“I LOVED CARRIE but she was so exasperating!”
recalls Mark Hamill. “In many ways, she really
was like a sister: she drove me nuts!”
Hamill recounts stories “running around
the Death Star, bumping heads and trading
quips” with wry affection. There’s a wistful
air to his recollections but he breaks into
a hearty chuckle when speaking of their
frequent sibling squabbles.
“She was so high maintenance! When
George took us aside on Jedi and told us
Princess Leia was my sister, I said, ‘Hey, does
that make Luke royalty?’ Carrie immediately
barked, ‘No!’ She was adamant that she be
the only one. Like, ‘Okay, I’m just asking.’”
Fisher’s death in December last year left
a hole in the Star Wars family, not to mention
narrative issues for Episode IX. But with a
different writer and director, even The Last Jedi
has had to deal with its share of continuity
problems. Hamill recalls his fi rst reading of
the script back in 2015 and a panicked call
to Rian Johnson over what Hamill insists
was a glaring inconsistency.
“There was something that happened
at the end of The Force Awakens when I’m
standing on the cliff,” he says. “I called Rian
in a panic because it was all wrong. He said,
‘It’s okay, I spoke to J.J. and he’s taking that
scene out.’ It just didn’t match up with what
Rian had written.”
The Luke Johnson wrote into Episode VIII is
not the man we remember from three
decades earlier. His traditional garb traded in
for a Jedi parka (“There are a lot of steps on
Ahch-To; robes are impractical”), Luke now spends
his days doing chores and living a hermit’s life.
That’s not to say he’s given up his claims to
royalty completely.
“Princes William and Harry visited the
set one day,” Hamill recalls. “I said, ‘Look, my
Father is Lord Vader, my Mother is Queen
Amidala, my sister is Princess Leia. Doesn’t that
make me royalty?’ William said, ‘Yes,’ but Harry
wasn’t so sure. I was like, ‘Darn it! If I could have
gotten both of them, I could have really rubbed
Carrie’s nose in it.”LAURA DERN’S VICE Admiral
Amilyn Holdo stands in vibrant
contrast to the autumnal palette of
her fellow insurgents. Her violet-
rinsed tresses and Grecian goddess
gown are an homage to 1940s
couturier Madame Grès — dubbed
the ‘Sphinx Of Fashion’ — but it’s not
just Holdo’s revolutionary chic that
sets her apart. The aubergine
Admiral is set to be a disruptive force
within the Resistance and a potential
thorn in the side of one General
Leia Organa. For her part, though,
Dern was just thrilled to have been
allowed through the door.
“I saw Star Wars at the Cinerama
Dome in Hollywood when I was 10,”
she says. “There had never been
anything like it. Ever. And the
amazing thing is, it didn’t feel like
science-fi ction. It was a very human
story, one for boys and girls equally,
which was rare in the ’70s.”
Four decades later, when she
received a call out of the blue fromRian Johnson, Dern didn’t even
hesitate. With no script, no outline
and no idea what she’d be doing,
Dern accepted the role of Admiral
Holdo sight unseen. It was Star Wars,
what else was she going to do?
“My meeting with Rian was as
elusive as I have to be with you right
now,” she laughs. “I can tell you
that she is a part of the Resistance,
that I love the way she looks, and
that she’s there to shake things up,
which I also love in characters.”
Dern admits to having been
obsessed with Lucas’ franchise for
as long as she can remember. Even
for an actor of her stature, becoming
a part of it after all this time is
almost more than she can process.
“Being around Leia and Luke
was outrageous! Being on set and
Rian saying, ‘Oh, Laura, have you
met Chewbacca?’ Like, are you
kidding me? Are you kidding me?
Then Chewbacca gave me a hug. It’s
been a dream from start to fi nish.”“WHAT WOULD JOHN Boyega Do?” That was
the slogan scrawled across Kelly Marie Tran’s
T-shirt at this year’s Star Wars Celebration, and
a mantra she repeated daily on set. For the
Star Wars newcomer, Boyega was a grounding
infl uence. After all, the 25-year-old who began
The Force Awakens as the little-known star of
Attack The Block ended 2015 one of the biggest
movie stars on the planet.
“It never becomes normal,” Boyega
refl ects. “Because I don’t do it every day. Most
of the time I’m in my house, just hanging out,
so it is very surreal coming back to the whole
Star Wars craziness. I mean, I was in Tesco
the other day, just trying to get some Wotsits.
That’s my normality.”
With The Last Jedi, the madness has begun
anew, pairing him with Tran as the duo embark
on an adventure that takes them from the
gaming halls of Canto Bight to deep behind the
lines of the First Order.
“Finn sees a lot of himself in Rose as
she’s still trying to fi gure out her place. She’s
not a soldier, she’s not a pilot, she’s not sure
what she can bring to the fi ght, and that’s
something he identifi es with. Rose is an absolute
fan of Finn. It takes an interesting turn, though,
as they get closer.”
Healed from Kylo Ren’s saber slash by
a handy bacta bath, Finn isn’t limited to his
worn fl ight jacket this time around, gaining
a pristine uniform and slipping back among
the enemy ranks, this time disguised as a First
Order lieutenant.
“I’m incognito,” he says, mock theatrically.
“Don’t tell anyone it’s me!”
Going unnoticed in a crowd is a skill that
may soon be beyond him, now that Star Wars
has been cranked back up to 11. And if he does
become too conspicuous to go out for Wotsits?
What would John Boyega do?
“I don’t know, man. [UK grocers] Ocado?”TURN FOR THE DARK SIDE