50 Roles for 50 Actors: Dream casting the Star Wars saga

Dream casting the Star Wars saga: Crispin Glover as Bib Fortuna

Jabba’s palace is full of curiosities, with Bib Fortuna being only one of many. Like several roles throughout the series, much of Fortuna’s impact rests on his visual design. The giant pair of tentacles protruding out of the back of his head make this character instantly recognizable, and the tumor-like lumps over his eyes give him a sickly, deranged look. For this part, we need to find an actor who doesn’t mind getting a little weird.

Enter Crispin Glover, an actor who specializes in weird. Glover has leading man looks, but he’s long preferred to take his acting in a more unconventional direction, whether he’s playing Dell the Christmas-obsessed headcase in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart or a maladjusted sociopath who can control rats in Willard (pictured above). A role as the creepy personal assistant to Jabba the Hutt would probably appeal to him.

Also, we know that Glover has no problem with heavy special effects. He played the monster Grendel in Robert Zemeckis’ 2007 adaptation of Beowulf, a film that used real actors as the basis for computer-generated characters. We can only imagine the pre-production magic that went into that role-playing Bib Fortuna would probably be a comparable experience.

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