You know the sound, even if you didn't know it had a name: that iconic, ear-piercing action movie squeal like someone falling out of a window. It's called the Wilhem Scream (not to be confused with the seminal New Bedford post-hardcore band A Wilhelm Scream).
The Hollywood Reporter recently reached out to sound designer Ben Burrt for a long-ranging chat about all kinds of wonderful noises. While Burrt was not the first to use the Wilhelm Scream, he is typically credited with popularizing the infamous howl. It's just one of the iconic audio cues he pioneered as the sound designer on the first Star Wars film.
In the interview, Burrt explains how he first heard the scream in a 1950s Western, and recorded it off the television for his own entertainment. He and his film school friends began to incorporate it into their audio editing, mostly as an in-joke between them. But it soon took on a life of its own:
When we'd do a student film, we'd stick it in there, taking it from my recording of the TV show. Later, when I became an actual sound editor and we were mixing at Warner Bros. on the first Star Wars movie, I went to their sound library and spoke to the librarian. They didn't know what a Wilhelm was, because it wasn't called that, of course, but I was able to find it. So in Star Wars, I stuck it in for a stormtrooper falling into a trench when he gets shot. It was just for my own pleasure. Nobody asked for it. Nobody noticed it. That was it.
[…]
After that, I started seeing how far I could go with it. Richard Anderson had gone back to L.A. and he was working on other films, and he started putting it in his movies. We played this game of one-upmanship for 25 years, just the two of us knowing what we were doing.
[…]
It wasn't until the Internet came along, it must have been around 2000 or so when people could collectively talk about trivia and DVDs were on hand so you could study these movies. Suddenly everybody was hearing the same scream on all these Lucas films, and on a few others, and began wondering what it was. Somehow the word got out. I didn't mention it. But then it escaped onto the Internet and became, what do you call it, a meme? Is that what it is? I don't know. Now it's everywhere. I created a monster.
Of course, the Wilhelm Scream is not the only sound that Burrt is responsible for. In the interview, he also touches on his work on Chewbacca's growl, R2-D2's beeping, and yes, Darth Vader's breathing.
Ben Burtt on Revolutionizing Sci-Fi Sound With 'Star Wars' and Creating Darth Vader's Breathing [Scott Roxborough / The Hollywood Reporter]
Previously:
• Original 'Wilhelm Scream' found in discarded tapes
• Watch the OG 'Wilhelm Scream' as it happened
• Wilhelm Scream – Hollywood's favorite scream
