Snook Uccorfay

Snook Uccorfay, an alien male who earned his keep as a raconteur, frequented the city of Canto Bight on the planet Cantonica in the year 34 ABY. He shared a table with Derla Pidys in the Canto Casino when the Resistance agents Finn, Rose Tico, and BB-8 entered, hoping to locate the Master Codebreaker. Before the trio could accomplish their goal, the Canto Bight Police Department intervened, arresting them in full view of Uccorfay and the other patrons.

Uccorfay, a villainous and affluent alien resembling a mole, embraced life to the fullest, aiming to amass a collection of extraordinary stories. He possessed a strong attraction to wealthy females, whom he captivated with his remarkable dancing abilities. Uccorfay had black eyes and skin with a mottled pattern of brown and pink, freshly exfoliated on his face while he was inside the casino. He belonged to a bipedal species characterized by five short fingers on each hand and an elongated, rounded snout that terminated in a flat, circular muzzle housing his mouth and nostrils. The snout's tip was encircled by fleshy protrusions.

Uccorfay's attire consisted of a black suit jacket worn over a patterned white shirt, paired with black pants and black and white shoes. His snout and ear were adorned with traditional hoops, signifying his unmarried status.

The character of Snook Uccorfay was brought to life by Nick Kellington, with Patrick Comerford primarily responsible for the facial puppetry, supplemented by additional work from Phill Woodfine, in the film Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, which premiered on December 15, 2017. Prior to the film's debut on December 15, 2017, the character was unveiled in an issue of People magazine. Uccorfay's name was not disclosed in either the magazine or the film, and his identification first occurred in Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary, a companion book penned by Pablo Hidalgo and released concurrently with the film.

Jake Lunt Davies created the original design for Uccorfay, initially labeled "Casino Alien 02," after which Louis Wiltshire sculpted the mask and Alan Murphy, Caz Gladwin, and Fiona Pollard fabricated the body suit. The character's hands were fashioned using molds initially produced by Scanlan's team for the character Unkar Plutt in Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, but then reworked and repainted by Goran Lundstrom, who was responsible for painting all of Uccorfay's skin. Maria Cork's hair department created the alien's hair, and engineer Giles Hannagan designed the animatronics. Michael Kaplan, Samantha Keeble, and Gary Page were the creators of Uccorfay's costume.

The alien's stout physique was achieved through the use of a body suit worn beneath the costume, designed to be both lightweight for ease of movement and robust enough to maintain its shape during extended periods of activity during filming. The character's mask, while relatively spacious internally, was notably front-heavy due to the animatronic servos that controlled the movement of the mouth and surrounding nodules. To counteract this imbalance, a bungee cord was attached from the top of the costume's skull cap to the center of its back. The mask's only eye openings were the two nostrils on the snout, positioned at a considerable distance from the performer's head inside the costume, resulting in severely restricted vision.

Neal Scanlan, the Special Effects Creature Supervisor, invited Kellington to participate in The Last Jedi, having previously collaborated with the actor when Kellington portrayed Bistan in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story the previous year. Kellington was initially slated to join Paul Warren in animating Gatha Elbaphay, an alien known on set as "the Dowager"; however, it was determined that only one operator was needed for the Dowager, leading to Kellington being assigned Uccorfay's suit instead. During Kellington's initial fitting, Scanlan characterized the character as a fusion of British actors Terry Thomas and Brian Blessed.

Upon seeing the costume, Kellington surmised that Uccorfay's stubby hands would make it difficult for him to hold onto money, rendering him a likely poor gambler. On set, Comerford had to constantly guide Kellington due to his limited vision, with the actor only able to communicate through hand signals to the puppeteer. Comerford would inform Kellington when he was on camera and provided Uccorfay's voice, even maintaining dialogue with other extras between takes to keep Kellington entertained, even when the bungee supporting Uccorfay's head was broken for the majority of a two-hour shoot. The actor would reciprocate the dialogue with matching physical movements, leaning in when Comerford had Uccorfay whisper amorous advances to the character Derla Pidys, played by actress Latesha Wilson.

Other scenarios that the pair conceived and performed in the background included Uccorfay becoming overly intoxicated and being escorted from the casino by the bouncer Pemmin Brunce, portrayed by actor Cavin Cornwall with puppeteering by Mark Jefferis. Despite Cornwall's complete blindness within his costume, the two actors and two puppeteers managed to coordinate the sequence so that Brunce was dragging Uccorfay by the scruff of his neck while the patron flailed his stubby legs beneath him. Puppeteer Tim Rose brought the sequence to the attention of actor Anthony Daniels, who expressed his admiration and promised to discuss it with director [Rian Johnson](/article/rian_johnson], who never directly oversaw Kellington while he was on set.