with him or try and buy him something. If he had a meal, I'd try and say I'd buy it for him, just so I could grease him up to try to get a role in Clone Wars, because I really liked the series.
So, when the call came, I was like, "Wow, I never thought greasing up a guy really would work." I just joked with him, like, "Hey Dave, I can't believe this greasing up worked." He's like, "What are you talking about?" I was like, "Well I thought, you know, me trying to grease you up would help me to get the role." And he's like, "No, that's not how you got your role. George Lucas came into the storyboard room, and said he wants us to put Boba Fett in The Clone Wars, and to call Daniel Logan."
I wanted to cry when I got asked to come back, but then when I heard that George asked me back by name, that made me pretty much cry. It was an honor, the fact that I worked for him when I was 13, and that he still remembered my name. Maybe he kept watch of what I was doing with my fanbase, or keeping up on the convention circuit. I don't know. The fact he still remembered my name was just a blessing itself.
In your first episode on The Clone Wars, you voiced Boba, but you also voiced some of the other clone cadets, right?
Yeah. So that was the cool part of being able to be Boba Fett. He's the young clone cadets, because the fact is, he has so many other lookalikes. The other guys all helped me, and Dave Filoni helped me, because it was a little hard to bring one voice, and then change it up and do it multiple different times. Without having that training at first, it was very hard. Towards the end, after getting some training, and working with the other actors for hours on end, I started getting back in those boots and feeling a lot more comfortable.
You've been living with this character for 20 years. If you were going to play him again, hypothetically, is there anything you would do differently?
No, I'd just like to fill the gaps. In the movies, he's really, truly left off after the arena. There's a ton there, which we got to explore a little in The Clone Wars, but there's just so much more we could explore from then onwards.
I would have to play him as authentic as I can, true to [original Boba Fett performer] Jeremy Bullock. He made the character very smooth and subtle, almost like an old western character. So, that's kind of how I'd want to play him.
What young Boba Fett is up to now
Outside of Star Wars, what are you working on now, and where can fans see you next?
Well, I worked on a couple projects last year. I worked with a company called Pop Life, they work with Funko. They produce films and stuff like that. We worked in China and Philippines last year. That was really fun. It's basically an e-sports movie about the video game Dota 2.
It's basically a Mighty Ducks version an of e-sports movie. You have one team that is amazing, and a wonderful sponsorship and funding, and then you have another which comes from a little ghetto area, which has nothing, but still has the passion. I think it's called Underdog Rises. The whole thing of the movie is that it doesn't matter where you come from, the underdog can always rise and become the champion, which ends up happening here.
I just started acting again. I mean, the conventions book me a year out sometimes, for the next year, for signings. So, my motto was always like, "All right, if I can, I'll go and do it." But then it came to a point where it was like, "This is too many." So, this last year, I've actually started to say no and to try to take a break off. It's not that I don't want to do them. I really miss them. It's just, I have other priorities, like raising my son.
So it's just balancing it all. But doing the conventions took me away from being able to audition and making those calls to my agent and stuff like that. I needed to keep up, and I really didn't before. I'd just been having too much fun doing the convention circuit, because it's a lot of fun. It is a lot of fun.
Is there anything about your experience with Star Wars or The Clone Wars that you haven't ever been asked about, that you want to talk about, or that you feel like deserves more attention than it gets?
I truly feel like becoming a character like Boba Fett was one of the best things, besides my son and my wife, that's ever happened to me. There were so many other people. Like, there was a caterer. George Lucas put out the best catering food you could imagine, for us to be able to eat every day. In order to be able to eat — because they had these huge cameras, these cameras with these huge lenses, every day — just to be able to eat or go toilet, we had to go and get all of our costumes taken off, and then had to go into regular clothes.
We were losing so much time each and every day, having to run back to our rooms, change wardrobes, go eat, come back, change out, change back in, go back to set, just to keep the characters secret. Especially my character, Boba Fett, because no one knew he was coming out in Episode II. One of the things that they kind of kept on me the most was that I had to make sure I kept the secret. "You cannot tell the secret that this character is coming back."
I thought I was going to be a Jedi. I was like, "Oh cool, what kind of Jedi is Boba Fett?" And then they're like, "No, he's a bounty hunter," and gave me that book. I'm like, "Oh, even better!" Then they give me this little blue jumpsuit. I'm like, "Oh, what?"
But yeah, I mean, there were a lot of people, a lot of amazing, talented people, that were involved, to create these Star Wars movies, and I don't think any of them get the respect or thanks they all should. Even the guy who drove me to set every day. I have a book with everybody's autograph in it, from the guy who drove me to work, to the guy who held the camera, to the guy who held the boom. Every single person, and then George Lucas. Everybody. Everybody that I was involved with every day. I would take this book to work, if I saw someone new, I'd ask them to sign it. They're looking at me like, "Kid, you have George Lucas' autograph on here. You don't want my autograph."