Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson says that Adam Driver 'knew he looked good' in shirtless scenes … and hits back at critics of box office blockbuster
Warning: SPOILERS ahead in article
It wasn't a major challenge getting Adam Driver to lose his shirt for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
The film's director Rian Johnson told People that the 34-year-old actor had been hitting the gym hard prior to cameras rolling on the latest installment in the George Lucas sci-fi dynasty.
'He knew he looked good,' Johnson said. 'Adam looks so damn good' in the film 'because he’d been training hardcore for the past six months for those fight scenes.
Show-off: Actor Adam Driver, 34, had been 'training hardcore for the past six months,' the film's director Rian Johnson told People, noting that it was a no-brainier to give him a shirtless scene in the movie. Driver was snapped in London earlier this month
'I’m like, "Eh. He looks so good. We should put him up there' shirtless, the filmmaker said.
Johnson, 44, said he didn't hesitate to put Driver's Kylo Ren character in a scene with Rey (Daisy Ridley) as it added to the intimacy of the sequence.
'It’s all about those Force connection scenes,' he told the magazine. 'The keyword being intimacy. And the idea that this was a way to just, why not step that up? The idea that, what’s even more uncomfortable having a conversation face-to-face with a person you don’t want to, is if they’re half-naked during it, while you’re having to do it.
'And so it was just another way of kind of disrobing Kylo literally and figuratively a little bit more, and pushing that sense of these conversations becoming increasingly more intimate.'
Rationale: Director Rian Johnson, 44, said that the shirtless scenes were constructed in a way to build intimacy between Driver's Kylo Ren and Daisy Ridley's Rey. The filmmaker was snapped in LA earlier this month
Thumbs up: Fans took to Twitter to coo over the actor's revealing scene
Good sport: Driver 'knew he looked good' and was fine about going shirtless on camera, Johnson said
While the film has been a hit - taking in excess of $635 million in domestic and international box office since its release last week, according to Box Office Mojo - it's prompted a backlash from some fans.
When asked on Twitter Thursday if the 'polarizing' response was a good thing, Johnson said it was an inevitable growing pain as the overall storyline of the franchise progresses.
'The goal is never to divide or make people upset,' he tweeted, 'but I do think the conversations that are happening were going to have to happen at some point if [Star Wars] is going to grow, move forward and stay vital.'
Johnson has also addressed complaints specifically aimed at the storyline and character development of Luke Skywalker, with actor Mark Hamill himself vocal about his creative differences in a chat posted on the YouTube page of SensaCine last week.
'I almost had to think of Luke as another character,' Hamill said. 'Maybe he’s Jake Skywalker, he’s not my Luke Skywalker.'
Answering back: Johnson commented on how some of the changes in the Star Wars series, and the backlash from fans, were inevitable growing pains
Not pleased: Hamill admitted he 'almost had to think of Luke as another character' to deliver the performance asked of him in Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Johnson, speaking with Newsweek, opened up on his creative collaboration with the veteran actor.
'Mark - this character’s been part of his life for the past 40 years. He’s had a lot of time to think about what Luke would be if he came back,' Johnson said. 'There’s no way that what I came up with was going to line up with what he had in his head.'
Johnson said that after plenty of 'back and forth' with the actor, they came to an accord on the character's presence in the new film.
'I had to justify the choices I made to him. It’s not like there was ever a point where he said, "OK, that all makes sense to me,"' the director said. 'But he got to a point where he said, “I can understand why you’re doing these things. I’m going to choose to trust you and go on this journey with you.”
'Which was incredibly generous of him creatively.'
Contributor: Carrie Fisher was key in adding plenty of humorous dialogue to the film, according to Johnson
Experience: Fisher, seen here in 1977 promo pics for the original film, helped enhance 'the slight free-wheeling feel of' the latest movie, Johnson said
In another anecdote regarding the film's original cast, Johnson told People that the late Carrie Fisher helped creatively with the motion picture, adding key lines of dialogue amid filming.
'I would sit down with her and she would just give me' material, Johnson said. 'After an hour, I would have filled up pages and pages writing down the notes and one-liners that she would pitch. And so we tried to work them in whenever we could.'
He cited a scene in which her iconic character Leia reconnected with Skywalker, who made a humorous remark about her hairdo.
'That was her. That was a Carrie Fisher line. Of course it was,' said Johnson, who explained how Fisher's experience and timing added a dash of comedic flavor synonymous with the history of the franchise.
'I think that as Star Wars fans, especially as adults, you can get into a mindset of wanting it to just be the heavy opera. And I don’t know, I was 10-years-old when Return of the Jedi came out. That was the perfect age for it.
'And the humor and the slight goofiness of it also, and kind of the slight free-wheeling feel of it, and how it’s unafraid to have fun, that to me is essential.'
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in theaters now.
- Carrie Fisher Wrote Some of Her Funniest Lines in Star Wars | PEOPLE.com
- Rian Johnson on His Favorite ‘Last Jedi’ Joke, Loving Kylo Ren and Arguing With Mark Hamill
- Entrevista a Mark Hamill ('Star Wars: Los últimos Jedi') #NotMyLuke - SensaCine - YouTube
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) - Box Office Mojo
- All About Adam Driver's Shirtless Scene in Star Wars the Last Jedi | PEOPLE.com
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