Everything We Learned From The 'Rogue One' Press Conference

Although the gathered press was able to see nearly a half hour of Rogue One prior to the conference, Gareth Edwards revealed that the cast had just seen the finished movie days earlier and that it was frustrating to not share it with everyone else:

Gareth Edwards: It's strange. Obviously, this is a very strange period in making films. For about two and a half years, you're really busy making it and you have your head down and you really can't think about anything else. And now that we've finished the movie but haven't released it, I feel like we're a little bit pregnant, at the due date, and just waiting to give birth and share it with the world.

Alan Tudyk: My water broke! [Awkward pause] Bad timing.Gareth Edwards: It's kind of frustrating in a weird way to not be able to show you all of the movie now. The cast got to see it for the first time two days ago and it went down very well.Diego Luna: It's fantastic, yeah?

When asked about how Rogue One is different from the other Star Wars movies, Gareth Edwards explained a simple origin story – real life photography plus Star Wars iconography plus a little bit of Photoshop (the now-common program that was coincidentally designed by Rogue One VFX supervisor and story creator John Knoll):

When we started this whole process, one of the things Kathy would be asking the whole time was "How is this going to be different? We need to differentiate ourselves from the saga." We started playing around and experimenting and one of the things we did was we took real war photography like photographs from Vietnam and World War II and the Gulf and we used [Photoshop] and put Rebel helmets on the soldiers and Rebel guns and some X-wings in the background instead of fighter jets. So we looked at this stuff and it was really engaging. Everyone who came and looked around the building and we showed them things and they'd get to these images and they'd go "Oh my God, wow. I really want to see that film." The studio loved it, everybody loved it, and they'd say just go make that. That's kind of what we went off and did.

When asked about what he borrowed from the original trilogy for Rogue One, Gareth Edwards explained that best way to capture Star Wars is to borrow from a mixture of different influences:

The problem with Star Wars is that questions takes about four hours [to answer]. There's not an individual thing: "As long as you do this, it's Star Wars and you're golden." You've got to do a thousand different things and mix them all together and get the balance just right. It's a really tricky thing to emulate what we love about the original but feel like we're telling a different story and it's fresh. But for me, we could have done a very specific genre film and stuck Star Wars on it and said "That's our movie." But George was always good at mixing the genres together and creating this very emotional, sort of mythological story that just happened to have robots and spaceships in it. [...] There's meaning behind it. There's meat on the bone. It took us a long time to crack that code and find all those different ingredients we felt it needed to have. It's not something you do in a week and you go "Let's just go make this." It's a two-and-a-half-year process.

Edwards later explained that Rogue One is tonally similar to The Empire Strikes Back, but it mostly sets out to be its own beast:

We essentially got a license to be different on this movie and take a risk. The great thing about being a standalone film is that we don't have to exist for other movies to continue. So we could be brave and that's what we did. I feel like, in terms of Star Wars that I love, tonally, I guess the one we were aiming for was Empire Strikes Back. Our movie, even though it's...we take it quite seriously, [but] there's a lot of fun and humor in it and hope is the key thing. It's about trying to achieve something. The story behind the movie is all these different people from different backgrounds that have very little in common, [but] they believe in a good future for the world and they come together and we're all better off when we work together than on our own. We just tried to make the most realistic version of Star Wars that we've seen and it involved a lot of different techniques.

Diego Luna, who plays Rebel intelligence officer Cassian Andor in Rogue One, was specifically asked about how he built his character:

It was a mixture of everything. In the beginning, yes, I started just with the script that was already interesting enough for me to dig into myself and try to find this Captain inside me. I guess the most important part was the military training. You have to establish a parallel to this guy in a galaxy far, far away and the world you live in. It was very interesting. I spent two weeks with ex-military in London, just talking about experiences and the last ten, fifteen years of his life. That gave me enough material. I love Star Wars and I love the films. A New Hope is probably the first film I really connected with, so I would go back to that film to find a connection again. It was more about seeing war films, you know? Apocalypse Now, for example. Stuff like that. My character needs that kind of military structure. He's a guy who is willing to risk everything for this cause. He thinks in sort of a hierarchal kind of structure. He has to start there at least, in that film.

In one of the press conference's few tense moments, Kathleen Kennedy was asked about her recent comments where she said, "We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do Star Wars, they're set up for success. They're gigantic films, and you can't come into them with essentially no experience." Haven't men without much experience making large films been given a chance to helm large studio movies? Kennedy claims the original quote was taken out of context:

That's not true. This gentleman [motions to Gareth Edwards] did Godzilla before we hired him to direct the movie. That quote was taken out of context and I, as you can imagine, have every intention of giving somebody an opportunity. If somebody actually moves through the process of making movies and wants to make a Star Wars movie and shows that they have actually stepped into the role on that level, of course we're going to consider a woman. That goes without saying.

When asked to name a female director who could be a good fit for Star Wars, Kennedy declined to answer:

I think there's many. And I've talked to most of them. There are many out there.

There are two ways to read her response: either she's deflecting the question or she's deliberately not mentioning any names because she doesn't want to drag any names into the public and potentially derail a future project. I certainly hope it's the latter.

When asked about finding her inner warrior to play Jyn Erso, Felicity Jones said she simply had to tap into the fact that her character despises the Empire with every fiber of her being...and get a little stunt assistance, of course:

In Jyn's head, it's very clear. She hates the Empire. So anytime she sees Stormtroopers, she has this very clear instinct to take them down. So I just tapped into that energy that Jyn has. I had never done that kind of thing before. It was very new, the whole kind of physical preparation, that side of acting. I'm kind of used to lots of talking in corsets, so it was really nice to be running around with a blaster and a baton to bash Stormtroopers with. It was an extraordinary process and you work very closely with the stunt team, who take you through every kind of move and moment and support you throughout the whole thing. I was very lucky to have great support from the stunt team.

While composer Michael Giacchino (stepping in for the brilliant John Williams) was not present, Gareth Edwards spoke about his work and implied that he may be the biggest Star Wars fan working on the film:

Michael did an amazing score for us. He's a massive, massive, massive, massive Star Wars fan. I think a lot of us compete for who's the biggest Star Wars fan working on the film and you go around his house and walk in the door and in his main front room is a 13-foot framed poster of A New Hope. So we'd joke "You didn't have to do that for us" and he'd be like "No, this has been up for like thirteen years." He said he listened to the Empire Strikes Back soundtrack to death as a kid and I think the vocabulary of that music is in him. It just poured out. There's particular moments in the film, musically, especially toward the end, that are truly stunning and very emotional. I think he just knocked it out of the park. We're very lucky.

While the hulking security droid K-2SO was created digitally by ILM, Alan Tudyk was present on set wearing a motion capture suit and standing on stilts for all of his character's scenes. When asked about this particular process, Diego Luna can barely contain his laughter:

Alan Tudyk: Diego is very funny about certain aspects of my costume. I was wearing a full body jumpsuit sort of thing. It's such a new technology, even still. We've been introduced to it in a lot of different ways. Sometimes they'll wear cameras on their heads, sometimes there's dots all over their face, they have balls all over their suit. The way ILM did it, I wore a suit that was very comfortable and didn't have all that restriction on it. It just had interesting designs on it–

[Diego Luna starts giggling]

John Knoll: It was cool looking.Alan Tudyk: It was very cool looking! It was like a luge costume from the Italian team. It didn't have the colors, but still! And I was on stilts, so I was seven foot one and towered over everyone most of the time. It was great. Even at that height, it colors how you move and helped me get into character. It was fantastic.Diego Luna: It wasn't!Alan Tudyk: It was basically just acting, but then the make-up and the costume came later. But because you're on set, you are able to create a character with the other actors. Without that, you can't tell a story with a true character who can react in the moment to some of the stuff Diego is throwing at you. You need to be able to throw it right back!

And then, after everyone had a chance to say nice things, Diego Luna was unleashed:

Diego Luna: I can tell you the truth now! [laughs] When they go "You're going to do a science fiction film and you're going to work with droids," you have the feeling that you're just going to have to imagine everything. Here, we were interacting with an actor and making choices. After the first month...because the first month, we just couldn't look at [Alan] because he did look ridiculous. It was the tightest pajamas ever. Because he had these stilts, you were always the height of his balls. It was quite intimidating! He's really tall, right? When he had to run, there was a version of [K2] that was just a backpack–

Alan Tudyk: The backpack of shame.Diego Luna: Without the stilts, with the face of K2 on the top [of the backpack]. It just looked so cheesy, like so badly done, like suddenly they went for the Mexican version!

Gareth Edwards says that the hardest scene to film was the opening sequence, where they were forced to battle Iceland's natural elements. However, these hardships brought out an amusing anecdote: Ben Mendelsohn sings songs between takes to get himself into character:

Gareth Edwards: Filming that scene, with Ben [Mendelsohn] and Mads [Mikkelsen], it was one of the hardest things we've ever filmed. People say "What the hardest scene you ever did?" I think it was probably that one because we were freezing our tits off out there. The worst thing was fog was coming in, so we'd set up these amazing shots and we'd be really excited and suddenly there'd be a white out and you couldn't see three meters ahead of you. You'd have to wait and suddenly it would clear. And these are two of the most incredible actors in the world and it was just so good to put them up against each other and let it unfold. Ben is so relaxed in front of the camera that he would start messing around. He's very playful. I thought he was reciting Shakespeare or something to get himself into camera. I would listen carefully and realize he was singing "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson! And even Frozen, I think.

Ben Mendelsohn: I did sing a bit of Frozen.Gareth Edwards: What was it? "We used to be friends" or whatever?Ben Mendelsohn: That's right! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did the "we used to be friends" [song]. It's escaping me now. [NOTE: he's thinking of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"] But yes.Mads Mikkelsen: [With a perfect deadpan] I remember it vividly.

As we've seen from the trailers, Darth Vader plays some kind of role in Rogue One. As you'd imagine, the most famous villain in movie history left quite an impression on the cast and crew:

Ben Mendelsohn: The first thing you have to do is just get over the fact that you're doing a scene with Darth Vader. That takes...that took me a little while. Because I am a first-generation fanboy. It took a little while to feel like I could answer him with some solidity, like we could have a discussion, as it were. That took a little while. Darth, his gestures and his mannerisms are so familiar that finding someone that can execute that in a way that is fluid is its own skill set. That requires a certain amount of thought and consideration when you're doing it.

Gareth Edwards: You all know Ben's work. He's got this ability, if he wants to, to be incredibly intimidating. In the entire process of making the film, he was a kid in a candy store, had an amazing time. I kept thinking "I wonder if there will ever be this moment where I'll ever see some of the characters he's played pop out." We were in the middle of filming a scene with Darth and Ben was like, "Gareth, I need to talk to you." And I was like, "What's the matter?" And he goes "I need to go to the corner and talk to you. We need to have a word." And it was like uh, shit. Here we go. What's the matter? And we go over and I'm like "You alright, Ben?" and he's like "No." And it's like "What's the matter?" And he goes "It's Darth fucking Vader." And I was like "I know!" And we both had this moment where we melted and we could just admit it and we would turn around really professionally like "Okay, we'll try to fix that" and walk back.

Edwards also explained that they had to rehearse the Darth Vader scenes without a costume because you simply do not direct Darth Vader:

Gareth Edwards: You can tell when he's coming on set. We learned that we should do the rehearsals and walk through a scene without the costume because as soon as that helmet goes on, it's too intimidating. You can't direction to Darth Vader. He tells you what he's going to do. Then what happens...film sets are really noisy and suddenly it just starts to get quiet and you're chatting with someone and "Why has it gone so quiet...?" And in comes Darth Vader and the whole crew is just like five-year-olds. It happens to everybody. And then you think, "Oh, shit. I have to go over and speak to him." And you have to snap out of it. It's probably one of the highlights of getting to do this film. You're very aware of it. Everyone there is very aware of it. You become the most popular person in the world the day you're filming those scenes. You look around and –

Ben Mendelsohn: Everyone turns up. Everyone turns up when Darth is there.

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For additional details, you can read my already published one-on-interviews with Gareth Edwards, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, and Riz Ahmed. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens on December 16, 2016.