Adam Driver on Playing Kylo Ren and Keeping Star Wars Secrets - Late Night with Seth Meyers
After Chris Stapleton made this joke on Instagram last month, you"d think that the Saturday Night Live promos starring Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Adam Driver would be the perfect place for another Chewbacca look-alikejoke. Instead, Stapleton hangs back and just lets Driver and cast member Aidy Bryant do the talking.
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In the new clips released Thursday (Jan. 14) Bryant jokes that Star Wars is her new favorite war -- a title previously held by the Franco-Prussian War. She also says she was cut out from Star Wars, meanwhile Stapleton just kind of smiles and nods.
Star Wars The Force Awakens Interview - Adam Driver, Gwendoline Christie & Domhnall Gleeson
As anticipation about Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens continues to build, the actor who plays the original trilogy"s young hero Luke Skywalker has offered some new hints about the future of his character, leading some to speculate that Luke may end up as the forthcoming trilogy"s arch-villain.
Warning: possible spoilers ahead
According to Mark Hamill, Luke will not be returning to the series as the "innocent farm boy" he was in Star Wars IV: A New Hope. "Obviously you"re seeing him in a very different time in his life, there are lots of surprises in this movie. You"re going to love it," Hamill told Empire Magazine (via SlashFilm).
Hamill also said that while shooting scenes for the new movie in Ireland he felt as though he was inhabiting the Star Wars universe. "It reminded me of when I was in Tunisia on the salt flats. If you could get into your own mind and shut out the crew and look at the horizon, you really felt like you were in a galaxy far, far away. I had that same wave of emotion happen to me when I was on Skellig Michael in Ireland. I wasn"t anticipating it."
Fans are still in the dark about why Hamill hasn"t appeared in any promotions for the new film.The most recent trailer for Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens - released last week to coincide with the US Thanksgiving holiday - features a lot more of villain Kylo Ren, but nothing at all of Luke.
The character has been notably absent from all promotions related to the forthcoming sci-fi film.
Hamill is billed second in the credits for Star Wars 7, right after Harrison Ford and before Carrie Fisher. But according to the film"s director JJ Abrams, "it"s no accident" that the actor doesn"t appear in trailers, posters, official photos and merchandising.
So where is Luke? Asked recently by the Sydney Morning Herald why the Jedi has been absent, Abrams responded cryptically: "These are good questions to be asking. I can"t wait for you to find out the answers."
In the absence of the original trilogy"s old hero, last week"s Thanksgiving trailer for Star Wars 7 has plenty of the series" new arch-villain Kylo Ren. The minute-long trailer startswith a close-up of Ren, played by Adam Driver. The now familiar voice of Supreme Leader Snoke can be heard on the background saying: "There"s been an awakening. Have you felt it?"
Later in the short clip the voiceover says: "Even you have never faced such a test," while the camera focuses on Ren standing in the rain holding a lightsaber.
In an interview with Howard Stern this week, JJ Abrams explained further why he did not want to talk about Luke"s absence ahead of the film"s release.
"Here"s the thing: I really want to make sure that we"re not ruining the movie for people, that they"re not seeing too much of it before it comes out. I hate when I go and see a trailer and think that I"ve just seen the movie in encapsulated form ... I"d rather be asking questions than feel like they"d been answered for me."
One of the more fanciful theories from Looper.com has it that Kylo Ren is in fact Luke Skywalker. The site supports its argument with the following evidence: the pair have never been seen together, they have the same fashion sense, Kylo Ren"s voice is "obviously fake", Luke likes to make custom lightsabers and that Kylo has Darth Vader"s head.
Other sites have suggested that Luke may become a villain, but that he is more likely to emerge as the Supreme Leader Snoke.
Andy Serkis, the performer behind Supreme Leader Snoke"s physical movements says that the character has a "huge agenda" and has "suffered a lot of damage," EmpireOnline reports. Serkis said that his character is "quite powerful," but exhibits a "strange vulnerability".
Star Wars 7: "I am Princess Leia" says Carrie Fisher
25 November
In an interview with Time magazine about her decision to return to the Star Wars franchise, Carrie Fisher says that she "long ago accepted that I am Princess Leia."
In a Q&A about the eagerly anticipated forthcoming Star Wars film The Force Awakens, which goes on general release in mid December, the 59-year-old actress said that it wasn"t a difficult decision to come back.
"I"m a female and in Hollywood it"s difficult to get work after 30 maybe it"s getting to be 40 now. I long ago accepted that I am Princess Leia. I have that as a large part of the association with my identity. There wasn"t a lot of hesitation."
Asked if her character Leia had changed over the years, Fisher replied: "Oh my G*d, she got so much older. I tried to stop her, but apparently that includes death so that didn"t seem like a good solution. Along with aging comes life experience so in every way that is consistent with even being human, Leia has changed."
In the new films, Fisher"s character is referred to as General Leia, indicating that her role within the Rebellion now known as the Resistance has grown since her adventures in the original trilogy of films. Some fans have speculated that Leia might now control the group aligned against the evil New Order, the group spawned from the defeated Galactic Empire.
Asked whether she brought aspects of her own life experience to the role, Fisher replied: "Probably, but I try not to. I mean, one hopes that I at least indicate that I have wisdom. Whether I"m successful with that indication or not remains to be seen. And I wear less makeup and I need it more."
