Fast Confession - Andrea Ulagová: I became
On the one hand, there are regular Star Wars fans who enjoy the movies at the cinema, but that's it for them. And then there are those like Andrea Ulagová, who has seen all the film stories countless times, sometimes severel times a day, and knows them into the tiniest details. Moreover, she wears copies of the main characters' costumes and, along with other Star Wars fans, she visits seriously ill children to cheer them up and give them presents. The so-called cosplayers form an incredible community of enthusiasts who meet regularly at conventions, hold competitions for the best costumes, and give joy to those who were less fortunate. In an interview for LP-Life.cz, Andrea reveals a unique world "behind the curtain", which you may have never heard of.
You must have seen all the Star Wars films a million times. Do you still discover new things while re-watching them?
I haven't thought about it that way. But yes, definitely, I do keep finding new things, especially in case of the new movies. In case of the older ones, I compare everything with the new ones, deciding what I liked about them and what not. And although we all know them in detail, I've witnessed a situation where, during a public screening of Episode IV., a colleague of mine discovered that one character says a quote he'd previously missed, because he was used to the Czech voiceover.
So you watch even new movies differently than regular fans?
Of course. For me it's a hobby and a huge event…
Do you take a day off at work for the premiere?
Yes, I do. With our legion units, we attend the first preview in costumes, and then entertain fans in other cinemas. So it's more or less work and in the meantime we can watch the movie. Once I managed to see a new movie three times in a day. (laughs)
When did you see Star Wars for the first time?
I first saw it when I was nine and I remember it in detail. It was shortly after the revolution in the Mír cinema in Pilsen. My mom took me there and it was the very first movie I got to see in a movie theater. And they were showing Episode IV. (the first movie of the series, ed.). Never again have I been so impressed by a movie that I would remember the feelings I had at that moment until this day. That's why it stuck with me like this.
And when did it grow into you becoming engaged in fandom and cosplay?
When I was about eighteen years old and with my friend, we found out that fan meetings, called cons, existed. We thought about going, but we felt we needed to have a costume. And somehow it all developed from there, that was my first con in Cologne.
What does cosplay actually mean? And what is the difference between a cosplayer and an actor?
A cosplayer is someone who makes the costume of his favorite character from a movie, series, game, or comic and tries to appear as similar as possible to the chosen character, not only in terms of costume, but also in behavior. For some it's a hobby, others can make decent money on it. There are a lot of cosplay competitions in the world as well as here, the winners of which can get to other world competitions thanks to their costumes. We have a lot of cosplayers who rank at the top
of European competitions. For example, a Czech girl has recently won the cosplay competition at the Comic Con in Austria and went on to the final of the competition in Chicago.
I've noticed that various costumes can be bought on Amazon for, say, $ 100. Would you buy something like that?
What you see on Amazon are basically carnival costumes. If you want to do cosplay, you need to sew or craft the costume yourself. Or you commission it to someone, I don't sew all my costumes myself either, I usually ask people who are good at it. Cosplay is all about trying to imitate the character and create a costume that's as close to the original as possible. In addition, you're not allowed to enter most competitions if you bought your costume online or didn't make it yourself.
How do you create such a perfect costume? After all, some characters only get a flicker of screen time, or you can't see the tiny details of their clothes...
The way I do it, when a movie comes out on DVD, I go through it scene by scene, take screen shots, and look at the details. Sometimes the costume is put on display at an exhibition, which makes it easier for me, for example Star Wars often had costume exhibitions. People take pictures there, put them on the internet, and you can see such details in the photos that you're completely blown away.
Which Star Wars character is your favorite in terms of cosplay?
Definitely Padmé. My favorite costume is the white one, which also happened to be my first. (the main photo of the article, ed.) But it took me a long time to make it perfect enough to be recognized by an international costume organization.
What does that mean?
I am a member of two international Star Wars costume organizations. One is Rebel Legion - Lion Base, which gathers the characters of the positive heroes, and then the 501st Legion, which gathers the negative characters. And it's not just Star Wars movies, but comics, series, games.
In 2007, the Czech unit of the 501st Legion was established and I was one of the founding members. The way this goes, the country always applies for membership, and then the unit can be officially formed. Almost every country in the world has its own unit.
The organizations themselves are about bringing together Star Wars fans in costumes that need to be as authentic as possible. This allows them to take part in various events, such as those organized by Disney. (Star Wars rights-owner, ed.) At the same time, both organizations support charity, so we visit children in hospitals in our costumes and so on.
Who can become a member?
To become a member, you have to own a costume that complies with the standards prescribed by the organization. You make a costume, take a picture and send it to America, where it's decided whether they'll accept you or not. And then you can wear the costume at official events.
Fans from these organizations are often involved in various events, such as the famous Rose Parade in 2007, where people from Lucasfilm chose costumed members that would get to attend. Fans in costumes can also walk the red carpet when attending a premiere.
What is it like when you visit sick children in hospitals?
In the US, visiting children in costumes is a common thing, but here in the Czech Republic, it took us a long time to convince the hospital management that we weren't masked perverts or some such, and that we just wanted to make the children happy. In our country, people are mostly used to medical clowns.
We're not allowed to receive any financial reward for attending events. We are entitled to things like refreshments, but if someone wants to give us money, they should donate it to charity on our behalf instead. We give the kids gifts that we receive from sponsors, mostly from Disney's partners.
What are such visits like for the kids?
Initially, I myself avoided visiting hospitals, because I was afraid it would be too much for me. But then I told myself it was the mission of our legion, and now I go regularly. And many times, the children were super excited.
For example, we‘ve recently cheered up a boy with muscular dystrophy who is a big fan of Star Wars. And since then we've been communicating with his mother, we even invited him to the premiere. My colleagues in the Legion also have an experience with trying to cheer up children in the cancer ward. There was a little boy there who was very excited, he wanted to fight against them with lightsabers, he was very happy about the gifts. And later we learned that the boy had only a few months to live and that we brought him a lot of joy. Sometimes it happens that the parents who are present and know Star Wars are pleased to see us too, sometimes more than the children themselves. (laughs)
I saw your picture with actress Carrie Fisher, the famous Princess Leia. How did you manage to get it?
The actors attend cons and you can take pictures with them. And when I went to the Star Wars Celebration in Essen, Carrie Fisher was there too. I was considering for a long time if I should take a picture with her, because the photo cost 80 euros. And thank goodness that I decided to go for it, because it was the last time I saw her (the actress died unexpectedly in 2016, ed.).
It goes like this: you pay for a photo, and at a certain time you have to get in line and queue for the actor to take a picture with you. I spent a lot of time deciding whether to go in costume or not, because she was known to make fun of the Star Wars phenomenon. In the end I went without a costume.
Then they pushed me into the cubicle, and there she was. She put her arm around me, the camera went click click, I said "that's great, perfect" and they kicked me out. It wasn't until two hours later that I realized I'd had my photo taken with Princess Leia! And I was overjoyed about it. When I had the picture framed some time later, the framer asked: "Who is this? Your grandmother?"(Laughs)
So you don't really remember how the meeting went in detail…
No. They'll push you in there and immediately call the next person. It's a ten seconds kind of thing. I gave her my Kuky teddy bear to hold, too, so I might have been there for fifteen seconds… But what can you do, it's Princess Leia!
Do the actors have a nice relationship with the fans? How about Harrison Ford, for instance?
Harrison Ford doesn't attend cons very often, he appeared in 2017 at Celebration in Orlando. Mark Hamill goes quite regularly, Anthony Daniels, C-3PO, as well. You can also often meet Ian McDiarmid, who plays the Emperor Palatine, or Hayden Christensen - Anakin Skywalker. But Natalie Portman has never been at a con, Ewan McGregor appeared at the D23 Expo when it was announced that he was returning to his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Disney+ series.
I heard you even waited for Mark Hamill in Prague to meet him privately…
He was filming a series in Prague and it was clear from his Instagram photos that he was in Prague, because he was letting fans guess his whereabouts. A colleague at work looked at the photos, compared it, and we made a guess at where he might be staying. So we decided to wait for him outside his house, even though I didn't really believe we could meet him.
A colleague from the Legion was waiting for him in front of the house for several hours, and I didn't arrive until after work. And suddenly he walked out, it was really Luke Skywalker who was gazing at the setting sun, the character I've loved since the age of nine... And suddenly he was standing right there! Again, the encounter is a bit foggy for me… We asked him to take a picture with us, he was incredibly nice and even hugged me. But he was also very puzzled, asking how we'd discovered him, as he had arrived in Prague only a day ago. So he made us promise we wouldn't tell anyone.
When you look at the whole Star Wars saga, what is the most interesting thing about it?
If you look at it in the context of when the first film was made in the 1970s, it was a revelation. It was one of the first science fiction movies in history and it spread among people like wildfire. It's a fairy tale wrapped in a fancy package and people like it. It is a story of good and evil, there are interesting people and characters there, and the whole universe that George Lucas created is very well set up. Maybe that's why it has fascinated people until today and has become such a phenomenon.
Do you also study the behind the scenes of the movies? What interests you most?
Because I like costumes, I try to find out various things connected with them. For example, when Episodes I, II, and III were being filmed, a special place was created where the costumes were made. There are unique fabrics there that were created on site, so if I, as a fan, want to make the costume, it is absolutely unthinkable for me to get a similar fabric. Three people are always assigned to one costume, they take care of it on the set so that it wouldn't be damaged.
The Jedi, who are known for their cloaks, have multiple versions of those. One cloak appears in the movie and another one is reserved for posing in photos. That's because the hood doesn't hold its shape, so reinforcing leather straps need to be sewn into the cloaks for staged photos. For example, when Ewan McGregor was shooting a duel in the rain with Jango Fett, he had to have a special cloak that was two sizes smaller, because when it soaked up the water, he was dragging it on the ground and it didn't look good.
How long will Star Wars be around?
A long time, I hope! Two series are planned, one of them being the series about Obi-Wan Kenobi that everyone's waiting for. Disney has also started the successful Mandalorian series, which has gained a lot of popularity, becoming one of the most sought after series in the world.
