Deep Roy: the man who played 165 different Oompa-Loompas for Tim Burton
Tim Burton has worked with all the greats, including the likes of Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, Alan Rickman, and Winona Ryder. But none of them hold a candle to the hardworking Deep Roy, who played all 165 separate Oompa-Loompas in Burton’s 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
While Johnny Depp’s madcap Wonka gets a lot of praise, it was Roy’s dedication in stepping into all 165 roles that prompted Burton to call him the “hardest-working man in show biz”, which rings especially true when you find out he only signed up to play five.
“Five Oompas quickly turned into 165,” Roy told Entertainment Weekly. “And they’re not computerized – I did each one individually myself. For example, there are 21 Oompas in the foreground during the first song, and as I acted out each one, we’d bring in professional dancers because I couldn’t do all 21 at the same time.”
Burton would then come in and watch the 20 dancers rehearse, then reposition Roy exactly on his mark to recreate the others. To ensure continuity, Roy had to watch his weight as filming progressed, sometimes working on one musical number for months at a time.
“They put me on a special diet,” he told The New Yorker. “I love beer, but beer is full of carbs and all that. They measured me every week so that I didn’t gain weight.” A credit to Roy’s dedication, he started and ended filming at exactly four feet four inches and 74lbs.
“Tim told me that the Oompas were strictly programmed, like robots; all they do is work, work, work,” Roy recalled. “So when it comes time to dance, they’re like a regiment; they do the same steps. Except for the Mike Teavee dance, where the Oompas play in a rock band. I learned to play the guitar for that one.”
The guitar element was to aid his one-man depiction of a five-piece rock band, which saw Roy play lead and bass guitar, keyboards and drums in a sequence that composer Danny Elfman described as an Oompa-Loompa take on Queen.
Other scenes required him to be well versed in mountaineering, hairdressing, maraca and bongo playing – the strenuous nature of all the physical work meant he had to do an hour of Pilates at six each morning just to limber up for the 14-hour days on set.
Not content with playing a record-breaking number of Oompa-Loompas, Roy was also the only actor to ever appear in the Doctor Who, Star Wars and Star Trek franchises – until Simon Pegg managed the feat too. In his decades-long career, Roy has well-earned the Tim Burton stamp of approval as the hardest worker in Hollywood. Before his workhorse effort on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roy collaborated with the legendary director on 2003’s Big Fish, as well as 2005’s Corpse Bride, solidifying himself as a fan favourite and safe pair of hands for Burton.
