Page 60 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2020)

“I USED ONE WORD FROM
THE BEGINNING, IT MUST
‘DELIGHT.’ IF WE DO THAT,
WE’LL HAVE SUCCEEDED.”
It has to do with the shape of the lights,
the shine on the floor, the shape of the
corridors. Creatures you remember from
40 years ago are in this movie, and that’s
kind of fantastic. And, Michael Kaplan,
the costume designer, totally entered the
universe of Star Wars in this, his first Star
Wars movie, and created a whole new
generation that fit in with A New Hope.
Did you and J.J. Abrams feel that the lead
was always going to be a strong female?
There was never a question. It was not
just J.J. and I, but Kathy and everyone else
involved as well. We aimed very strongly
toward one of the protagonists being a
woman right from the get-go. It cries out
60 INSIDER
for that. Leia was a wonderful character,
but she was one of the only women in the
original trilogy. This saga demands more
in female leadership. We want to see more
characters like that. As movies go, we’ll
see more. We knew that this one had to
be centered on both a girl and a boy.
Was it fun to revisit the classic Star
Wars characters?
It’s great to come back to characters
you love. Leia and Han are great people
to write for, and now I’ve done it a lot.
For someone who is their age, there’s a
poignancy about how we lose our physical
resilience. We deal with many things over
the a course of a lifetime. Some take a toll
and some show up in lines in our faces.
When you stop resisting it, it can be
a glorious thing. You can appreciate
itand you’re grateful for this journey
that put you through so many different
paces. When you see Carrie Fisher and
you see Harrison Ford, you see all that.
We’ve followed them since they were so
young. They grew up on camera. For
Harrison, it’s been non-stop movie
stardom, which is a burden in itself.
Very few people have had the long, varied
career that Harrison has. Harrison was in
Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but
he was also in Witness, Clear and Present
Danger, and so many more. He played fear
and aspiration, and had heroism and