“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Press Conference Brings Out Actors and Director Rian Johnson to Talk About Film

Hi everyone!

We were invited to the press conference for Star Wars: The Last Jedi in Los Angeles. The actors and filmmakers who were part of the press conference are John Boyega (Finn); Daisy Ridley (Rey): Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren); Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker); Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron); Laura Dern (Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo); Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma); Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux); Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico) and director Rian Johnson. Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be opening on December 15th, 2017.

Photo credit: Image.net

We will have a video of the entire press conference up soon, hopefully in the next day or so – we do have a couple of clips in the article.

This is the second movie in the trilogy, and Johnson was asked what differentiates Star Wars: The Last Jedi from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Johnson said he knew it was expected to be a darker film and that it looks a little darker, but that he wanted the fun aspect – for it to feel like a Star Wars movie. “You have the intensity, you have the opera, but it also means that you come out of the theater wanting to run in your backyard, grab your spaceship toys and make them fly around…”.

The cast was asked a question about what viewers might take away learning. Driver said, to laughter, “I think that’s a personal kind of thing, for probably some it will be nothing.” He continued to answer the question about how essentially each person is different for what they may take away, but bookended it again with, “potentially nothing”.

A question was put out to the women on the panel about how there were more females in the movie and what it meant to them. Daisy Ridley took the question first, saying that the response was “so beyond anything I could have imagined…obviously it is a testament to Kathy, J.J, Michael, Larry, everyone who created the characters in the beginning.” The question was answered several times, and the moderator almost moved to the next question when the other women started changing “Gwen”. The moderator said he didn’t want to get on Captain Phasma’s bad side, and she spoke next. Christie said she was delighted, “I wasn’t cast in the first Star Wars film yet when I heard about the casting, and I was utterly delighted to see that there was a more representative selection of actors that were going to be in these incredible Star Wars films”.

One of the funniest moments in the press conference came when Mark Hamill was asked about training Rey in the film, and whether he finally learned lessons from Yoda now that he’s the teacher. Hamill didn’t even have to think, and said in a deadpan “Well, you’re assuming that I train Rey”. Johnson lifted his finger and smile while saying, “Sneaky!” twice. Hamill continued, “I know, I have to be really careful when people ask if it was difficult to pick up and wield a lightsaber – and I go (breathing in like he will say something and then wagging his finger), Do I pick up a lightsaber?” Hamill then said, “I can promise you that my part is twice as big as in Force Awakens“.