Subscriber Exclusive: Bonus Q&A with theme park prop master Eric Baker
When you’re talking with someone as creative as Eric Baker, who worked as set dresser and props fabricator for both Universal and Disney, one Q&A isn’t enough to hold it all.
By Susan and Simon Veness
Let’s continue the conversation from the Spring edition of “Attractions Magazine”, highlighting Eric’s introduction to fabrication as a child, and more about his roles at Universal’s Wizarding Worlds and his work on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as a Disney Imagineer:
Did you grow up in an artistic environment?
My mom is an artist and my dad was a building contractor, so I grew up with my mom teaching me every aspect of art. I never really had any formal art classes. The hands-on stuff, as far as being able to build and do construction, I learned from my dad, working on his construction crews during the summer when I was growing up. From the time I was 13 on, I would work 40 hours a week on his construction crews, so I learned not only how to build stuff artistically, but to build stuff from a construction standpoint. My parents encouraged me.
What kinds of things did your mom teach you to make?
I wanted to learn how to make silicone masks, so my mom helped me sculpt a Yoda. The first mask I ever made was a Yoda. We read in a book how to do it, and we sculpted a Yoda mask. Our mom also taught [my brother and I] how to sew, and I have a Batman and Robin costume that I did when I was 6 or 7 years old. We made our own clothes for GI Joe, because the stuff we could get in the store wasn’t good enough for what our imaginations wanted to do. From the youngest age, I remember us always building stuff, and our mom teaching us and coaching us. We were always sculpting with clay. We didn’t have a lot of money, so we made this stuff. It was a really great childhood.
You were a Star Wars fan as a child. Did you buy all the characters and other toys?
My brother and I were never happy with the Star Wars toys we could buy in the store, so we would build our own Star Wars playsets. In the basement of our house, we had a ping pong table, but no one in the family ever played ping pong, so we took this ping pong table and turned it into a giant Star Wars Endor playset, with the Ewok village and a big Dagobah playset with Yoda’s house. It had a swamp that we could crash our X-Wing fighters into. I still have all my Star Wars action figures from when I was a kid.
You’ve grown up, and now you’re working on Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Hogsmeade. You said you worked closely with the film crew on certain elements. Any interesting memories from that?
The first time I met Pierre Bohanna, lead prop fabricator for all the Potter films, I went to his office and he had a 3-D print of Heath Ledger’s and Christian Bale’s heads sitting on his desk. I was talking to him, but kind of distracted by the heads, so I stopped and said, “Did you work on Batman?” He said, “Yeah, I’ve worked on every Bat-suit since Michael Keaton.” It was like I was in front of God! We started talking, and we had so much in common. We had both grown up doing this stuff, him on a larger scale. I said, “What was the first film you worked on,” and he said, “Well, when I was 12 years old my dad had me help build models for Moonraker.” Then he pulled out his portfolio and started showing me his stuff. I was like, “You built that boat for [James] Bond, you built this, you built that … ” Everything I had loved forever, he had his hands in.
How did you source props for Wizarding World? Did you make them all or did you find some elsewhere?
We spent a lot of time shopping in England. I originally started out just in the United States, but quickly realized you couldn’t do it here, because, especially in Florida, it’s hard to find anything older than the 1950s. When you’re shopping at the antique fairs in England, you pick up a telescope and they’re like, “That’s from the 1600s.” I don’t remember how many containers we shipped back. Several.
We can imagine there must be stresses that go along with working on such an intense, highly detailed land. Is that right?
On Galaxy’s Edge, we maybe had one day where we worked 24 hours straight, but on Potter, there were days where we would do 27-, 28-hour days, and then you would go and sleep for three or four hours, then come back and do another 20-hour day, just because the schedules were so tight [leading up to the opening]. We were literally decorating windows while they were pouring hardscape underneath us, outside. There were painters hanging off the buildings with wet concrete down below. I remember it being like ants, with people swarming all over every building just trying to get things ready for opening day. The partnership with Warner Brothers and J.K. Rowling—they held us to such a high standard. What really pushed that world over the top was that incredible partnership with them.
The Wizarding World took off like nothing we’d seen in the theme park world. It must have been fun to see people dressing up in Potter robes and casting spells with their wands. What did you think of that?
One of the fun things with Potter is, I kind of watched these kids grow up; the ones that are the Potter cosplayers. As they’ve grown, their level of costuming has grown. They were these very elementary kids making wands out of little sticks, and now you go to a Potter convention and they’re building these intricate Snape costumes and Death Eater costumes, and it’s really cool to have watched that over the years. Every year they improve on what they’ve done.
You mentioned making Star Wars character out of Lego while you were on conference calls. Did you do other art at home that pertained to your work?
The Hog’s Head beer taps at Potter, I sculpted those. It was another one of those things where they go, “We don’t have the money to do custom beer taps,” so I was sitting at home over Thanksgiving and sculpted one in a day and said, “Here. Here’s your beer tap.” (Note: The tap is now used in the Hogs Head Pub.)
Did you get to meet J.K. Rowling or George Lucas while you were working on Harry Potter and Star Wars?
No, but I saw George Lucas. I was actually in front of the house at Skywalker Ranch, being a tourist and getting my picture taken, and he drove by. I just wanted him to stop and yell, “Get off my lawn!” It was funny, because the girl who was giving us the tour was like [whispering], “There’s George! There’s George!” He was driving this big, giant Mercedes. I didn’t get to meet him or J.K., unfortunately. On Potter I got to spend a lot of time with the cast; the kids and Hagrid, Robbie [Coltrane]. He was great. I remember when we were opening Hogsmeade, I got to be a part of giving Robbie a tour, and we got up to Hagrid’s hut, up by Flight of the Hippogriff, and he just sat down. The other people on the tour were like, “C’mon, c’mon, let’s go! Let’s go!” and he was like, “No. This is my place. I want to sit here for a little bit.” And he just sat there and took it in. It was just the coolest thing in the world! He was just looking at everything, just enjoying, knowing that this was his. I’m sure he would love Hagrid’s coaster.
Then you transitioned over to Walt Disney Imagineering to work on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Any interesting memories from making that move?
Phil [Holmes] was one of my supervisors when I worked in the park, at MGM (when it was known as Disney-MGM Studios). It was funny, because the first meeting that I had, that he was in, when I got back to Disney was a retail meeting. I thought, “I know him. He looks so familiar,” and then it occurred to me that he was one of my [previous] supervisors. I just assumed he was just a retail guy now. I went to him after the meeting and I said, “Oh, you’re making toys now,” and he said, “No, I’m the president of the Studios.” I said, “Oh! OK! Do you remember me?” It helped that he remembered me from working in the park, but I think he was proud of the fact that a kid who had been working in the park had moved up to the level that I was at, doing what I was doing. He was my buddy through the whole thing. He loved coming down to our shop and seeing what we were building. At the grand opening, he was like, “Come on, let’s go into Dok-Ondars! I want a selfie with you!”
Disney Imagineers are sort of the rock stars of the theme park world. What does that feel like?
It was great for the morale of our crew, because they, for once, we’re getting recognized for something. Disney would put them front-and-center. They loved it; to be on camera and do the interviews. I enjoyed the “One Day At Disney” documentary too, not just because I’m in it, but I thought it was really good. That was one thing I really liked about it: they did give our guys credit, and it did get them in the spotlight, which really made them happy.
We think a lot of people who really love the theme parks may also have a secret wish that they could be a designer. What is it like working with your team, and what does it feel like when you come up with an idea that is then realized?
It’s the best feeling in the world. It makes you happy. [My team] had become the show-and-tell for the executives. No matter how bad the day has been, the project managers can end the day by bringing them by our shop to see what we’re doing. They leave with a smile, and they’re happy. Everyone in our shop is happy and having a good time to start with, so when they come in they can see the joy in everybody. I have video of our guys working. It’s so funny. They’ll have show tunes cranking in the background, these welders, and they’re singing “New York, New York” while they’re welding. It’s a really happy atmosphere, and what I consider to be a true creative studio. So much is done on [the] computer now. You walk into the part that is considered to be a creative studio — Imagineering or Universal — and it’s dead silence because it’s just people on computers sitting there. You come in our place and it’s people having fun, smiling and laughing and cutting up.
What do you think accounts for that kind of fantastic working environment?
That went back to what I learned from the way Jim Henson did things. He always wanted it to be happy, and to me, you have to encourage and support the creativity that comes out of people. One of our guys will come in and he’ll have a block. He can’t do what he needs to do, and I’ll say, “Go outside for an hour and just get it out.” He’ll come back and just create the most amazing things. You’ve got to really encourage that, and allow that. A lot of times in the corporate world we’re in now, people don’t understand that. I really believe you have to nurture the creative mind and let them do what they do best. They’ll make amazing things like Harry Potter and Star Wars if you let them.
You can read our full interview with Eric Baker now in the digital version or print version of your Spring 2020 issue.
