George Lucas campaigned for one particular performance in original Star Wars trilogy, if not the entire Skywalker saga. It elevated the ground-breaking narrative and cinematic techniques pioneered by the first Star Wars film – later retitled A New Hope – and changed everything we thought we knew about Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and, most of all, the Force.

One integral new character introduced in The Empire Strikes Back was the green alien Yoda. Now an iconic Star Wars figure – one whose life experiences have influenced multiple generations of Jedi and Star Wars storytelling – Yoda trained Luke in the ways of the Force after Obi-Wan Kenobi’s death, giving Luke the tools he needed to eventually defeat Emperor Palpatine and bring his father back from the brink of darkness. Though Yoda later appeared on-screen as a CGI character in the Star Wars prequels, the elder Jedi was first introduced as a puppet, played and voiced by legendary puppeteer Frank Oz.

George Lucas Believed Frank Oz Deserved An Oscar For Yoda

George Lucas, who had handed over directing duties to Irvin Kershner for the Star Wars sequel, believed Frank Oz deserved an Oscar for his performance as Yoda. In The Making of Episode I The Phantom Menace, George Lucas said:

"After Frank Oz did Empire, I tried to get him nominated for an Academy Award; but we heard back that puppetry wasn't an art … I think it is an art — and Yoda represents the highest level of that art. Acting is acting, whether it is a human actor, a CG character, or a puppet. It's all the same. Most people think of Yoda as being real, because he is the height of puppet artistry."

Lucas was right, of course – Yoda was believable as a character because the puppet, and Oz’s performance, made him feel wise, a little odd, but most of all, tactile. Yoda felt real to us because he was really there. He was an actual figure on screen, someone Mark Hamill’s Luke could look at, speak to, and pick up whenever necessary. Oz’s performance made what could have easily become a character to laugh at into someone integral to the plot and Star Wars’ lore.

Lucas' Campaign Foreshadowed An Ongoing Issue With The Oscars

The difficulty of movie-making, especially in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, is making what appears on-screen, no matter how outlandish, feel somehow plausible, real, and genuine. A speculative filmmaker needs to give the audience a reason to suspend their disbelief, and Oz’s performance as Yoda made that so much easier. Luke’s training on Dagobah would have felt much less pivotal without that puppet. Unfortunately, the Academy finds it difficult to recognize and reward fantasy and sci-fi films; the most notable exception being Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Empire Strikes Back, for instance, was only nominated for three awards – Art Direction, Sound, and Original Score – and only won for Sound. Lucas’ campaign for Frank Oz was understandable. Without that performance, the film wouldn’t have worked nearly as well or been as highly regarded. Acting is acting – it shouldn’t matter if a character is human or not, yet sadly, even now, in an age where CGI characters reign supreme, the Oscars still often ignore these fantastical creature performances.

Acting is acting – it shouldn’t matter if a character is human or not, yet sadly, even now, in an age where CGI characters reign supreme, the Oscars still often ignore these fantastical creature performances.

Andy Serkis’ many Oscars snubs, for instance, prove that the Academy’s attitude towards these performances still needs work. Serkis was never nominated for his performances as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films or as Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes films, even though none of those films would have worked half as well without him, and he essentially pioneered acting with motion-capture technology. Whether or not you believe Frank Oz deserved an Oscar nomination for The Empire Strikes Back is subjective, of course, but it’s clear the Academy still needs to re-examine its definition of “art.”