Secrets revealed: Origami means… and more!!!

The past weekend was a nice one. The Basauri Con 1.0 (near Bilbao, Spain) about Battlestar Galactica was fun and interesting. With Mary McDonnell and Edward J Olmos, two stars so charming I never will forget!

The complete comment about this Con is in the Spanish site: http://www.blade-runner.es and you may translate with the page tools (Global Translator option in the rightside bar). But now I wanna share one of the videos I’ve made. It’s the answer to one of the more controversial questions about this movie: ¿what means the unicorn? Let’s see Mr. Olmos explaining it… And, finally, the complete transcription in text (for all we don’t have such good English).

Transcription made by Neil Hardwick (Gaff87):

It’s ok……umm……the question is…….you know there’s been all the,you had a lot of influence in the directors….everybody does influence on a piece.

What was your intention when you made and left the unicorn in Blade Runner?

Well…(Spanish)….this is a problem for me to really, really talk about …umm….When I made the chicken..Ok..that was the very first..um…origami that I made, and I put it down in the scene because I couldn’t figure out exactly what to do when Ridley said “You walk in and then you go sit down over there at the back”..And I said…oh my god…why not just bring him in and then turn around and leave. Why do you need another person in the room?

When Harrison’s character..You know, Deckard is talking to the chief?..(Spanish?) why do I, why should I stay in here? And I said this is really difficult because.. like, if I’m sitting here like this…and the scene’s say around over there, where these people are located, and I’m sitting here like this and the cameras on….and can see me in the background..and I don’t move…I draw a hell-of alot attention…you might say “Well, no, I mean..” Uh uh…that isn’t how it works because when you don’t move it’s very very much a false note…something incredibly difficult. People don’t just sit there…like a tree… …you see what happens. “What the hell’s that guy doing? Why is he, why is he just sitting there?

Then compound (?) that by having me move…now I’m upstaging….I’m pulling attention. So, either way you’re stuck inside (?) how to sit in a room without bringing attention to yourself when you know that the scene has to hold it and you can’t really pull away from there. Knowing full well that if you just move a little bit you’re gonna be drawing attention and if you don’t move you’re gonna be drawing attention so what do you do?

So I sat down I thought “Man, this is like the worst possible when you’re standing and I got, there was a little piece of paper…gum wrapper….juicy fruit gum, kind of …you know it’s got…a…a..cellophane(?)…I mean, it’s got white paper one side and it’s got like a, what do you call that kinda paper?….foil, foil on the other side, so it looks like a piece of metal…and…And….it’s sitting there like that. I reached over and I got it and I started…NOW I had something that I was doing that was broad but now I was doing something..Okay…you know it’s just a….So if you see the movie and you’ll see him back there and he’s doing something but…it’s not big so it doesn’t really pull you away and, but, he’s doing something so he’s taking care of himself…okay, so you think he’s doing something….

Back to the movie. And so you’re inside of the scene and you’re watching. At the end of the scene, of course, Deckard says “I’m not gonna do this, I don’t wanna do this, I’ve retired, it’s over, forget it” you know “find somebody else” and I put the little..And I was messing around with the thing and it started to look like a…a chicken and I’m saying..”huh”…and this is perfect for this scene, my god. It was finished, the scene was finished I put it down…(Chicken noise)

Ridley “Huh….uh…..Edward….What was……bring the camera please” And they took a picture of the chicken..and shot it..(camera noise)

OK, that’s two.

I’m with Deckard now, again, we’re inside looking at a…what’s the names..Ah…um…um….James…um…oh god….I’m gonna remember..Um…Lee…uh Leonard…Leon, thank you, Leon. We’re in his room and he’s like going around, he’s in….. and I, of course, I’m just his driver…I’m just suppose to be driving the guy…looking very weird…and acting very weird and..and I’m standing there and he’s walking around, looking for every clues and all this stuff, and so I found a match-stick and I grabbed the matchstick and I opened it and I started playing with it while he’s doing….again, didn’t wanna upstage him, didn’t wanna do anything, just leave him alone, let him do his thing.

What was I suppose to be doing? Looking for the…you know…replicant’s..oohh..No, I’m suppose to be taking care of him and nobody knows why, but I’m just there, you know…so, I don’t do any…and, so, of course the memorable moment comes when I put the..the stickman down…and the stickman of course has a little hard on…(gesture)…(¡pepito!)….and he has a hard on for Leon….Urrghhh….you know, This’ll remind him (?)…so I put the little stickman down and that was it, and of course Ridley..bing!..

So, cut to…I finished my part, I finished my thing…and….the show, I got to see the movie…and….I’m watching the movie, I’m watching the movie. I’m watching the movie and all of a sudden we get to the end…Bingo…there’s the unicorn made of origami I said “Wow, I was there”….I wasn’t but my character obviously had been ’cause I made the origamis and there’s an origami of…the….you know…unicorn. And of course if you saw the scene you realize that the unicorn was, and is, and understanding of his reoccurring dream…I knew his reoccurring dream therefore it placed him in the position that he hated, Harrison Ford hated the fact that he was a replicant. That’s what it meant.

It meant that he was a replicant also…and he didn’t even know himself. So that was really, I mean, Harrison said “I never played any” ’cause you’re not suppose to…you’re not supposed to know…okay….and so that one became the big thing…and years later…it only came out in the last 25 years, 25 years after the fact, this one….people really started to get into it and now on the 30th anniversary, this year it’s the 30th anniversary but, 25…you know… At the 25th anniversary it became a real important understanding….when people would finally have huge battles…”No he wasn’t a replicant” “No way. Deckard’s not areplicant man”…he was. He is. And then finally, uh last….in the final edition, when they released it I think that Ridley Scott comes out and says it…he says “Yeah,he was a replicant” So..yes, you’re right….I did have an incredible influence on…..and even though I didn’t make that, I didn’t make the origami…(?)…but thank you for asking.

Yes, go ahead.

-Neil Hardwick-