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From schools to Star Wars, meet the Salem educators who spend weekends as Chewbacca

Tom Beckett, dressed as Chewbacca, greets a fan at a Star Wars Oregon event at Christmas Storybook Land in Albany on Dec. 15, 2019 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)

Most people have some way of unwinding after a stressful day at work. For Thomas Beckett, it’s dressing up as a Wookie.

Beckett, a lead school security worker for the Salem-Keizer School District, spends weekends traveling around Oregon dressing as Chewbacca for charity events.

It’s a hobby he shares with his older brother, Josh, a special education classroom aide at Straub Middle School, who now dresses as Tarfful, a Wookie general who appeared in “Revenge of the Sith.”

Both said bringing joy to people, especially kids, helps them balance jobs where they’re sometimes dealing with students at their worst, or who are acting out because of trauma they’ve experienced.

“Sometimes our jobs are emotionally draining. It can help restore some of that outside of work,” Tom Beckett said.

“There’s a lack of hope in the world so it’s really nice to get out on a Sunday and see the smiles,” Josh Beckett said.

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Josh Beckett first had the idea for a Chewbacca costume about a decade ago. He’d been a Star Wars fan from a young age thought it would be a fun thing to wear for Halloween to take his daughter trick-or-treating.

He didn’t go through with it then because of the amount of work involved, but took the leap about four years ago.

Star Wars cosplaying, also known as “trooping,” is a highly organized volunteer affair with international organizations. The 501st Legion is a group for people who dress as Stormtroopers and other bad guys in the Star Wars universe, while the Rebel Legion is for Jedi like Luke Skywalker and other heroes like Chewbacca.

Even in the Rebel Legion, Chewbacca is a rare costume because of the work involved in creating an accurate suit. That rarity can give those who dress as Chewbacca a special status.

“I had no idea when I was making that costume that Chewy was this rockstar character,” Josh said.

Because the characters are copyrighted, members can’t make any money for their appearances. They cover their own gas and may spend thousands of dollars hand-crafting costumes.

In Oregon, members of both groups work together through an organization called Star Wars Oregon. Beckett’s most recent appearance was Dec. 15 at Christmas Storytime Book in Albany, where he joined other troopers to pose for photos with an eager line of fans, ranging from young children to grandmothers.

As the event opened, Beckett posed outside the door, greeting fans with a Wookie roar.

“It’s Chewy!” several children exclaimed before running over.

The character appeals to both brothers because he’s universally beloved by fans and recognized even by people who haven’t seen Star Wars.

“I don’t think there’s a person who doesn’t love Chewy,” Tom said. He’s seen 90-year-old women who are elated to meet him in costume as well as kids.

Tom Beckett shows off the lifted boots he wears as part of his Chewbacca costume (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)

The Rebel Legion has strict costume standards and outlines six major features for Chewbacca in painstaking detail. He must be at least seven feet tall (Tom wears combat boots strapped to eight inch lifts), his feet must be completely covered with hair other than the toes and bottoms, and his hair should be strawberry blonde with darker brown and grey patches in specified areas.

“The mouth should have a slight frown when closed. The mask hair should be smooth and well groomed, not bushy, so that the mask’s shape and structure are clear,” the guidelines read.

Josh spent about a year and a half on the suit, latch hooking artificial hair through a fishnet top and bottom to create an outfit as faithful to the films as he could.

He ordered a mask online but found the quality wasn’t what he was hoping, so he re-furred the entire thing to make it more accurate for the movie.

Originally, Josh dressed as Chewy at events and Tom acted as a spotter, helping him see where he was going and managing people taking photos with him. About a year ago, they shifted to Tom wearing the suit: his thinner build makes him a more accurate presentation of the character, they explained.

Josh then began working on his Tarfful costume. He’s also branched out into making Wookie masks for fellow Star Wars enthusiasts. He works out of a newly-built shed at the family home, which houses masks in various stages of completion and a large amount of Wookie fur.

Each mask takes him a month or more to craft, with prices that put them well outside the budget of a casual Halloween costume. Still, it’s not a for-profit endeavor: the Rebel Legion has an agreement with Lucasfilm and strict guidelines on the sale of merchandise.

The brothers have spent considerable time researching methods for creating masks. They 3D printed scans of their heads and used clay to mold a mask around them, then made a mold.

“Talk about one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done,” Josh said.

They also traveled to Seattle to visit legendary Star Wars collector Gus Lopez, who has a foam latex Chewbacca mask without hair from the original 1977 movie.

In the movie, Chewbacca’s suit is made from yak fur, but after talking to yak farmers, they realized that wasn’t practical.

“The second they find out what you’re using it for, the price can just go through the roof,” Tom said. Yak fur is less durable than synthetic: it’s fine for a high budget movie with 20 suits that only need to last through filming, but less good for a suit that’s intended to be worn for years.

Josh and Tom Beckett’s collection of Star Wars memorabilia includes Chewbacca figurines (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)

The brothers grew up watching Star Wars films as a family and have enjoyed every part of the series. Josh’s favorite movie is “The Empire Strikes Back,” which he said he’ll watch after an especially hard day to help re-center himself.

Tom is an “Empire” fan but said the newer “Rogue One” is his favorite, particularly the sassy drone K-2SO, who’s constantly wise-cracking at the expense of Jyn Erso, the film’s star.

Die-hard fans were split on the latest film in the newer trilogy, “The Last Jedi,” with some feeling the film strayed too far from the tenants of the Star Wars universe.

The brothers said they initially struggled with some aspects of it, like seeing Jedi master Luke Skywalker casually toss his old lightsaber behind him. But in talking about the Star Wars universe, they also remembered times in the original trilogy when Yoda was more dismissive or sarcastic than fans often remember him to be.

For Josh, the most important thing is that the series and Star Wars universe are still relevant to a new generation of fans. That fan culture means he’s not just a middle-aged guy obsessed with a movie from his childhood that kids today haven’t heard of.

“The cool thing is that we’re talking about Star Wars,” he said.

Josh said he’s found Make a Wish events the most meaningful part of trooping. Once, he appeared as Chewbacca for a boy who was about seven with a terminal illness.

“He wanted to go to Disneyland but he was too sick, so we brought Disneyland to him,” Josh said. The boy has since died, but the experience sticks with him.

Star Wars aficionado Josh Beckett shows off a mask he created of Tarfful, a Wookie general who made his film debut in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)

Tom said his work on Chewbacca costumes has helped him connect with students who may be struggling in school.

Before working in school security, he was in the Marine Corps and spent several years in law enforcement.

“I kind of come from this square, rigid background,” he said. “Understanding things about trauma, school to prison pipeline, implicit bias and how all that affects my job…I had to crash course.”

He’ll use the skills he’s learned through his life as Chewbacca to connect with kids who are disengaged in school by introducing them to 3D printing, he said.

“Seeing that kind of light reopen for some kids was fun to me and helped me do my job,” he said.

He also shares his successes and failures, pointing out how he’s learned to craft a Wookie mask even though he’s not an artsy person. That’s something students can relate to.

“I don’t work for NASA. I’m not the smartest person in the world. I think there’s some power in that,” he said. “All you gotta do is try to learn and you can create something magical.”

Reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.

Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.