Many people passed through the Roger Rabbit universe. Warwick Davis was at Elstree Studios, in the Traffic Department, for his school ‘gap year’ work term. Davis was 11-years-old when his grandmother heard a radio appeal for people under four-feet tall. It was a casting call for ewoks for ‘Return of the Jedi.’ Davis’ adult height is three-and-a-half feet. He was called to be an extra, but was selected to play the role of Wicket. George Lucas later produced ‘Willow,’ and the part of Willow was written specifically for Davis. ‘Willow‘ started filming at Elstree Studios just as the live-action filming of ‘Who framed Roger Rabbit‘ was wrapping.
Prior to the filming of ‘Willow‘ Davis was assigned as a ‘runner’ on the ‘Who framed Roger Rabbit‘ production. He was an avid rollerskater, and he would rollerskate along the long second-floor corridor in the Elstree Studio office building delivery scripts, mail, props, coffee, etc. At one point, when he was in the studio stages, he was asked by Steven Spielberg to play the role of Roger Rabbit for a day. He was the same height as the foam Roger Rabbit stand-in and he could act… making it easier for Bob Hoskins to key in, during the run-throughs, on where the ‘animated’ Roger Rabbit would appear. There was some discussion about Davis continuing in that role, but his work experience period ended and he went on to other things.
In addition to playing Willow, Davis played the roles of both Prof. Flitwick and Griphook in the ‘Harry Potter‘ films and Marvin, the Paranoid Android robot, in the 2005 film version of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.’ He starred in the mockumentary television series, ‘Life’s Too Short‘ (2011-2013). He has done a number of projects with Ricky Gervais, including ‘An Idiot Abroad,’ with Karl Pilkington.
