Page 72 - Star Wars Insider #194

INTERVIEW: CARL WEATHERS

01
hen it was television work, which began
W announced that in the 1970s with appearances
in Starsky and Hutch, The Six
respected actor
Million Dollar Man, and Kung
Carl Weathers
was joining the Fu. In the wake of those iconic
cast of the fi rst shows, Weathers is now taking PROFILE
CARL WEATHERS
ever Disney+ live-action Star on the mantle of Greef Carga,
Destined for a
Wars television series, the “must leader of a bounty hunters’ career in sport from
watch” factor of the show was guild, in The Mandalorian. an early age, Carl
upped tenfold. Across his four- As a person negotiating Weathers won an
athletic scholarship
decade movie career, Weathers clandestine missions in a world at the prestigious
has become one of cinema’s most broken by the war between the St. Augustine High
School when he was
recognizable faces, bringing to Rebellion and the Empire, Carga
in eighth grade. A
life a host of iconic characters is the personification of how natural sportsman,

such as Apollo Creed in the complicated it is to survive in the at high school he
boxed, wrestled,
Rocky films, Colonel Dillon in parts of the galaxy where picking a played soccer, and

Predator (1987), the eponymous side—good or evil—is a luxury. learned judo, among
lead in Action Jackson (1988), It’s also a role that Weathers never other disciplines, but
eventually focused
and more recently voicing expected to come his way, although on football while at
Combat Carl in Toy Story it looks like the 71-year-old former college, later playing
professionally from
4 (2019). That’s without professional football player has yet
1970 to 1974.
mentioning his laundry list of another unforgettable character to His acting career
add to his impressive resumé. began in 1973 with
various bit parts on
television and in
Star Wars Insider: You’ve starred movies before his
“I don’t in many famous fi lm franchises career took off in the
original Rocky (1976),
remember ever throughout your career, but in which he starred
alongside writer/
you’ve never been in anything
approaching a related to Star Wars. Was the director Sylvester
Stallone as the
saga on your acting bucket list? eponymous boxer’s
character that Carl Weathers: Not on a bucket list, rival, Apollo Creed.
I’ve played as no. Of course, I knew of the Star
Wars galaxy—it’s not even a galaxy,
being a good guy it’s so much bigger—and I know so
many people who are fans, but it
or a bad guy.” wasn’t on my radar particularly.
02

01 Carl Weathers
plays Greef
Carga, leader
of a bounty
hunter guild.
02 The
Mandalorian
(Predro Pascal)
at the controls
of his ship, the
Razorcrest.

72 / STAR WARS INSIDER