Page 66 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2019)

ON DIVERSITY IN STAR WARS

Kathleen Kennedy: I think diversity is incredibly
important to Star Wars. I think it’s more important to
the film industry in general. I think having a cast that

represents and reflects the world today and having

characters that people all over the world can relate

to reflects that this is very much a global industry.
Films mean something to people all over the world.
[In] Rogue One, there is this group of people who
come together in ways that are kind of inexplicable.
They share a very common belief, and they feel very
strongly in their desire to do the right thing. Every
movie has reasons for casting certain people. I think
what we’re doing today is just being much more
mindful of that.

ON WOMEN IN STAR WARS

KK: I found it really interesting when I fi rst stepped
into this job and I started to think, What does it mean
to be a female hero?
I think the characters of Rey and Jyn are
empowered women that are not necessarily just
taking on male characteristics. They’re genuinely
female heroines. I think that’s really important to the
way we tell stories. I think it will make a difference.
ON STRONG FEMALE LEADS

KK: In this movie, the irony is that Jyn’s not
necessarily just a female hero. She’s a very strong,
wonderful character in a movie, who happens to be
a woman. Gareth Edwards directs
members of the
ON K-2SO Rogue One cast.

KK: Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO can proudly stand amongst
an amazing line-up of droids such as C-3PO and
R2-D2, and BB-8. He’s another great droid in
Star Wars.
GE: We shot the whole thing as if K2 was there.
Whatever Alan did on set was exactly what K2 was

going to do in the fi nal film. Even though you might
think, You can just animate this stuff, you can’t.
There were times where we wanted to tweak
something in post-production. We’d try something
a little bit different to what Alan did, and every
single time, it didn’t work. We had to be true to his
performance all of the time. Even when we wanted
to tweak something, we got Alan back and we
re-recorded him on film and copied his performance.

He is K2. A lot of the humor that’s in the movie
comes from Alan improvising. He was given freedom
to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
There are shots we couldn’t use because sometimes,
when I was holding the camera, I was laughing so
much it was rocking.

Rogue One presents
a grittier side to the
Star Wars franchise.

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