Ross Beadman

Ross Marcus Beadman was born at Kingston upon Thames, Surrey in England in early 1998.

In the early 2000s, Ross Beadman was cast for a brief role as a Jedi youngling in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, the final installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Beadman got the role through his mother, who worked for a casting agency associated with Lucasfilm Ltd. which sent her an e-mail advertising a casting call of child actors for Revenge of the Sith. Incidentally, Beadman had finished seeing all three films of the original trilogy in VHS format a few days before being chosen for the part, though he didn't really know the importance of the franchise aside that some of his classmates owned Star Wars action figures. His character was unnamed until months after filming, when Beadman and his mom received another e-mail which told them that his character's name was Sors Bandeam, a curious anagram of Beadman's name, which Beadman liked, as he wasn't credited for his role.

The day of their scene's filming, Beadman and his fellow extras were asked a few plenary questions before being taken to Shepperton Studios to shoot the scene, where Beadman and the other child actors were given a tour through the studios with a golf cart. During the tour, Beadman spotted Orli Shoshan smoking in her Shaak Ti costume, finding definitely weird to see actors in alien costumes smoking. He also met with Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor, the actors who played Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, before going to the changing rooms, though he didn't recognize McGregor at first until his mother told him who McGregor played in the films. Beadman and his mother spoke with McGregor for ten minutes and had champagne with him.

Originally, Beadman was to have a nonspeaking part in the scene like his fellow extras, who were all collected after being dressed up with their costumes. Feeling a bit like an outsider, not talking with with too many people, Beadman was engrossed reading a book about dinosaurs when the casting director came in and asked all the child actors if any of them knew the line they were going to say to Anakin Skywalker. All child actors were busy talking with each other but Beadman heard the director and raised his hand, leading the director to choose him to say the line. While filming the scene, Beadman felt initially confused for the use of a green screen background and the non-lit lightsaber handle used by Christensen.

As a kid, Beadman didn't really understand the scene's gravity while filming it. It was not until he grew up that he started to realize its importance and what happened to his character. The crew kept Beadman and his fellow extras in the dark by telling them that the scene was just about their characters meeting Anakin at the Jedi Council Chamber. As he was somewhat nervous, it took Beadman three or four takes to get the scene right despite having memorized and practiced his line beforehand, four times a day in the two-week run-up before filming. George Lucas ordered him to keep eye contact with Christensen during the scene and walk back once Anakin looked evilly at him. Beadman also made some weird facial expressions sometimes, which caused the scene to be cut until he did it right. To add fear to him for the scene, Christensen shouted "Boo!" at Beadman, which caused him to stumble back just as Christensen's character activated his lightsaber.

Invited by the film crew, Beadman attended the premiere of Revenge of the Sith in Leicester Square with his parents. Beadman was surprised to see that he was included in the finished film, having believed that he wasn't going to appear in it after causing the scene to be cut so many times. Upon watching it, Beadman thought that he would make his family proud and heard how the audience in the theater felt moved by his scene. Unaware of his character's death, to soften the blow for him, Beadman was lied by his parents to believe that his character survived the film by escaping from Anakin. He feels that his role in the film affected the film's tone and cemented it as dark and risky.

Back to school, Beadman's appearance in the film boosted his popularity as most of his classmates enjoyed Revenge of the Sith, though he found a bit annoying that some classmates teased him or referred to him as the "Star Wars kid" instead of calling him for his real name. His friends were also the ones who told him about his character's actual fate in the film, leading Beadman to think about it for a few months until he came into terms with his character's death. Retroactively, Beadman feels honored for having his character being the first onscreen victim of Darth Vader, feeling that had his character's killer been a clone trooper it would have been quite cheap.

In regards to Internet memes featuring his character, Beadman has had mixed emotions about them but has been overall happy with them as they have been keeping him relevant, having enjoyed one putting him against other characters from Revenge of the Sith like General Grievous or Emperor Palpatine. Looking back at his participation in Revenge of the Sith, Beadman feels extremely lucky and acknowledges that, while he does sometime feel annoyed that people insist him on repeating his iconic line, his role has given him a small dose of fame, attention, money and has immortalized him in film.