Kelly Marie Tran has become one of the darlings of the “Star Wars” franchise sharing all kinds of details of her time on and off set for ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘ and clearly having a blast with it all! In a recent interview, she not only talks about what it was like working on set as Rose but that she would spend every moment she could while the film was shooting even on days she wasn’t scheduled.
As a courtesy for the very small number of people who haven’t see ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ yet (really?), there are spoilers, so continue on at your own risk!
It all came out when she casually mentioned to be on set the day that Rose’s sister Paige filmed her last scene for the movie even though she wasn’t supposed to be there:
“You know what? Pretty much every scene they would let me go to, I would go. I just wanted to watch people work! I had no scenes with Andy Serkis, but you bet your ass I was there watching Andy Serkis, and same with Laura Dern. It was like someone gave me this golden ticket and I got to the chocolate factory and was never leaving. But yeah, Veronica Ngo, who plays Paige … that moment is pretty incredible, and she does such an amazing job. It’s such a momentous moment for Rose’s character, losing the last living family member that she has after having grown up in a situation where her home was torn apart by the First Order.”
I’m sorry but this would be any geek’s dream and she not only got to star in one of the most important movie franchises but live out our dreams of being a fly on the wall as it is all being put together! It wasn’t just filming that she was there for as she made sure to visit every department as well. Not only that, but they clearly were very welcoming to the young actress and even let her help add feathers to some of the animatronic Porgs. But it wasn’t just the Porgs:
“I also got to put hair on the falthiers! I think that I was given a gift, in that I just didn’t know there were rules. I didn’t know that it was weird to always want to be there, because literally, even if I wasn’t working, I would just be around. People were like, “Don’t you have things to do?” But I would go on set and watch every day and walk into different departments unannounced, like, “Hey, what are you guys doing?” I went to the costume department, and there’s just a huge room with hundreds and hundreds of costumes, and every single one was so detailed — it was incredible! I don’t know how to explain this experience other than to say it was like someone had told me Hogwarts was real. It says so much that every department was so welcoming to me, and they really took time out of their day to talk to me for half an hour and explain things to me.
To me, Rose is this background character, right? If she was in The Force Awakens, she’d be running around in the background and no one would ever think about her, because she’s not a hot-shot pilot or a princess or a leader, per se. But just like Rose, all of those people who are in the background making the movie are just as important as the people in the movie who the audience sees. Every single person. Like for example, if the Porgs were unfinished, how distracting would that be? For me, there’s so much appreciation for the people who work so hard. The women who were making those falthiers … putting even one hair in that falthier was so difficult! And they’d be doing this for hours and hours every day. It was a very eye-opening experience and I’m so thankful and grateful that people let me poke my head in all the time. I think I’ll do that on every set I get to be on.”
Talk about having the experience of a lifetime. I’m thrilled to see that she’ll be able to return for another movie as well and hope that the next time around they let her film a behind-the-scenes documentary to be released on the Blu-ray through her eyes. This is a young actress who has captured the hearts of geekdom as she is quite literally living out many of our dreams!
If you were Kelly Marie Tran would you have been on set as much as she was even on non-paying days just to immerse yourself so fully in “Star Wars”? What did you think of her performance in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’? Share your thoughts below!
