Rian Johnson Didn't Make The Last Jedi's Casino Scene Easy For The Star Wars Crew
Rian Johnson's 2018 film "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" revealed more about the "Star Wars" universe than any of the films that came before it. It was the first film, to my recollection, that finally addressed starship fuel as being a limited resource that a craft could run out of in a crucial moment. It also, in an enlightening sequence, finally addressed the economy of "Star Wars," telling the audience that endless wars between an evil Empire and the plucky Rebels would require billions of dollars in funding. And who should be funding such an endeavor but the heretofore unseen "Star Wars" wealthy class? It seems that even a galaxy of psychic space wizards and sentient androids still has unethical billionaires and war profiteers.
Johnson depicted the wealthy class as bored, ultra-stylish gamblers who inhabit a massive galaxy-famous casino called Canto Bight. There are seemingly hundreds of people in the Canto Bight sequence, each of them wearing alien high fashion, gambling with oblique currencies, and enjoying Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters. A lot of the gaming at Canto Bight seems to resemble activities we have on Earth in the 21st century. There are card games played with poker chips, slot machines, and roulette. This is how the idle rich spend their time in "Star Wars."
According to the "Last Jedi" making-of documentary, now available on Disney+, Canto Bight was made to look like certain real casinos in Florida or Las Vegas. The film's costume designer Mike Kaplan, and its second AD in charge of crowds Jane Ryan, appear on camera to commiserate about the difficulties they all encountered in shooting the Canto Bight scenes. Finding the scads and scads of alien billionaires was no easy task for them, and Johnson gave scant direction.
Chewbacca Royale
According to information available online, the Canto Bight sequences were filmed in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, and a notable "Star Wars" chase was filmed up that city's central drag.
Nothing like this had ever been seen in "Star Wars" before, as it is set in a universe that is mostly inflicted by poverty. The Rebel ships are chipped and dented and a common motif throughout is that crafts are always breaking down. This is in contrast with the well-moneyed Empire that seemingly keeps people on floor-polishing duty 24/7. Apart from a few diplomatic functions throughout George Lucas' prequel films, and a scene at a zero-gravity Cirque du Soleil performance in "Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith," there hadn't been a true formal affair in any "Star Wars" movie.
This meant that Kaplan had to invent an entire class, and, in some cases, designed on the fly. He said:
"A casino in 'Star Wars,' you know, with fancy dress people, it just seemed ... And I expressed my fears to Rian and asked for more input. And he didn't really make it easier. He said he wanted them to look very elegant. [...] They would have large groups of people that I had chosen come in so that we could actually see them in life and see them moving, and were able to, kind of, actually design the costumes for the individual person."
That was it. They had to look elegant.
Sheev-sar's Palace
There is also an exchange between Kaplan and Johnson in the making-of documentary that sees the director noting that Kaplan's costumes "feel Star Wars." Kaplan said he hoped so because this sort of thing had never been tried. Johnson briefly reassured him.
Ryan noted that her job was a lot more regimented than Kaplan's, perhaps making it just as difficult, just for different reasons. She needed to find actors and performers who matched pre-existing character designs, making for fewer opportunities to follow her own instincts; sadly, she wasn't able to cast according to her whim. She added:
"We're doing a casting day for the casino scene. It's going to be huge. They're very particular about the look, and we've got models, we've got people that have been dancers because of their profile and how they can stand. We've got very quirky people coming."
The final sequence is sprawling and unique in the "Star Wars" canon. It looked very much like a film premiere on a distant world, but wasn't so alien that the very human audience wouldn't be able to recognize it as a casino in an instant. Unlike "Star Trek," not everyone is provided for in "Star Wars," and the galaxy is still replete with cycles of fascism, institutionalized slavery, and exploitation. We have now seen the exploiters firsthand.