Gareth Edwards Interview – the mastermind behind Rogue One: A Star Wars Story!! #RogueOneEvent

Rogue One tells the story of how a group of unlikely heroes unite to undertake a daring and seemingly impossible mission to steal the plans for the Death Star.

It’s not every day you get to sit down with the mastermind, the vision, the DIRECTOR of what will be one of the biggest box office hits this year – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  We got to do exactly that, interview Gareth Edwards, during the Rogue One Press Junket in San Francisco recently.  

Read on to learn a little more about Gareth Edwards thoughts on the movie, how he got the results he did and more fun surrounding this amazing movie. 

Lucky for us Riz had passed Gareth in the hallway on his way over to meet with us and shared that we were a nice bunch to sit down with – so Gareth was looking forward to meeting with us.   And jokes;

I play Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One.

A fellow blogger started – stating she’s seen a featurette that said if you [Gareth] had known he was going to direct this movie he would have prepared for it his whole life.  We wanted to know what is something he would have done to prepare for this film?

I probably would have, every single day, been a nervous wreck, and not do any homework or schoolwork, and I probably would never have had a job, and I would have sat and prepared it for 30 odd years.  And then the day it began, I think I would have brought in everything saying okay, I know exactly what to do.  It starts off with this shot, and then becomes this shot.  And then I realize I would have wasted my entire life, because there’s something about the organic process of making a film, and working with others that if you don’t let it in, you are like a dictatorship, like the Empire.  If you say it’s gonna be this, this, and this, I don’t care what I see, what the actors do.  This is what it’s gonna be, I think you limit how great the film can become.

And so it was trying to become much more of an organic process where even when we were filming, the director of photography’s, the guy in charge of the camera and I had an agreement.  That even though it was a massive, massive movie, and there’s all this pressure to have a specific plan, we were gonna keep it incredibly fluid.  And so we had 360 degree sets where we could film in any direction. 

And I remember on day 1 in this, in this one set called, uh, [STAMMERS] Jedah, which is one of the cities that we go through where the force believers are, we started filming and the actors could do what they want.  And I just happened to pan left or something.  And there suddenly was all these crew in shot that suddenly ran out of frame – scared.  And then the next day we came, and the same sort of thing happened where I pan left.  And the crew were there.  But this time they’re all wearing Star Wars costumes.  They’d all learned to put robes on and, and, and that way, wherever the camera went, they could be in it if they had to be.

I especially liked hearing this story – I mean, you imagine these sort of movies have everything planned out and everyone know where to be and what to do.   But after interviewing the cast it was very clear that this was not the case with Rogue One – that Gareth Edwards allowed this fluidity and having things happen on the fly, which resulted in many of the great things that happened in Rogue One.  Gareth continued;

There would be days where they would turn up with rebel outfits, like rebel pilots.  And you’re going, why are you wearing that?  Well, in case you film us.  And it’s like, I’m not shooting that way.  And they’re like, well, it doesn’t matter.  You know, just in case.  Even on days we weren’t even filming like, on the day after meetings, they’re just there , and I’m like you don’t need to do this.  It’s like, well, you might get the camera out.

How difficult, or intimidating, was it to tackle a property like Star Wars knowing that the rabid fan base will scrutinize every word and action, and then how did you overcome that?

There’s a line in the original where Luke Skywalker, and I grew up watching it every day.  And it probably is the reason, well definitely the reason I got into filmmaking.   Luke is doing the attack run on the Death Star through the trench.  And he’s got the computer, and he turns it off, and it goes wee, weeeek.  And someone goes, Luke!  You’ve turned off your computer!  And he goes, it’s okay, I’m all right.

It’s kinda like that.  He trusts the force.  And so literally you got to turn off your computer and not look at the internet.  And just believe you can bulls eye this.  You’ve just got to keep going!   Everyone’s shooting at you.  But just believe in yourself, and then go for it.   To me, that’s the takeaway from the original film – if you believe you can do something, and you never give up, then you can achieve anything.  

I guess I took it too literally.  Like, I want to make Star Wars films.  But it applies to everybody.  Like, people who do way more important things than me.

How did you go about choosing your cast?  Did you have specific people in mind?  How’d you do that?

What happens is you try not to think of anyone to start with, ’cause you try and then it gets really difficult to keep talking about someone, and not being able to visually picture them.  Inevitably, you end up going you know they’re like a character from a film.  You know, like so and so from that movie.  Or this person and you start to take on, like, specific people in the world.  I definitely knew for things like Sor Guerra and Orson Krennic.  Ben and Forrest just popped up straight away.  

I’ve seen Ben’s work.  And as we were trying to figure out this character that was starting to happen called Krennic that he plays,  I loved Animal Kingdom.  I thought it was one of the best films in a long time.  And then forgot about it.  And then watched a film called Startup.  And I just came away that night going we’ve got to call this guy, this guy is Krennic.  We’ve got to try and get him.  And as I came into work, I was gonna pitch this to the producer.  I’m gonna try and sort them into it.  And as I walked into the office, which is right here, uh, Simon, one of the producers, went, can I just stop you a second?

I went – “No!  I want to talk to you about Krennic.”  He goes, I’ve got the guy.  He’d watched a totally different film, and he said Ben Mendelsohn.  And I was, like I was about to say Ben Mendelsohn.  It was really weird.  Like, genuinely weird.  And then from that point on, we were not gonna take no for an answer.  And thank God Ben’s a massive Star Wars fan.  And I met him on a rooftop in LA, which sounds really glamorous, but it was raining.  We’d already organized to meet there, so we did.  And we wanted to be away so no one could hear us talk. I would get really paranoid about waiters and things, ’cause, you know, once you say the word, like, Darth Vader or something they’re gonna pay attention. 

I was trying to talk to him, like – Please let us have you for this film.  And as soon as I talked about Star Wars, he was just giggling and going, like, hehehehehe.  And I was, like ‘you’re a fan?’  He’s, like, I love it!  I watched it all the time as a kid.  It’s why I got into films.  And so I was thinking, okay, we might be all right.  

Same with Forrest. He is not his character, but he has done amazing work outside of acting.  He’s a phenomenal human being.  And I think just before we met, he’d just done a talk at the United Nations.  And you sort of feeling like oh my God.  I don’t really deserve to be kind of talking to this guy about a role in a film, because he’s the real deal. He’s incredibly humble and peaceful.  But you see him in his roles, and he can be intimidating and aggressive.  But he’s more like Yoda.  When you chat with him.  And in a way, Sor Guerra was a little bit like that, he represents the, the mentor in our movie.  So he’s like the Obiwan sort of Yoda type figure.  So it made a lot of sense.

After reading this Gareth Edwards interview be sure to read my recap of the Rogue One Press Event & previous interviews;

• Rogue One Press Event Recap – Experiencing Skywalker Ranch & Lucasfilm HQ
• Discussing Jyn Erso with Felicity Jones
• Diego Luna – an ordinary man on an extraordinary journey as Captain Cassian Andor
• Mads Mikkelsen & Alan Tudyk on Rogue One
• Donnie Yen on Rogue One, playing a blind spiritual warrior & more
• Sitting down with Rogue One’s ‘Director Orson Krennic’ – Ben Mendelsohn
• Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook – #RogueOneEvent Press Interview

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY is in theaters RIGHT NOW!!!

Go now, run, don’t walk!!!

 

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