For years, I thought Peter Mayhew was paid to act like a Wookie and make howling sounds on the set of Star Wars. It turns out our favorite Wookie does have dialogue that even our race could understand! Here’s a clip that proves Chewy does, in fact, speak the human language:
Now I understand how Harrison Ford can converse with his hairy BFF when Chewbacca speaks Shyriiwook (the mother tongue for Wookies). For years, I personally thought that this was a dialect that Peter Mayhew had perfected through the years! I also thought Mayhew was just growling and Harrison Ford was that good of an actor to roll with it, but don’t get me wrong here: Harrison Ford is one of my favorite actors and I’m taking nothing away from him. Harrison Ford made me believe that he was actually having a conversation with Chewy! Apparently, this “dialect” was created during post-production.
Bravo!
Can you speak Shyriiwook? Tag a friend who can!
