I was really excited to have the chance to sit down and talk with Donnie Yen about his character, Chirrut, in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. After watching 28 minutes of the film, this was one of the interviews I was most looking forward to. There is one Chirrut scene in particular that we watched where my mouth was likely hanging open the whole time – it was that incredible. I could not wait to pick his brain about his character – and I ended up learning that he had a lot to do with shaping Chirrut into who he is.

Telling us About Chirrut

The first thing we asked Donnie was to tell us a little bit about his character

“Chirrut, he’s blind but he’s spiritual. He’s the spiritual center of the team. He’s the Force believer. He’s got a little bit of a sense of humor. And he beats up all the Storm Troopers.“

Donnie was asked if it was true that he changed his character – someone had read that originally he was not blind.

“[I don’t want to take all the credit, it was more like a] contribution. That’s the nature of being an artist. You express your takes on your character. So in the beginning when I was discussing about my character with Gareth, I just felt it would be so much cooler to make him less of a cliché character – a warrior monk. How about give him a little bit of vulnerability – a disabledness. How about being blind? And a little bit [of a] sense of humor? That has always been my persistence of keeping him grounded – having that sense of humor so the audience can relate to him a lot more. I suggested it and [Gareth was] cool with it and Disney loved it and here we are.“

I thought it was really interesting that Donnie made that suggestion about Chirrut being blind, because that seems to really shape who he. We asked him if a lot of the story had to be changed to accommodate Chirrut being blind,

“I don’t think much. That was months before we actually started filming. [In film making,] you make adjustments on a day-to-day basis – even with the lines. We revise it. Obviously we need approval by the studio, but we do get that kind of freedom to shape our character.“

Talking about His Fan Base

Donnie Yen has been in many movies and has a huge (and amazing) fan base that enjoy seeing him stretch himself to the limits with his martial arts. We asked if he sets a ceiling for himself for what he is going to do in movies, or if he just goes with it. Donnie had a great response.

“I’ve been in business for quite a while – 70 movies. I have different sets of fans – straight action fans and Donnie Yen fans. It wasn’t so much of what I’m gonna do with my body each time, but [the] different characters that I I try to take on. Beside action movies, I’ve done comedies, romantic, all kinds – I played a monkey king where I insist on not recognizing my face. I just wanted to take challenges as an actor. I don’t look at myself as this guy who does really good [who] specialize in the action field. I wanted to be perceived as a good actor – and I strive to be a better actor each time.”

Struggles on the Set

Donnie then went on to talk more about his character being blind and the struggles he had on set.

“I never played a blind person before. That was another reason why I wanted to do something completely different, challenging. I underestimated the difficulty of playing a blind character because it was hard. Having that contact lenses – it looks interesting – but having to take them off every three hours because it irritates your eyes and every ten minutes I needed drops. It bothers me. Very irritating. And you can’t really see – everything was blurry. I was having difficulty measuring the distance as well. I couldn’t look at my fellow actors in their eyes and I couldn’t get [their] reactions.“

I had never thought of the fact that many actors play off the emotions of the other actors on set. It just shows how great an actor Donnie is – the fact that he could play off their emotions without being able to read their faces. We asked if it helped him play a blind man being somewhat blind himself on set.

“Yes, in that perspective yes. Certain benefits were given because of the fact that he’s blind. He has to feel, he has to use his heart to feel – and that puts my character even closer to the Force. He’s the spiritual center and he practices the Force, but being a blind person, he has to feel the Force [as well].“

What Weapon would He Use?

We asked Donnie which Star Wars weapon he would prefer Chirrut use to fight the Empire – a bowcaster or a lightsaber.

“It’s funny, when my fans found out that I was gonna be in this movie, everybody thought I’m gonna be a Jedi and have a lightsaber and go against Darth Vader. But I couldn’t really say anything so I couldn’t tell anyone that [I would not be a] Jedi in the movie.“

Donnie then joked that if Chirrut was given a lightsaber, he would be able to take on Darth Vader and the Empire himself – and that Rogue One would be all about him.

Was it Physically Grueling?

The other actors we talked with about Rogue One stated that it was a pretty physically grueling film. Donnie Yen is in great shape and has quite the background in martial arts, so we asked him if there was anything particularly difficult he had to deal with in terms of preparing for the role or on set.

“I just do it. To me it’s like a musicians. You play music all your life and it’s just jump in there. As an actor who specializes in physical expressions, it was just another [day].” Because of his experience, we wondered if he gave any pointers or advice to his castmates. “Not so much. I recall I gave Felicity a [few] pointers here and there, but I didn’t want to interrupt what they were doing. I didn’t want to overwhelm them, bombard them with, “Oh, this is what you need to do,” because you can get really technical with this type of knowledge. So [I just gave] general directions – things to do with safety and some pointers here and there. But I didn’t want to interrupt anybody from them crafting their own character.“

Joining the Star Wars Family

The last question we asked was how it felt to become a part of Star Wars. We were all surprised to find out that he almost didn’t take the role.

“My agent called me and said, ‘Disney wants you to be in Star Wars.’ Then Gareth called [and he told me] I have the persona of portraying this character in his mind and that was the answer I was looking for as an actor. I know it sounds crazy, but in the very beginning I was hesitant of coming on board. I know [it’s] Star Wars [but] I didn’t wanted to leave my family, my kids, and be in London for five months. I just got off from another movie and I live in Hong Kong. I said, ‘I don’t know.’ then I went to my kids, Jasmine and James. They were 11 and 7 or 12 and 8 at the time.” 

Donnie explained that he asked them if they wanted him to go be in Star Wars, or to stay home for a while. He smiled as he told us that they did not even hesitate and yelled out Star Wars!

“Then all the family members and friends and all the fans came out of nowhere. They found out about it and said, “You gotta be in Star Wars! You gotta be in Star Wars!” I realized I’m making history here, so I’m so glad. “

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16th!

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The Rogue One interview I was most looking forward to was Alan Tudyk, who plays K-2SO in Rogue One. I adore him as an actor and have loved all of his roles in TV and film. Another one I was really excited for was Mads Mikkelsen who plays Galen Erso (Jyn’s father). Our schedule got moved around when some interviews were running late, so we actually got to interview them together. I knew right away that this would be a really fun interview. I enjoyed my time with these guys – I think all of us did.

Telling Us About Their Characters

The first question we asked Alan and Mads was for them to tell us about their characters. Mads answered first,

“My character is called Galen Erso. I am a scientist, working closely together with Krennic in the film – before the film actually – and working on a project that has the potential of making the world a better place, and also the potential of not doing so. I’m also the father of our hero (Jyn)“

Alan joked that the hero was his character, K-2SO, who is a new droid in the Star Wars universe. He then went on to explain his character in more depth.

“K-2SO is a droid who was formerly of the Empire and he’s been reprogrammed by Cassian’s character. He has been working with him prior to our introduction, to Jyn. He’s a soldier in the Alliance. The reprogramming has caused him to be free with his own personality, which invites some brutal honesty in moments where honesty isn’t really required. He can be funny in that way, and sarcastic, and passive-aggressive, and all those fun things that sidekicks [are]. Although – they’re partners; he wouldn’t see himself as a sidekick.“

Alan Got to Adlib – a lot

From the footage that we have seen, I knew K-2SO was going to a lot of the comic relief in Rogue One. Alan is the perfect guy to play that part, as he is a super funny man. We asked if most of his lines were scripted, or if he got to adlib some.

“I luckily got to adlib a lot. The set was conducive to having fun and playing around with the characters. When we would get into this space, we would find the best way to bring life to the scenes with what we were given and part of that became just saying whatever I wanted, in moments. I don’t want to say I was off-roading the entire time, that becomes problematic in movie-making – I’ve worked with actors who do that. A lot of my improving is based on the line that was there.“

Joining the Star Wars Team

We asked Mads and Alan how they found out they got their parts – and what their initial reactions were. Mads answered first,

“Gareth called me and pitched the story for me and asked me if I wanted to be on board. I didn’t see a necessity of seeing a script, because it was Star Wars, so I said yes right away. If I hadn’t, if I’d turned it down, I’m sure my kids would’ve killed me.“

Most of the actors we talked to said the same thing really, that they didn’t even have to think about it because it was Star Wars, how could you say no. Alan had a pretty funny story to tell on how he came to be part of Rogue One. 

“I was told that Gareth wanted to talk to me and we Skyped. I knew it was for a droid in Star Wars, but I didn’t think he was calling me to talk about ME being in it. [I thought] he just wanted to talk about droids and motion capture [because] I had done a motion capture robot in I, Robot. So I was [thought] that makes sense – I’d be the go-to actor to just discuss how it’s done, how to do it. It was a really frank conversation between the two of us because I didn’t think of myself as in the running, just sort of a someone he’s gathering information from. So, I was like, ‘Yeah, you don’t wanna do it this way. Here are the traps that you’re going to find yourself in. Don’t do this; don’t do that. Give your actor a lot of takes. You need to get it on set while the other actors are there or else you’re going to be struggling to make up the performance in post, and then you’re screwed.’ It was really not the conversation I would’ve had if I had thought I was being considered. Then he asked me to audition, I auditioned.“

We asked Alan about his actual audition and he explained the process to us.

“It was a scene that isn’t in the movie. It was a scene where they’re arriving on a planet that has a magnetic field that scrambles [K-2SO’s] circuitry. So [it’s] like he’s drunk, and he starts to slo-o-o-w… are we there yet? I think it’s the only scene I remember.“

Alan had us all laughing as he slowed down while talking. We learned he sent in a tape of him doing it with an American accent, a mid-Atlantic accent, and an English accent. He then finished explaining how he found out he had the job.

“Somebody said [Gareth] wants to meet you at the Star Wars celebration that was in Anaheim that year. I went down and met him and he offered me the role there in a way that I never get offered roles. It’s usually I’m interested, we’re clearing with producers – they drag it out. But that was the first time that happened. They really trusted Gareth to choose his actors because he had the ability to say, ‘I’d like you to do it.’ It was cool.“

Playing the Villain

During the interview, an action figure of K-2SO was sitting on the table in front of the guys. Mads kept joking about the fact that he didn’t have an action figure for his character. Alan told him that he thinks he is going to get one eventually – and it was pointed out that his character from Doctor Strange, Kaecilius, already has a figure. Of course, then Alan’s character of Hei Hei was brought up, who is the rooster in Moana. All three of these films – Rogue One, Doctor Strange, and Moana – are part of the Disney family. We asked which type of roles they preferred – villainous vs heroic.

Mads said “I’ve done a lot of villainous; I’ve also done a lot of good guys and also normal people and a butcher once. But I think they go hand-in-hand. You gotta find something likeable, something you can relate to in a bad guy. And vice-versa – in the good guy, you have to find his flaws, the stuff he’s struggling with, or she’s struggling with. So for me, they go hand-in-hand. You have to be a really nice person to play a good villain.“

Alan seemed to have the same take on it, but added

“I don’t care if they’re villain or a hero, as long as they have humor. Honestly, my favorite villains have humor in them. Even if it’s evil, they’re just using it to make a point that is murderous. Because that’s the way my mind bends, and it’s just makes for an easier connection with the character. I watched Ben in his role (Krennic). I’ve had to play a bad guy before and I just started doing this (he lowers his voice to sound almost Batman like) [and I think] why the hell am I even talking like that? I don’t talk like that. And to see [Ben] do such a bad – such a dark character – with such charm, that’s what’s good.“

Interaction on the Set

Since we had heard from all the actors we interviewed that the group was like a family, we asked Mads and Alan if they had the same experience. Mads doesn’t interact a lot with the rebel group, but he does have a lot of scenes with Jyn. He let us know there are actually three versions of her in Rogue One – a four year old, an eight year old, and then “the real deal”, who is played by Felicity Jones. He also told us that Felicity is really good at what she does. He then went on to talk about how he worked a lot with Ben Mendelsohn (look for his interview later this week) and that he is very hard not to love – and that they become like brothers really fast.

Alan’s response had us all laughing again (he really is such a funny guy),

“I guess it was like a family. I don’t think anybody was a Republican – so in that way, it wasn’t like family. I’m from Texas originally, so we’ve been negotiating that the last couple of months, but we all got along very well. It was a lot of fun. We played a lot on set, Diego’s just hysterical, and Felicity – I have such huge respect for her. She was such a leader, and a harder worker than anybody. She never complained, which was annoying. I complained about her inability to complain. But you need that on a set – you need a leader. She was a great leader and certainly better than I was at her age, or as of yet, that kind of maturity that she has. It was a blast.“

Alan Caught on Fire

Alan also explained to us how he LITERALLY caught on fire on the set of Rogue One.

“I caught on fire! We were in the trenches, literally. There was a battle going on, and they had explosions, and I’m wearing my skintight pajamas. There are pots of explosions, and people are ducking down, and suddenly my back gets hot. I think, ‘Oh, ow—ow—ow I’m on fire’. A spark hit [my suit] and then just spread out. It was very flammable. I didn’t realize it. I wore fire retardant undershirts after that.“

Being a DROID!

I asked Alan about being a droid. They are such an important part of Star Wars and I wanted to know if he felt pressured to make K-2SO unique in his own way.

“I guess I did. I don’t remember it if I did. I just focused on the script, like any job. I did have a concern when after a take, people would go, ‘Oh, that was really funny’ that I was going to be a Jar Jar Binks. I did talk to Gareth saying, I want to stay this side of Jar Jar. I don’t want to be bigger than the movie, a character that’s in his own world. He assured me that he wouldn’t allow that – that he would keep me within the world as long as I was focused on it and I think we did it. So that was my concern beyond being a droid.“

Both guys were great! Be sure to check them out as Galen Erso (Mads) and K-2SO (Alan) in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story!

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Diego Luna, who plays Captain Cassian in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, was our first interview during the Rogue One press trip. The first interview tends to set the tone of the day – and he sure did. He walked in to the room confidently and ready to have some fun. He told us he would hang out with us all day and answer all of our questions. He seemed really excited to talk about his character and about the movie – and that made us all even more excited than we already were.

My Cassian Funko bobblehead was sitting on the table he sat at – and he immediately picked it up and started playing with it. I can’t help but smile as I look at it sitting on my desk now. The first thing Diego did was tell us about his character.

“My character is called Cassian Andor and he’s a captain – an intelligence officer for the rebellion. He’s a pretty damned good rebellion captain. He’s in charge of the most important mission for the rebellion and he has to make sure this thing works. He’s a spy so he’s quite a mysterious man. He has a lot of information he would like to forget. He doesn’t like war but he believes in the cause and would do anything for the cause. He’s ready to sacrifice everything and he’s a true hero. He’s the kind of hero we could be – he doesn’t have special powers, he’s no Jedi. He’s just a man with conviction that knows that working together as a team makes you stronger.“

When Diego talked about Gareth Edwards (the director of Rogue One) explaining the movie to him, he said it sounded like a speech. No matter what role he was offered, Diego would have eagerly accepted.

He explained, “I would join just as a fan, just as part of the crew. If he would’ve said ‘I want you to be a Storm Trooper and just wear that outfit and be miserable for quite a long time until Felicity’s character kills you’, I would’ve said ‘yeah, let’s do it’. I’m glad he didn’t said that, but it I would’ve said yes because I think this film has a lovely message behind it. It’s about people getting involved and taking control of their reality. We need that in this world that is going crazy now. We need to live different as a society and understand the diversity, culture, and racial diversity – it just makes us stronger and richer. There’s a great thing there for us to find so let’s live different as a society and just do it.”

Star Wars is very much a family franchise that is popular among generations of fans. We asked Diego if he would be sharing Rogue One with his children.

“I bring them – I bring my kids to see how we’re doing it so they can see it more from the perspective I see it and get less affected by the story. I grew up in theater so I used to witness things I should probably not have witnessed. But because I was watching from the dressing rooms or from the inside of the theater, I always saw the actor coming out and he was alive. I understood that it has to look real but doesn’t mean it’s real. I invited my kids to witness this process because my son is huge fan of Star Wars. He knows the world of Star Wars better than I do. He’s eight years old but he has seen everything and I didn’t want it to stop him because everyone’s gonna be talking about it. I want him to feel part of this. He’s so excited.”

He continued on with a personal story,

“This film is important for me as an actor for many reasons, but one is because it connects me with the kid I was. At seven years old, six years old, I saw A New Hope. I saw it because I wanted to belong to the world of my cousins. All of my cousins were playing something I didn’t get. I wanted to be part of that universe and be able to be part of that gang, to belong to that. But it also connects me with my kids as a parent and as a fan, it connects me with my son. I share the excitement with him. When we were watching The Force Awakens, we were there holding hands, and enjoying the moment. It wasn’t me [saying] let’s watch this cartoon and let’s talk about what they’re saying – I wasn’t the dad there. It was two pals watching a film, and that was very sweet. My work is something that has always separated us. It represents something very negative to my kids. It’s what keeps me away. It’s that thing that I go do that they cannot be part of. And then I finish the films, and they cannot watch them. My stuff is not meant for them. Until I did The Book of Life, that’s the first film I could actually share with my kids. So this is a special because I am telling them, I’m going to work, and my son, instead of crying goes, like, yeah, yeah, go, go. I mean, you’ve gotta be on time, Dad, and make sure you do it right, please. Do what Gareth says. Don’t mess up.“

I loved this story, and related to it, as my job takes me away from my kids as well. It is fun when I do something that they care about and get excited about. For example, they are big Star Wars fans like me (my 5 year old adores Rey) and so they wanted me to go and bring them back Star Wars goodies.

Diego Luna has worked in TV a lot before this role, so we asked him how he got from doing Telenovela to starring in Star Wars – as well as the difference between TV and film.

“I don’t know how it happened. I have no idea. I started at six years old doing theater, and then around ten, I did my first film, and that’s when they invited me to do TV. I would say that those first years of doing TV were difficult in my life and I’m so glad I survived. The fame that TV brings is quite unhealthy, I think. It’s too fast. Everything happens too fast. [With film], I’ve been working for two years for this to come out, so I’m ready for this moment. I worked to be here. In television, that’s not the case, you know? In television, you’re shooting something one day, and it airs the next day. [Then] the reaction hits you two days later and then people forget the next Monday because there’s someone else on TV. It’s a weird thing to digest and when you’re getting used to it, it’s gone. I don’t find that healthy. Cinema is different – it stays there. You can always go back to that and remember where you were. It leaves a stamp and I feel very lucky to be doing what I’m doing now.“

Cassian has a very physical role, just like Felicity Jones’ character Jyn, so we asked if there was any training he needed to do to prepare.

“First I went to the gym – a place I didn’t like before. They (LucasFilm) got me into a whole program; they were even taking care of my sleep. It was necessary because I’ve never worked seven months in a film so intense and every day we were doing something crazy – running, jumping, climbing – it was hardcore scenes. Gareth really likes things to happen. He doesn’t like pretending. He [would say] we’re gonna do this so you’re gonna be running, and there’s gonna be explosions, and these guys are gonna be shooting from this angle, this from this other angle, and you have to make it work – how would you do it? He gave us military training. I had two weeks of military training where I learned how to patrol, and I did a camp with ex-military and I was hearing all their stories. I spent a lot of time with them and that was very helpful. But [Gareth] actually thought a soldier was gonna come back from these two weeks. [He said] you’re the captain – solve this. I had to talk to Felicity and start to organize a plan, and then execute, and [Gareth] would be following us, improvising on the way and reacting to what we were doing. It was a free process. It’s was full of that feeling of not knowing what’s gonna happen which brings some interesting tension and gives you those little moments of vulnerability that Gareth was looking for.“

I found that really interesting and thought it was a fun and smart way to capture real moments on film.

The last question we got to ask Diego was how he separated home and Star Wars. I imagine it is difficult to spend all this time as Cassian and then have to switch back to Diego when he was home and with his family – and especially after filming ended. I loved his response.

“It was difficult because I’m a fan. Imagine, you’re a fan, and they tell you you’re gonna go live this amazing experience of actually living [the Star Wars] world from the inside, but you cannot tell anyone. It’s [like it is] not happening until I tell my best friend, until I share this with my father. Obviously it makes sense for the idea of actually hiding everything from people, and I love that because the experience of watching it with an audience that doesn’t know what’s gonna happen is so unique and it doesn’t happen anymore in cinema. So that is very cool, but the process of living through this was painful and very frustrating because amazing stuff would happen, or very difficult things happened, and I had to talk to myself about it. That also created a nice, beautiful family [within the cast] because we were going through this [together]. We couldn’t tell anyone out there – so Felicity was my shrink, my friend, a little bit of everything, and I was the same for her.“

I love how close the cast got, it really was obvious from listening to all of them speak about their experience. I already wanted to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story more than anything, but after speaking to them all, I can’t wait to watch their interactions.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16th!

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I am a huge Star Wars fan – in fact my husband and I planned our wedding around the dates for Star Wars Weekend at Disney World. So, of course, when The Force Awakens was announced several years ago, we were super excited. After it blew our minds, we knew that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story would do the same. We were excited to learn about more characters in the Star Wars universe and see just how the Rebel Alliance got the Death Star plans in their hands.

When I was invited to San Francisco by LucasFilms and Disney, I about died. I was THRILLED to be selected and could not wait to see who we would interview. We got to chat with a lot of the cast (who are all amazing, so keep checking back for more interview stories) including the female star, Felicity Jones, who plays Jyn Erso. After seeing a little bit of Jyn in the 28 minutes of Rogue One footage we were shown, I was already in love with her. She is a kick ass girl and I could not wait to talk to Felicity about her.

All About Jyn

We all wanted to know a little bit more about Jyn, so we asked Felicity to tell us about her.

“She has a very strong ideology. She hates the empire – she hates everything they stand for. They have destroyed her family so anytime she sees a storm trooper she is like an animal who wants to take them down. At the same time she has a wonderful humanity. She learns how to be a leader throughout the film. She starts off as a bit of an outsider and is very suspicious and untrusting of people. She’s had a bit of a hard life. There’s been quite a lot of struggle, so it’s not easy for her to trust people. Throughout the film you see her actually forming these kindred spirits with the other rebels.“

This I could tell by watching the footage I saw – and honestly in the trailers of the film. I am happy to know that she grows throughout the film and cannot wait to watch more of her journey.

Finding Out She Was Joining Star Wars

Star Wars is a pretty big deal, I think anyone can agree on that. Someone asked Felicity how she found out she got the role of Jyn.

“I had a phone call from Gareth Edwards but my agent, who I’m very close to, said to me, ‘I’m pretty sure it’s yours but, when Gareth phones you up, can you make sure that you sound really surprised?’“

I can only imagine trying to sound surprised when you get that news and you already kind of knew about it. The best part of her story though, was how she reacted when she found out. 

“‘I was thinking, ‘that’s great but there’s gonna be a lot of training involved in this film so I’d better get my ass to the gym.’“

The entire room cracked up! Felicity really made us feel welcome and like we were just some close friends she was chatting with.

What She Brought to Jyn

I’ve heard more and more about actors actually bringing a lot to their roles and making suggestions for the directors. It seems like the set of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is no different.

“Throughout everything, [the set] was very collaborative. Originally the costume [was] combat style: combat trousers and a flack vest. I tried that and it didn’t feel quite right and it didn’t feel Star Wars enough. So we had quite a lot of discussions about bringing in something more Japanese style that you see in those early films with OB Wan Kenobi – the martial arts type clothing that they wear. [In order to] bring out that side of Jyn – to bring something a little bit more spiritual into her characterization through the costume. Every step of the way it was a very, very open dialogue for all of us to bring as much as we wanted to the characters. “

I think that is a really important thing for directors to allow on the set. The cast really is becoming their characters and so they usually can add a lot of great points to why a character would do something or wear something.

Training for the Role

Speaking of how tough Jyn is, we asked Felicity what sort of training went in to her role. We learned that she took Judo when she was a young girl, but that she needed more training to prepare for Rogue One.

“I’ve never done any of this stuff before so it was just learning everything from the very beginning. Working very closely with the stunt team who took me through these acrobatic moves that Jyn would have to perform eventually in the film. It was just a lot of practice.“

Since Jyn’s role is very physically demanding, we wanted to know if there were any injuries. Felicity let us know that she went home after filming many times with huge bumps and bruises that she blames on her adrenaline.

“You don’t realize because the adrenaline is pumping so much and then you get home and you literally to have enormous bruises all over. I probably bring it upon myself because I get really into it and take it very seriously. I like to do as much as possible. It’s nice when you can see the actor actually doing as much of the stunts so that it feels believable.“

A Love Interest?

We tried to get Felicity to give up the details on any love interest in Rogue One, but she was biting her tongue. However guys, she never said no, she just said “There may be something.” I have my fingers crossed that Jyn will find love. She did however, let us know that Jyn will be rewarded in some way for dealing with such a hard life.

“What’s great about her is her perseverance and her determination. It definitely pays off and at the end you feel like there’s justice. “

Being a Part of Star Wars

We asked Felicity what being a part of Star Wars means to her and her response was very similar to what I was saying if I were asked (and I think the same as many Star Wars fans too!).

“I feel the reason it’s lasted for so long is [that] it is about family – and it’s not just blood relations – it’s also the family that you form with friends. I think what’s so special about it is those friendships are across different races and different languages. It’s people who come together and they’re united by fighting the forces of evil. I think generations and generations tap into those relationships and really empathize with those characters.“

Speaking of forming friendships that are like a family, Felicity let us know that the cast was very close on set.

“I absolutely love all of them and everyone is very different and we all have our quirks and our ways but there is a real spirit of collaboration. I never felt like there were any huge egos, it felt like everyone was in it together and there was real support. Working with a group of men you could think that they would be sort of trying to cut you down or compete, but I was very lucky. They were very supportive throughout everything.“

The Women of Star Wars

We brought up that the women of Star Wars tend to be very strong – and that from what we saw of Jyn, she might be the strongest yet. Felicity told us her thoughts on that.

“I just wanted the audience to really care about her and empathize with her and be in it alongside her. She’s very resourceful and it was very clear to Gareth and I [that] we didn’t want her to keep being saved. Sometimes in films the female character is often the one who’s in distress and then the male character comes and gets her out of it. We were very clear about making sure that she could survive on her own. She’s capable but at the same time they do need each other – there is a team and a part of what makes someone strong is being able to work in a team.“

Inspiring Young Girls

When asked what she wanted young girls to take away from the character of Jyn and her experiences, Felicity’s response was great.

“What I like about her is she’s not a princess, she’s not rich, she’s not privileged – that’s what we’re used to seeing in these leading Disney roles. She’s very much an ordinary woman and ordinary girl who’s had to make the best of things. What I would like young girls to take from it is resourcefulness and self reliance. Jyn isn’t always sweetness and light and giggles – she is exactly who she wants to be. I think that it is important that young girls don’t feel like they have to conform to some idea of what a girl should be. You can be whoever you want, whatever you are, and take confidence in that. There isn’t a standard that we should all be working towards. It’s about finding you, celebrating what’s different about us, and society letting that come through.“

That is something that I certainly try to instill in my young girls as they get older. I want them to be who they are. It sounds to me like Felicity Jones and Jyn Erso will make perfect role models for them.

Be sure to check out Felicity Jones in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story!

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