It was like a dream from Star Wars
 
By Tina Bridenstine
Southwest Daily Times
 
Director Joel Trujillo and his friend Evan Greenwood, members of the Stormtroopers 501st Legion, have been Star Wars fans together since 2005. Last month, they had the ultimate Star Wars experience when they traveled to Los Angeles for Star Wars Celebration IV.
 
The two southwest Kansans attended the celebration, which marked the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, from Friday, May 24, to Monday, May 28. Both wore their stormtrooper armor almost the entire time.
 
“The first day we showed up, we cooked, and we baked, and we stood in line,” Trujillo said. “The lines were long. We finally got inside, and I was in there for two hours and I had to take my armor off because my feet were killing me.”
 
“Second day, we stood in line. By the third day, we just went at our own time. We didn’t have to be there early, so we got in when you just walk into the doors, no line.”
 
For Trujillo, one of the highlights of the weekend was meeting Carrie Fisher (after standing in another line), who played Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movies.
 
However, another highlight for both Trujillo and Greenwood was escorting an actress from Star Wars Episode 2 and Episode 3.
 
“Four or five 501st storm troopers were set to do escort duty for two of the stars,” Greenwood said. “I don’t know who the first one was, but the second one was Amy Allen.”
 
“Who played Aayla Secura,” Trujillo added.
 
When all of the stormtroopers went with the first star, Allen was left without escorts, so Greenwood and others were recruited by staff to escort her.
 
At the time, Greenwood was worried about losing Trujillo, who was getting autographs, but then the two met up again and both were able to escort Allen.
 
“So we start walking off, and I’m taking pictures like I’m taking pictures of Godzilla,” Trujillo said. “We had to escort her – mind you, this is a celebrity – through a crowd of people.”
 
“Shoulder to shoulder, chest to chest. No space,” Greenwood added. “We were like, ‘Imperial business, move along.’ Just like in the movies.”
 
They looked at us, and they don’t look at the star,” he explained. “Because they can’t figure it out. But if a star’s moving by himself, or with people in plain clothes, they get snapped on. We’re like a walking distraction.”
 
Trujillo added that Allen didn’t seem to think of herself as a star or get sucked into the Star Wars experience as much as some.
 
When interviewed by a television station, he said, she didn’t mention the name of her character and even pronounced the name of her character’s alien species incorrectly.
 
Then, after the interview, she called someone on her phone to say, “You won’t believe this! This guy just came up and started interviewing me!”
 
“It doesn’t affect her,” Trujillo said. “She doesn’t think of herself as a star.”
 
However, even members of the 501st Legion were stars in their own way at the convention.
 
Trujillo and Greenwood spoke of countless photographs, autographs and even interviews with television stations and journalists.
 
“We’re like the Mickey Mouses of the convention, I kid you not,” Trujillo said. “Taking pictures with thousands of people. They even wanted some autographs … What we were experiencing in the armor was like being celebrities ourselves.”
 
While there, Greenwood was also recruited for various tasks, including taking part in the Stormtrooper Olympics.
 
“There were five of us on a team. One scout trooper and then four of anything else,” he said. “The first guy comes just in his black body suit – that’s it. The start of it is how fast you can dress a stormtrooper. Your team has to dress this one guy.”
 
Putting on stormtrooper armor normally takes 15 minutes, Greenwood said, but it took the winning team only 45 seconds to do together.
 
Other events included shooting Jar Jar Binks through the mouth and throwing a Frisby through a trench in the Death Star, the part that Greenwood had to do.
 
His team came in fourth in the events.
 
Greenwood and Trujillo also said, among their other experiences while there, they got to watch a man dressed as Boba Fett fly down the street with a real rocket pack on his back.
 
“It was an experience like no other,” Trujillo said of the entire weekend.
 
“It’s like we’re all family,” he added. “If you see another stormtrooper pass by you, they always salute you. Now, you walk by the Jedi and they give you a dirty look … But we’re a family. The 501st, at least. The Empire.”
 
Now that they’ve returned from the event, some ask if they’ll be going to the next, but Trujillo and Greenwood both said they weren’t sure when the next one would be.
 
“Now people have asked us, ‘Are you going to go to the next celebration?’ To tell you the truth, … as far as back here in the States again, I don’t know when they’re going to have one, because there are no more Star Wars movies or anything,” Trujillo said.
 
“This one, by far, was the one I picked to be at. (Celebration) III was the one that you really should have been at. But as far as IV, to experience it all and the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.”
 
They still have some appearances planned for the year, though.
 
In the 501st Legion, they get points for attending Star Wars related events and charity events, and the points they get for participation keep them in the legion.
 
After going to Celebration IV, they currently don’t plan to do many more events for the rest of the year except for some local events – one at Gamestop and then at the Christmas parade. And at the Christmas parade, Trujillo said, they have something special planned for everyone.  But that’s a surprise.