Via Starwars.com:

LEE TOWERSEY SPEAKS TO STARWARS.COM ABOUT BUILDING ARTOO, SCOUTING AHCH-TO, AND MEETING THE LATE KENNY BAKER.

For Lee Towersey, everything changed at Celebration Europe in summer 2013. He’d been a member of the R2-D2 Builders Club for six years, having built his first film-accurate astromech in 2009, when Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy toured the club’s exhibition booth. Three months later, he was hired — along with fellow Builders Club member Oliver Steeples — as part of the creature-effects team at Pinewood Studios for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In 2016, Towersey found himself lying on his back aboard the Millennium Falcon, remote control in hand, as Mark Hamill and Artoo (played by newcomer Jimmy Vee) were reunited for one of the greatest scenes in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. StarWars.com called up the master droid builder to chat about his experience on set at Pinewood and Skellig Michael, adapting his Artoo units for Jimmy Vee, and paying tribute to the late Kenny Baker.

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