It took six people to work the full-sized animatronic of Jabba the Hutt. The puppet fit three men inside -two to operate the arms, head and tongue and another to move the tail. A man lying below the puppet pulled strings to move Jabba's mouth and make his sides heave. And two radio operators controlled the slimy goon's eyes, including pupil dilation, direction and wideness of eyelids. A final crew member was responsible for rubbing gel on the puppet to give Jabba his slimy look.
Carrie Fisher really cared about Warwick Davis' well-being during filming, as he had to spend it in a hot Ewok costume. She also provided him with cookies and chocolate milk between takes. Davis later commented "She was everything an eleven-year-old Ewok could possibly wish for."
The Emperor's chair was mechanized so that it could rotate when the scene called for it. However, the mechanism never worked properly, so Ian McDiarmid had to make it move by shuffling his feet. A piece of tape on the floor told him when to stop so it would not be visible to the camera.
Nien Nunb, Lando's co-pilot, speaks a Kenyan dialect called Haya. According to sound designer Ben Burtt, the lines were delivered by Kipsang Rotich, a Kenyan student living in the U.S., and are actually correct Hayan translations of the English text. Audiences in Kenya were reportedly very thrilled to hear their language spoken in proper context.
In the 2004 DVD release, George Lucas explained the reason behind why Yoda told Luke that Darth Vader was his father. Lucas had consulted with a child psychologist during the making of the film. The psychologist said that unless it was unequivocally stated that Vader was Luke's father, moviegoers age twelve and under would dismiss Vader's claim to be Luke's father as a lie. He decided to go through this when James Earl Jones stated he personally didn't believe Vader was telling the truth in Empire Strikes Back, no matter how many explanations he was given.
Ernie Fosselius: Creator of the Star Wars spoof Hardware Wars (1978), appeared as the voices of the rancor's keepers.
Richard Marquand: One of the two AT-ST drivers who's vehicle gets hijacked by Chewbacca and two Ewoks.