Imagine, if you will, walking around Star Wars Celebration and thinking that you’re seeing a celebrity. You’re exhausted, your feet hurt, and you’re running on fumes and suddenly you see Oscar Isaac’s face. You might scream or throw something, or maybe even rush up for an autograph—only to realize that it is, in fact, a mask staring at you from another convention goer, and then you are suddenly questioning your entire existence. Welcome to the real-life Star Wars Celebration experience.
Well, that’s what happened to me. At a costume booth in the convention center, along the back wall, was a series of masks with their eyes cut out representing some of our favorite characters. Sure, there were obvious mask choices like Kylo Ren’s mask from The Force Awakens, as well as C-3PO’s face, which are decidedly less freaky, but it didn’t stop there. No, there were character masks that were just the actual human faces of actors we know and love? That’s what got me. Because it was just Oscar Isaac’s head floating on my tiny body, and I would see pictures of it or see other people wearing it and scream.
Out of all the announcements and all the chaos of the weekend, this is the thing I think I’m going to be thinking about for way too long. Well, this and getting to see Daisy Ridley return to Star Wars as Rey, but still, this is just the right kind of horror that sticks with you forever—mainly because the masks are so big that it does really look like their heads on whatever body you have. So, Diego Luna, Ewan McGregor, and John Boyega can all now live their lives out as a 5’2″–5’3″ white girl. Point is, when you put on the mask? You become the mask.
You too can be Oscar Isaac
The mask itself is simply a large version of the actor’s face with the eyes cut out and a string around it. Easy to use, easy to wear. But it is just jarring seeing this floating head walking around. I was with my friends, and my friend Michael was wearing it and a man walked up asking to take a picture. I’m assuming he loved the bit, but we can’t be too sure. Point is: They really are sort of freaky to see out in the wild.
Not in a bad way—in a fun, warped sort of comedy. Because really, that’s what Celebration is about. You don’t see a sea of cosplayers dressed like a specific set picture of Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn holding an umbrella wearing sunglasses just anywhere, now do you? But god, these masks just walking around had to be the strangest thing I saw while there, and that is saying something. At a convention where a bunch of cosplayers dress up and run around holding ice cream makers, it’s hard to beat the weird.
But that’s why I love Star Wars Celebration so much. We just all love this franchise and the characters in it, and we’re not afraid to share that nerdy love—even if it means wearing unsettling masks.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
