Star Wars: Joey Fatone Reveals Why Attack of the Clones Cut NSYNC Cameo

NSYNC said bye bye bye to their cameo in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Before the release of George Lucas' second Star Wars prequel in 2002, a Lucasfilm spokesperson confirmed rumors members of the boy band filmed a quick cameo during a visit to Skywalker Sound. Joey Fatone, his brother Steve, and bandmates Chris Kirkpatrick and JC Chasez recorded two scenes as Jedi, including a lightsaber-wielding fight scene alongside hundreds of other Jedi extras during the Battle of Geonosis. (Lance Bass and Justin Timberlake were reportedly too weary from NSYNC's PopOdyssey tour to film their Star Wars cameos.) 

During a panel at Fandemic Tour Atlanta, Fatone revealed the real reason NSYNC's cameo was cut from Star Wars: because of the Screen Actors Guild.

"I wasn't in it. They cut us out," Fatone said when asked about the deleted cameo. "There was a whole big rumor about NSYNC being in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Some of us actually were, but then they cut it out because we were [SAG-AFTRA members]. Usually, they have to pay the SAG rights to it. We only signed a confidential thing — which we didn't say anything — but they had to cut us out of it."

After touring Skywalker Ranch and Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm invited Fatone and crew to participate as background extras.

"They put us in the wardrobe, I had a Padawan tail. George actually came out and directed us, which was really cool," he said. "Somebody was taping this, so I asked Rick McCallum, the producer of Star Wars, 'How do I get this footage?' He's like, 'Ah, I can't give it to you.' So there's actual footage of it, there's actual footage of us shooting it and doing it. It was a cool experience."

The Fatone brothers "had a fight [scene] in this big green screen where we're literally fighting nothing," he recalled, adding they were instructed to pretend to use the Force. "Now us idiots are [making lightsaber noises]. I looked at my brother, like, 'Dude, we can't make those noises! We're making faces, you can't do that!' So it was during the fight scene [on Geonosis]."

They also appeared in the background of a scene between Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Yoda (voice of Frank Oz), but that cameo didn't make the final cut.

"That was the other scene we were supposed to be in, and we weren't. So, it sucks," Fatone said. "I'm trying [to get the footage]. Trust me, I'm trying. I ask every few years. There's the footage of that. I shaved my head really, really short. Supposedly, they digitally put a mohawk on me or something. One of the women that did the wardrobe, I was friends with, and she saw the footage. Then I saw George a couple weeks later, I'm like, 'Yo, what happened?' And he just laughed [laughs]."