- Are we allowed to talk about that? - MAN: Yeah, absolutely.
- (LAUGHS) - MAN: Okay. Here we go then.
Am I allowed to talk about the process?
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - (LAUGHING)
(GASPS) I said it out loud!
I can't talk about that.
I've locked it all away, like in a vault.
In an internal vault.
This would be after the movie comes out, so...
- (EXHALES) - MAN: I know.
Good. Fantastic. Thank you.
MAN: We can talk about it, by the way.
Seriously?
And then when I do other interviews, don't say anything then.
(LAUGHING)
I was just astonished. I mean, I can't tell you.
It was the last thing in the world I expected.
Part of me thought, "Oh, my God! No, it's just a terrible idea."
I had a beginning, a middle, and an end,
and I can't really see anything that I could add to it.
CARRIE FISHER: I was surprised. I mean, you think,
"Really? We waited this long? I looked better 10 years ago.
"We could've done it then."
HARRISON FORD: At the end of the first three films that we made,
I had no thought whatsoever about revisiting the character,
or whether there was any ambition to bring the three characters back again.
Never gave it a moment's thought.
If I'd been asked at the time,
I probably wouldn't have imagined the potential for it.
J. J. ABRAMS: The idea of the Star Wars saga continuing
felt like a very unlikely prospect.
KATHLEEN KENNEDY: I think J.J.'s hesitation
was everybody's hesitation initially,
which is, "Wow, I want to do it.
"L don't think it's something I can do. It's too much responsibility."
LAWRENCE KASDAN: "Who is at risk here?
"What's the outcome gonna be?
"Who's gonna survive this thing?"
There were definitely tears from me along the way,
when I thought that I might not be able to do it.
I still thought that I was auditioning. I thought this was the last test.
I remember being scared of showing up on set and having no ideas.
DAISY RIDLEY: I just remember thinking, "Oh, my gosh.
"We are about to shoot this thing, and I'm not ready."
ABRAMS: You don't realize, you start working on a Star Wars movie,
just how daunting that could be.
GEORGE LUCAS: Obviously I've been talking about retiring
for several years now,
where I'm not in the film business anymore
and I don't have to run a corporation.
And it occurred to me one day that
the perfect person to take over the company was Kathy.
And it completely caught me off guard.
It was the last thing on my mind. And I almost instantly said yes.
I just thought, "What an incredible opportunity
"to step into this amazing world that George has created."
LUCAS: I felt that I really wanted to put the company somewhere
which would protect it.
When I first made Star Wars, everybody in Hollywood said,
"Well, this is a movie Disney should've made."
There's a lot of strength that is gained by this.
There's lots and lots of opportunities at Disney
that we wouldn't have at any other studio.
KENNEDY: When The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm,
they very much wanted to have a movie by 2015.
So the most important thing was to start to pull together
the incredible talent for the film,
starting with someone like J.J. Abrams.
First of all, great news, in that we have a director
as of about an hour ago. It seems to have hit the press already,
which is J.J. Abrams.
ABRAMS: When Kathy Kennedy called and asked
if I'd be interested in directing this film,
I fully intended to say no because I'd been involved in other movies
that were sequels, and I just thought I didn't want to do that again,
but it was Star Wars and I knew Kathy.
(BOTH CHUCKLING)
When we were discussing it, there was this one moment
that I instantly had the chills,
considering, which was, a young woman.
What her story is, I had no idea,
but saying, "Where is Luke Skywalker?"
It was so titillating, the notion that this character, who we all know,
would be discovered by some new, young heroine,
was incredibly intriguing.
And it just felt to me like that was a great starting point for a story.
The way I approached
how we would go about making Episode VII wasn't any different
than what we would do with any large tentpole movie today.
George really started the idea that
you could put together an art department
and begin conceptualizing well in advance.
And that was something that we definitely took to heart.
We brought in Rick Carter as our production designer,
who has a long history in working with me.
I think we should be considering how to create iconography
that relates to this journey that these two people are gonna take
in the next generation.
My approach to it, anyway, was to ask a very simple question, first to myself,
and then of everybody up at Lucasfilm, which was,
"How strong is the Force?
"What's its relevance now? Why make a Star Wars movie now?"
I felt that, that was the right question to ask,
and I think the explosion of the response
from all the people at Lucasfilm,
including the artists, were very enthusiastic about it.
ROGER GUYETT: And Rick spent a lot of time with the art department
that was Industrial Light & Magic.
What we would do is, we would have sort of weekly check-in meetings
with J.J., where we'd have a video conference call,
and we would go through the art.
DOUG CHANG: J.J. is very adamant that we kind of go back
to the core aesthetics that made the original trilogy so great.
And a lot of that was driven by Ralph and his sensibility.
And for us, it's kind of going back home in many ways,
both for the visual look and the style of the movie.
The idea is not to copy the original films, not at all,
but they should look like they're in the same universe.
So, I'm kind of looking at the designs that are being done
and seeing if it fits in with the films.
CARTER: You know there's gonna be a point in this first movie
and, of course, in this whole trilogy, of rediscovering the power of the Force,
both negative and positive.
ABRAMS: Working with Rick, I asked him to join story meetings early
'cause I wanted someone who wasn't a structuralist.
Not a mathematical way of looking at a story,
it was about taking flight.
He would bring in images based on our conversations
that were incredibly inspiring.
Some ideas in our story
literally came from some of the imagery that they brought in.
GUYETT: We had these images that you could refer to,
and some of them became kind of iconic.
And they informed the real pre-production unit with everybody.
And they would then go off, and then react to that.
And it was kind of interesting
seeing the way the two things informed each other.
Seeing somebody develop a script
where, almost in tandem, someone was sort of illustrating it.
Feels very familiar to come back here.
This is my fourth experience with Lucasfilm,
and they've all been very satisfying.
Larry Kasdan, he was one of the first people
that I picked up the phone and said,
"Larry, we need you to come back in and be a part of this."
And he didn't miss a beat.
Star Wars is so much bigger and more powerful than I ever anticipated.
The reaction to Empire was so incredible
and has remained for all these years.
When I was doing Empire Strikes Back, my head was spinning.
I really was unprepared for it, and we wrote that script very fast.
Now I'm coming back to a tradition that is bigger than anything I expected.
I had none of that doing Empire Strikes Back.
So it's a very different experience.
We would all meet in a writers' room, and it was Michael Arndt initially,
Larry Kasdan, J.J., myself, and the development team.
It was very much a collaborative effort.
But it was Michael Arndt
who was gonna be putting together the first draft.
He usually needs about two to three years
to immerse himself in something,
and then actually create a screenplay.
And we hoped and thought that this would maybe be one of those
that would go a little bit faster, but it didn't.
So when we had to make the transition to Larry Kasdan and to J.J.,
it actually went pretty smoothly.
KASDAN: I've collaborated with a lot of people,
and this was as much fun as I've ever had.
Writing tends to be claustrophobic, airless, and tiring.
This was not. The amazing thing about the process
was that he took his iPhone with the recorder on, and we walked.
And we walked for miles and miles and miles.
ABRAMS: I'd never done this before,
wandering around, recording conversations.
It felt good to kind of be in motion
because so much of the movie is in motion.
KASDAN: And then, because of pre-production and everything,
we wound up doing that in New York, in Paris, and in London.
It was heavenly.
We're out all the time. We're figuring out, like,
"What's the story gonna be? What's the next Star Wars gonna be?"
ABRAMS: It was all to serve this one and only mandate
that we had on this process,
which was that we wanted to tell a story that would delight us
and that would give us that spark,
that feeling that you have when you watch Star Wars.
Right now, we're working off a very unique situation
where we have incredible talent.
Many of those people did all the Star Wars movies.
We're going to have each and every person
reaching out and pulling in various people into this group,
so that they begin to take the baton.
As I'm one of the only people around that worked on those original films,
I have a role on the show which is like some sort of past legacy
"hander-on-er" or something.
JOHN WILLIAMS: I have to say I feel very privileged
to have been able to do all of them to this point,
and to continue on and do number seven seemed very natural to me.
I've had fun with it, and I feel very good about it.
For me, in particular,
it was really trying to get my head around the sensibility of,
"Okay, now that I've worked on the prequels,
"I know what the original series are.
"What is the next generation? What is the next evolution?"
A lot of people, including myself,
have been so inspired about Star Wars and what has come before.
I started here when I was 17 years old with a dream to work in film,
and it's now 2015, we're making new Star Wars,
and I just hope it's inspiring kids that wanna be involved in filmmaking.
The movie itself is a handoff to this next generation of characters
that are in the Star Wars world.
And behind the scenes,
there is a new generation led by Kathy Kennedy.
And it's quite on theme for what the movie is,
bringing together the old and the new in a really seamless way.
The most important thing in the master-apprenticeship kind of role
that we were all in,
obviously, George created Star Wars,
but all of us had to become, in a sense, students of Star Wars.
A real understanding of the history of Star Wars, that was really important.
We needed to understand the rules,
and once we understood that, then we could branch out.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
WOMAN: All right, let's go on in.
I thought you were gonna have a drumroll.
Yeah, where's our music?
CARTER: Approaching a movie like this is like approaching something
that really happened in history.
It's a long time ago, far, far away, but it really happened.
So there's an archive, there's a place to go
where you can actually see what happened.
So you can see the world that Ralph McQuarrie created.
All the people that actually were instrumental in visualizing
what this galaxy could look like.
ABRAMS: There was a feeling when I was a kid,
when I saw Star Wars for the first time,
that it was all practical and real.
There were things like being outside the sandcrawler
and seeing those treads, those massive treads right there.
It was a physical, tangible, real thing. You knew it when you saw the movie.
So we wanted to go back and embrace the look of those original films,
which was all part of the feeling of
how they were able to transport you into that universe.
DARREN GILFORD: We're trying very true to be almost like a period piece,
to really put the audience back 30 years after Jedi.
And so it's really doing a period science-fiction film,
which is really fun.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
I was lucky enough on Empire Strikes Back
to do some work experience
within the art department, when my father was the art director.
In fact, in this book... Here we are.
This is a reproduction of the drawing that my father did
for the snowspeeder on Empire Strikes Back.
I couldn't believe that when I first came in
and spoke to him here at Pinewood,
he said he was working on drawings that I'd done 36 years ago.
And you think, "I can't believe they would still have this stuff."
So it's wonderful that they had some of the drawings that we'd done
all those years ago.
ABRAMS: I love characters like this.
You feel like they're just sort of...
I believe them, and they'll sort of blend in.
NEAL SCAN LAN: J.J. sort of threw a creative challenge to us.
In some films in the past, you would get a build list,
and you'd say, "I've got to build this, this, and this."
I think for J.J., the first priority is, "Let's shoot it practically."
But we kind of had to earn our stars,
so you had to get that character to a point
that it was worthy of going on the screen.
ABRAMS: The progress is happening.
And I know that it might feel a little bit like wheel-spinning stuff.
But the more you guys are inspired by ideas,
I'm telling you, there will be value in other places in the movie.
So, it is very helpful.
SCAN LAN: He never really said that he would use anything.
That anything that you make is not a ticket to appear in the film.
It was that we would show something to J.J.,
and we would impress him enough for him to say, "I can use that."
Keep coming. Keep coming.
CARTER: And so the interaction of those physical things
actually creates something that's not artificial-seeming,
doesn't seem arbitrary.
And then, of course, that will be augmented by the visual effects.
You film what you can, and you build what you can,
and then if you wanna see more,
we have these wonderful magicians of ILM that will come and say,
"Well, of course we can see more."
DANIEL PEARSON: It was great to hear that they were gonna try and do
as much on set as possible
because real is hard to beat.
We always try and augment our CG with live-action elements.
It gives a greater sense of reality, of course.
We've been used to being asked to do more and more and use our technology
to the fullest, so you have to take a step back and think,
"How am I gonna use technology in a way
"that is actually going to have it feel like a film from 1977?"
What was important to us was to capture again that feeling,
that authenticity that we were looking for.
We've got so many different tools
that can contribute to that feeling, cinematically.
And obviously, working with ILM has been a huge, huge benefit.
I think the interesting thing about Star Wars
and the kind of storytelling it is,
is it's a story that allows you to participate.
There are things that are relevant. Things you're identifying with.
Certainly for all young kids when the movie came out,
they either wanted to be Luke Skywalker,
or they saw themselves as Han Solo.
And I think that was a part of our challenge, was,
"How are we gonna bring new characters into this series
"that had that same kind of power?"
And I think we have.
I think one of the great things is we have a female lead.
ABRAMS: What we were looking for was someone new.
This character needed to be vulnerable and tough, sweet and terrified.
And to find someone that no one knew who could do all these things
took a lot of looking.
REJWAN: You always feel like you're gonna run out of time.
You're like, "Oh..." (CHUCKLES) You know?
But our casting directors, Nina Gold, April Webster, and Alyssa Weisberg,
just did an incredible amount of work.
ABRAMS: And we were very lucky to find some great people,
but the truth is, it wasn't until we found Daisy
that we just felt like she was capable of doing
all of these things this character required.
Where am I?
MAN: You're my guest.
ABRAMS: When we brought her in, I asked her to do this one scene,
this torture scene, very intense, and she just blew my mind.
She's reaching this depth of struggle, and tears are streaming down her face.
I thought, "This is unbelievable."
And I asked her to stop,
gave her a couple of adjustments, do it again,
and she did it again, and I thought, "Oh, my God."
I guarantee he would have disappointed you.
Get out of my head.
KASDAN: The decision to have Finn be a deserting stormtrooper
was one of the biggest that we made.
I thought it would be incredible
if we pulled our hero from the ranks of what has been essentially
faceless, indistinguishable automatons
who no one ever gave any attention to, really.
That someone had to be inside there.
(GASPING)
ABRAMS: John Boyega, who's one of the biggest
Star Wars fans among the cast,
and he auditioned, I think, nine times.
Do you know how to fly a TIE fighter?
MAN: I can fly anything. Why are you doing this?
Because it's the right thing to do.
- You need a pilot. - I need a pilot.
There he was, proof that just 'cause you keep getting called back
and it feels like it might not ever happen, it actually can.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
RIDLEY: The conversation was kind of J.J. really explaining to me
how things would change,
and if I felt supported and what have you.
And he wanted to know about my background
because we hadn't really talked about, um, my family.
BOYEGA: He asked me whether I was ready, and he was like,
"Do you realize how much of a big responsibility this is?"
And walk forward, please.
RIDLEY: He said to me, "Are you sure you want this?"
And I was like, "If you believe in me, then I think I'm okay with that
"because I think you're pretty cool and pretty good at what you do."
BOYEGA: He goes, "Well, you're the new star of Star Wars.“
And then everything stopped.
You know when you're waiting for something,
and then the words actually come, and you're like, (STUTTERS) "Uh... Okay."
He just said I'm the new star of Star Wars.
And he was like, "No, no, no. Don't react. Don't react.
"Breathe. Breathe."
RIDLEY: J.J. had said, "You can tell your parents. "
So I got in, and my sister and my mom were there,
and I was like, "I got Star Wars."
And then it was like, "Oh, my God!"
So, yeah. But I couldn't sleep that night at all.
BOYEGA: It was really, really hard
just going through normal life without saying I was cast in Star Wars.
But yeah, that is the story of how it happened.
For those of us that have been working on this now for almost two years,
it's incredible to realize that we're at this point right now.
We had a cast read-through just before we started shooting.
It was really moving.
Carrie and Harrison and Mark, I don't think any of them ever imagined
that they would be shooting any more of these movies ever again.
FORD: I can't say that I didn't have some reservation about it.
It wasn't hard to convince me.
It's just that I had not imagined the circumstance.
FISHER: I was very nervous.
It was trippy to have Harrison and Mark and myself
in a room together, doing this again.
ABRAMS: This was gonna be the first gathering
of this original cast, new cast.
But the most important thing was to hear it
and to actually experience what is it like to get it on its feet
in a read-through. We'd never done that before.
HAMILL: "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
"Star Wars Episode VII."
At the last minute, I was asked to read the actual script.
Usually the director does that,
but in this case, he said he wanted to be able to observe, and would I do that?
"The Falcon and the surviving X-Wings roar past camera toward a planet
"with green flora and a copper sea.
"This is D'Qar,
"the ships descending among massive, mushroom-shaped trees."
That moment when we all sat in a circle and we saw all these faces,
and you couldn't believe what you were seeing.
The young people and the veterans.
This is a moment that will never be forgotten.
"Hold on Luke Skywalker's incredible face,
"amazed and conflicted at what he sees, as our music builds.
"The promise of an adventure just beginning.
"The end." Hmm.
(WHOOPING)
ABRAMS: On the one hand, you had this sort of out-of-body,
"Oh, my God. I'm in this place with this crew."
On the other hand, you had the most sort of primal terror of,
"Oh, my God! It was also the beginning of production."
That moment is like when you're at the starting point of the wagon train,
and everybody's gathering,
and you say, "Who is that? And who's that?"
I don't think we ever really felt like we were ready to go.
I know probably somewhere deep down it felt like, "ls this gonna work?"
We're going out to face who knows what.
ABRAMS: The weekend before the day we started shooting,
I actually had a parents' weekend at our older son's school,
and that was in Hawaii.
So, the night before shooting began was sort of a race back to the location.
Among the good things about that was literally not having downtime
to really worry about it.
KENNEDY: What I remember feeling was incredibly hot.
(CHUCKLES) It was about 120-plus degrees Fahrenheit.
It was a beautiful, beautiful desert location. Really incredible.
But tough for everybody that was in any kind of costumes,
that kind of thing.
It was a very tough way to start, but it looks fantastic.
First day.
It's sandy, it's hot, but it's absolutely amazing.
BOYEGA: We walked to set.
I see this huge life-size TIE fighter crashed in the sand.
For me, it was just amazing just looking around
and taking it in and saying,
"I'm here. We are about to film this movie."
And J.J. Abrams, with his enthusiasm and his energy, coming in and saying
that we 're starting Star Wars Episode VII.
I just want to say the obvious,
which is that we're here on day one of Star Wars Episode VII.
- MAN: Hear, hear! - How incredible is that?
- (CHEERING) - (APPLAUSE)
You don't need anything.
You need a tag.
So, you are... Where is your helmet?
- This one. - Okay, very good. You can go.
You're wonderful. Let's get you deep background.
Excellent.
All right. Should we rehearse one more time?
I just remember I was told that Daisy's doing her first scene.
So, I was just like, "Okay, let me go down and go see it."
What was the first scene? When I was scrubbing the thing?
- (LAUGHING) - My arm was aching.
I know. I was just relaxing, and you were just working so hard.
And you were just there like this...
My arm was aching, and I kept not being able to get it right.
BOYEGA: Yeah? RIDLEY: on, my God!
MARY JO MARKEY: When we got the first actual scene,
it was exciting to see what she was doing
and to hear her interaction with J.J.
Here it is. These are the dailies from the first day of the new Star Wars film.
- (THUDDING) - (MUMBLING)
(EXCAVATOR BEEPING)
This is where Daisy's character lives,
and we are getting ready to shoot her outside of her AT-AT home.
We've built as much of it as we could afford,
and we have a lot to get in the little time we have at dusk.
So wish us luck.
If you could put it on 'cause it sort of makes you feel good.
You sort of, in a weird way, relate to what the Rebellion did.
And when you put it on, it feels like you settle in more, almost.
- Okay. - Put it on.
RIDLEY: Abu Dhabi was really hard at the beginning.
I'd obviously never worked on this scale on anything.
And because the first day was just me, it felt like quite a lot of pressure.
ABRAMS: Action, Daisy!
RIDLEY: My God, you could literally feel the sand burning through your shoes,
which was crazy.
ABRAMS: Set, and camera!
- And wake up! - (GAS PS)
BOYEGA: Then obviously Finn has to be in the stormtrooper outfit.
So let's just say it was a combination of sweat, passion, ice cubes,
and a lot of water.
A lot of acting involved,
but at the same time, not a lot, because it's hot.
I'm exhausted.
DAN MINDEL: The location we ended up on was just so stunning.
The sand dunes were breathtaking.
Soto be able to shoot widescreen cinema out there
was, for me, what I personally love to go to the cinema for, is to see locations,
places I don't get to see all the time.
What was made clear to me very early on
was that it was gonna be shot on film,
which is something that I love. I love working with film.
BEN ROSENBLATT: When you're making Star Wars,
there's really no choice but to shoot it on film.
You have to because the originals were shot on film,
and it's very much part of how we remember them looking and feeling.
There's something that you need to capture on celluloid. No question.
UNKAR: What you brought me today is worth...
one quarter portion.
SIMON PEGG: It's about 40 degrees, I guess, so it's hot in there,
but it's Star Wars.
I'd burn for Star Wars. (CHUCKLES)
(MAN YELLING INDISTINCTLY)
I've worked with J.J. many times.
When I heard that he was doing Star Wars,
obviously, I was immediately on the phone
like, "What? What are you..."
I sort of said, "I've got to come visit,"
and he said, "Yeah, maybe you should do a voice in it or something.
"Like be a droid."
'Cause I kind of thought that being in it as me, as my face,
I think people would go, "It's him from Star Trek.“
It might spoil it.
So I was kind of torn 'cause I was desperate
to obviously at least be part of it in some way.
And then we discussed the idea of me playing a character
who was in full prosthetic,
which meant I could have my space cake and eat it.
That's mine!
(EXPLOSIONS)
(LAUGHING)
We can't outrun them!
We might in that quadjumper!
BOYEGA: In Abu Dhabi it was more cardio than anything else.
And so a few weeks before the Abu Dhabi shoot,
we were on the treadmill, doing interval running.
And what that did was just copied what happens on set.
We would run superfast.
We would run with the camera for about a 20-second take.
We'd breathe for a bit, and J.J. would be like, "Let's go again."
Not this way.
ABRAMS: And cut!
There. There.
RIDLEY: Without the guys we were training with, there's just no way.
Neither me nor John would've been able to get through Abu Dhabi.
Keep me in shape. Giving me guns.
It was really hard.
The actual hardest bit was when it was soft sand, hard sand.
And one of the last runs was just a mix of the two.
And that is just a killer on the legs.
It was almost a relief when there was explosions
'cause you knew there was only so many times
that you could do the running.
Three, two, one...
Boom! Bang!
Here we go. Set. Good energy. Background action.
And, action BB-8.
(PANTING) We just ran BB-8 from the gates to escape
from the TIE fighter attack,
and I wasn't quite expecting that today.
KASDAN: It was very conscious on our part
that there would be a new droid who's a major part of the story.
And he is funny and sweet.
(BEEPING)
RIDLEY: I didn't go through the film thinking,
"This is gonna be iconic. BB-8's our version of R2."
I never really thought of it like that.
I was just like, "You're so cute."
(ABRAMS SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
ABRAMS: And as you're walking, you wanna kind of glance at him,
sort of slightly annoyed that he's convinced you to take him.
RIDLEY: He was the first character I had real scenes with,
and I was nervous because it's not a human being.
But because of the puppeteers, he comes alive.
Dave's doing the head, and Brian's doing the LEDs on the body.
And I've got the drive system.
This version of BB-8 is the puppet version,
and he is fundamentally a rod puppet.
And I have control of him here.
I can just do the gross body movement on the ball.
And this had been the model we've used most of all
as you get a really instant and organic performance with it.
What about the droid?
What about him?
RIDLEY: I asked J.J. if I could have a bit more with BB-8
because I think it's such a nice bond, it's such a nice relationship.
He's this talisman, I guess,
that is the first constant that Rey has ever had.
(BEEPING)
REY: You're welcome.
(APPLAUSE)
ABRAMS: Just want to say thank you so much.
You've been spectacular.
It's been the most fun, the greatest adventure.
I cannot believe that we've done the shoot here in Abu Dhabi.
We can't thank you enough. We owe you forever.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We'll see you next time. Thanks.
Slate one. Take one.
KENNEDY: We're actually in Pinewood Studios,
and this is one of the stages that we shot on.
One of many, actually.
MAN 1: Okay, cut. MAN 2: Cut it.
KENNEDY: In large part, this is the home of Star Wars.
Because so many of the movies were made in England.
It's pretty great, returning to the UK and setting ourselves up at Pinewood,
and working with these crews,
and working with generations of people
who go back to the early days of Star Wars.
The crews were not only amazing,
but a lot of the crews had parents who had worked on the original,
so it really felt like a homecoming.
ABRAMS: Working at Pinewood was another incredible experience in this.
This was a studio where some of the great movies of all time were shot.
This is the studio where the James Bond films were made.
You can't help but have reverence for the actual studio.
TOMMY HARPER: We have pretty much every large stage at Pinewood.
And we filled them up, and we'll fill them up
several times on this movie.
You know, switching them around to other sets.
You have a mass amount of construction and office
and warehouse space here as well.
We have both backlots that have big builds on,
and we've been here for a long time.
We start building months and months in advance of filming.
ABRAMS: Three, two, one, action!
KASDAN: We were very fortunate
when we got Oscar Isaac to play Poe's character.
Because the role of Han in the first three movies,
he's the one that draws your eye
because you don't know what he's gonna do.
It's an archetype that all of us like.
We wanted someone like that to be in this group.
(LAUGHS)
OSCAR ISAAC: There's definitely elements of Han Solo in Poe.
You know, the cockiness of a fighter pilot.
Because fighter pilots are... I mean, this guy is incredible.
The amount of things that have to be going on in their head at once.
(ALL LAUGHING)
ABRAMS: Originally, Poe was going to die early in the film.
And that was the script that Oscar saw.
And one of his issues wanting to do this movie
was that he'd made four movies in which he died early on,
and he was sick of dying early on.
ISAAC: A week or so later, J.J. wrote me and he said,
"Got it figured out, Poe's in the rest of the movie now."
And so, this idea that Poe comes back was something that was added later.
Which, obviously, for me, was incredibly exciting
and fantastic. I get to live.
Going forward,
what they'll add to the fight against the First Order
will be really exciting to see where that goes.
MAN 1: Boom! MAN 2: Go, one!
Go, two!
And, village.
ISAAC: Stormtroopers are formidable now.
They have all sorts of new weaponry, and they have a new way of fighting,
and they're vicious and quite scary.
When you see them on the set, running out of those transport vehicles,
it's frightening.
CHLOE CHESTERTON: I'm the crowd second AD on the movie,
and when I heard that J.J. was interested in getting some girls
into stormtrooper costumes,
I was like, "Well, I'm kind of tall. I'll give that a go."
Moving your arms is not too bad, moving your legs is okay.
I guess, I can start to feel on my back, a little bit of weight.
WOMAN: Some of the boys said it's the shoulders.
Like a rucksack.
- Yeah, like a heavy rucksack going on. - Yeah.
MAN: All right, go, one! Go, two!
Go, village.
CHESTERTON: That was really exciting. Really exciting.
I was a bit worried about getting up the hill.
Because once the momentum is gone from going down the slope,
going back up again is pretty tough.
I'm absolutely loving it.
I feel like a child playing
goodies and baddies and shooting lots of people. It's great.
GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: Captain Phasma's the first female
Star Wars villain.
I find it very heartening that a franchise like Star Wars,
it makes it a progressive character, makes it a modern character.
A new relationship with a female character
which isn't about her being sexualized,
it's about us responding to the choices that she makes.
This just rests on the shoulders...
CHRISTIE: I was talking to Michael Kaplan,
who I've idolized since I watched Blade Runner,
about how he came to the design of Captain Phasma.
They did these beautiful illustrations
of Kylo Ren in silver.
J.J. said, "I don't see Kylo Ren that way, but I love the idea."
Weeks went by, and Kathy came in and she said,
"What is that," pointing at the knight in shining armor.
She said, "That's amazing." She said, "That has to be in the movie."
So, that's how Captain Phasma came to be.
CHRISTIE: I was told that I was going to absolutely love my costume.
And they put the helmet on me, I looked in the mirror,
and I think I just giggled quite a lot.
I thought it was great that they had not feminized the armor.
I thought that was fantastic.
But I thought it's good to know there's a woman in there.
So, maybe subtly I can let that come across
in the way that she stands, in the way that she holds her body.
It isn't sexualized,
but there is something occasionally of a femininity
to give this character a little bit more of an identity.
ABRAMS: The name came because,
looking at the chrome design of Phasma's uniform,
it reminded me of the movie Phantasm.
And there's this chrome ball in Don Coscarelli's film,
this kind of devil ball with spikes on it.
I always loved the design of that, so, when we were looking at this,
I thought, “Phantasm and Phasma."
It was a weird name, but it felt like a fun Star Wars-y name.
Good, good.
PHASMA: Sir, the villagers?
Kill them all.
ADAM DRIVER: People wanna tell you what your character is,
and they have such a vocabulary for those movies.
Everyone likes to tell you you're a villain.
I don't think villains think of themselves as villains.
I think they probably really think that it is more being right,
that they feel justified,
and I think that makes somebody even more dangerous.
The villain-in-training is interesting for me because,
in talking about villains in Star Wars,
you don't and can't get better than Darth Vader, it's sort of the thing.
KASDAN: They had created an image that was unmistakable.
You did not need any explanation.
The guy walks through the smoke, you get the whole thing,
and he's the most threatening villain of all time.
ABRAMS: The idea that this is a character
who is influenced by that darkness,
started to allow a masked villain,
which feels essential in the Star Wars universe,
to take form and not feel like we were being naive
and acting like there wasn't a Darth Vader.
Maybe putting on the mask makes him feel more powerful.
KASDAN: It makes perfect sense
that this guy has had a huge impact on everybody.
And, yes, this figure looms large for our villain, too.
DRIVER: There are so many nods to Vader and how they first meet him,
and I think J.J. was after something more youthful and unpredictable,
and someone who isn't polished.
And even his lightsaber, it's not quite finished.
And his uniform is not quite perfect.
He was by far the most difficult character to nail down.
J.J. was our barometer. He looked at hundreds of sketches.
And the design that we had in the helmet,
suddenly we thought of it as being chromed.
I liked the idea of light being reflected.
DRIVER: It was an interesting process that I had never done before
to be able to tell a lot of story without actually being seen.
And then what is the difference when he takes off his mask?
What do you find?
Instead of this menacing figure that you're used to,
someone that's kind of more mustache-twirly and obvious,
that it was actually someone more human.
KAPLAN: J.J. always wanted him to have a cape and a hood.
I had it patterned so that there would be a lot of movement when he was fighting.
DRIVER: There's chips taken out of it, it's not perfect,
it's less manicured, that costume.
And putting it on, it was such an event.
I was so pissed by the time we were ready to start shooting
that I felt totally ready.
(YELLING)
ABRAMS: The Millennium Falcon is as much a returning character
in this movie as any of the people.
And there's a very weird feeling
about going back to something you know so well.
It's a little bit like if you were to say, "I'm gonna open this magic door,"
and behind that magic door is your bedroom at nine years old.
That kind of a feeling of, it's yours and you know it,
and so, when you go back to it,
it can't not look the way you remember it.
It has to be what you know.
So our an' director, Mark Harris, who worked on Empire,
was like a scientist, forensically recreating the Falcon.
Mark Harris went through every known photograph of the Falcon.
PAUL HAYES: We studied that, every nut and bolt.
I mean, it's what you dream of as a kid, to play with stuff like that.
I love building.
And to make something like that, every day I come to work, smiling.
LEE SANDALES: And it was made in waves.
We had to make it piece by piece by piece,
so we knew it would all work.
And the last piece to be made,
believe it or not, was actually the curve sofa,
which we took a long time to actually get that right,
even down to the texture.
KENNEDY: There were benchmarks for everybody,
when we hit those moments in the story
that were a huge recall
to what the Star Wars series has meant to everybody.
I think, probably one of the most memorable moments
was when we were shooting on the Millennium Falcon.
ABRAMS: To be on a stage where you're actually
seeing the Millennium Falcon, it feels son' of dream-like.
It brought some people to tears, literally.
Oh, my gosh.
I'm literally shaking. This is insane.
I told you, you were in Star Wars.
(LAUGHING)
I just remember running up the ramp,
just giggling. I went through that whole place, messing it all up.
And all the props people and the guys on set were just kind of like,
"Okay, can you control him?"
Because I started running. I went to the cockpit.
You know that little ball thing, the Jedi training ball?
I got that out and started rolling that around.
It was so fun.
So I walked onto that set... Completely overwhelming.
I really am at sixes and sevens, to say the least,
and then they introduce me to Harrison Ford.
(LAUGHING)
I had nothing to say.
I'm getting horrible déja vu.
I feel I should play chess.
Now, be careful, R2.
PHIL TIPPETT: Taking on the redux of the chess set,
the idea that I pitched to J.J. was
that we pick up the chess set where we left off.
And we pretty much go back to that frame
where the little guy is getting back up
and the big guy is coming to grab him again,
and the little guy bonks him.
It felt like coming full circle again, and you just step back into 1977.
GILFORD: My favorite personal story,
I was shopping at a random department store,
and sure enough, who do I run into was Harrison Ford.
I tapped him on the shoulder and I said, "Mr. Ford, my name's Darren.
"I'm one of the production designers on Star Wars.
"I'm actually building the Millennium Falcon right now."
And he goes, "The toggle switches."
And I go, "Toggle switches?"
He goes, "When they built it the first time,
"none of the toggle switches had any springs in them."
FORD: They'd bought broken switches 'cause they were much cheaper.
So, if you stood there long enough, the switch which was in this position
and you moved to this position, would slowly come down behind you
while you were standing there.
'Cause there was no spring in it.
No budget for springs.
"Can you put the springs in the switches this time?"
He says, "Yeah, boss, we got the budget for that."
ABRAMS: As cool as it is and as beautifully done as it is,
you very quickly realize the scene is not gonna be good
just because it's there.
The story has to be working for that very cool location
to not feel squandered.
And so it was really important, with Han Solo,
that he be introduced in a way
that felt worthy of these sets that were being built.
And also I want the fans
to feel like we're doing this right from the beginning
and, "ls this gonna serve them?"
RIDLEY: Everyone was waiting for the line, which was, "Chewie, we're home."
And we had given it the whole day
because J.J. really wanted it to be perfect.
Han and Chewie entering the Falcon. Come on.
I turned around, and there must have been 200 people
standing behind me, all staring at the monitor,
wanting to see Harrison come into the Millennium Falcon for the first time.
That was a huge moment.
And, camera. Action.
(METAL WHIRRING)
Chewie... we're home.
(MUMBLES)
ABRAMS: Cut. Great.
- (APPLAUSE) - (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(MOUTHING)
FORD: Dear Peter is present on the set,
offering his invaluable experience and advice.
And it was great to have him there.
Getting back to the old days, the old ways of doing things.
It's great.
I wasn't walking very well because I tore a tendon
in this knee about two years ago.
That meant a knee replacement.
Because Peter's knees are not good, for many of the scenes,
Joonas, who was a kind of stunt Chewie, is in the role.
JOONAS SUOTAMO: When I put on the suit, I start rehearsing.
I start doing what Peter does,
his little wobbles
and his Chewie-like, awkward things that he does.
Awkward but lovable.
(PURRING)
MAYHEW: I have had words with him about
what Chewie does and what he doesn't do.
Being relatively the same height does help.
I think I'm a little bit shorter than Peter was at his prime.
At this point, I'm seven feet. I believe he is 7'2".
Okay, Peter, I've been asked to put your head on.
Okay. Yeah, fine.
MAYHEW: I'm glad that they gave me the opportunity
to be able to come and do as much as possible,
and get the old gang back together again.
Well, you tell him Han Solo
just stole back the Millennium Falcon for good.
ABRAMS: We're about to shoot the scene
where it's a little private moment of him in the cockpit.
This is the kind of sweet, little privileged moment
to see him alone, taking it in,
reunited with the ship that he loves so much.
FORD: I'd been away so long, I looked at it and I said,
"This doesn't look right.
"Was this here?" And they said, "Yes."
I said, "I don't remember that, but, okay."
I've spent a lot of years here, and it was fun to see it again.
There were things I remember about the cockpit
and some of the funny stuff we went through.
Kid, without precise calculations, we'd fly too close to a store.
- Bounce into a supermarket, and then... - (LAUGHING)
HAMILL: I was on Maz's castle set, that's really evocative of the cantina,
where there's creatures everywhere you look.
Walking on that set really brought me back.
We're gonna be pulling back the camera a little sooner,
so we'll get to you guys a little sooner.
But the more you can be like, "Hey..."
ABRAMS: This was clearly our cantina. It was a nod to the cantina.
But if you look at Star Wars,
the notion that the cantina is one of countless watering holes
that exists in various corners of the galaxy,
felt like it's fair game.
You guys look that way.
Now, we might wanna have someone else come this way.
On the one hand, I think, cynically, you go,
"They're just trying to do the cantina again."
But on the other hand, it's Star Wars,
and if you don't have a version of that,
I would leave feeling like, "Well, where was that?
- (CHUCKLING) - "How could they not do the cantina?"
So it's, "How do we do the cantina, but not do the cantina?"
So we came up with this place which is based on a castle design.
- Very exciting. - MAN: Okay.
And after a beat of stopping and looking,
we'll cue the music again,
and you'll start playing the music again.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
- (LAUGHING) - (YELLS)
SANDALES: We want to develop a whole story,
that the castle was a place
where people could come to escape and find a home with Maz.
It's a communal place to make deals, plan heists. (LAUGHS)
- Han Solo! - (MUSIC STOPS)
Hey, Maz.
Maz, she's four feet tall, but she runs the joint.
And everybody knows that.
She's a woman who challenges people to find their purpose.
You've been running away from this fight for too long.
Maz was a character that you meet at the moment in the film
when things kind of come to a necessary pause.
And she was inspired by a teacher that he had.
CHRISTIAN ALZMANN: J.J. had this legendary teacher
named Rose Gilbert.
They were like, "Maz's character is going to be Rose Gilbert."
We've had pictures of Rose Gilbert
all over our work stations when we were drawing.
I definitely think that the spirit of her is very much present in that character.
ABRAMS: We initially talked about doing her
as a character that was gonna be performed with a puppet.
Then we talked about doing it as an animatronic character.
And then we realized,
A, we hadn't found the design early enough that we all agreed on,
and B, it felt like it was actually gonna be limiting.
I know that J.J. has been fascinated with motion capture,
and it was something that he was really keen to have in his film.
The embracing of the old guard of doing things and the new.
CG has gotten to a place where,
if you have a good enough team doing it,
and we have the best in the business at ILM,
then you're able to have it be indistinguishable from what's real.
(HUMMING STAR WARS THEME)
MAN: Background.
And, action.
NYONG'O: On set, everything feels so real,
and then there's me in this head cam, walking around covered in dots.
There's 149 dots put on my face every morning.
It was the most alienating thing in the world.
Because there are lights shining on my face,
everybody is drawn to look at me.
And you're still trying to figure out how on Earth you're supposed to be
a completely different person in this suit.
(LAUGHING)
- Isn't that cool? - This is hilarious.
NYONG'O: The principal photography for me
has been like a technical rehearsal.
And then there's a whole other process in a volume,
where we zero in on my performance and get the nuances of that.
She's got the nastiest teeth.
ANDY SERKIS: I became part of this whole thing
from two different angles,
as an overseer, if you like,
or a consultant to do with performance capture.
And then, of course, I was also playing the part of Snoke,
the nemesis character and general
and leader of the dark side in this particular version.
If Skywalker returns...
the new Jedi will rise.
SERKIS: One of the things that J.J. was very, very keen on
was not to fall into the trap of over-characterization.
You know, pushing it too far,
it can end up being a caricature if you're not careful.
HUX: We will stop them before they reach Skywalker.
SNOKE: Go.
Oversee preparations.
HUX: Yes, Supreme Leader.
SERKIS: I was 25 foot up, sitting on a throne,
very divorced from the rest of the actors,
my voice coming through speakers.
It's not like you're standing next to another actor
and relating to them in a more direct way.
So it is easy to push the character, really, too far.
It doesn't feel yet, right.
NYONG'O: Andy has been a great support.
He has encouraged me as much as possible
to let go of the oddness of the things I'm wearing
and just find the character as I would in any other circumstance.
Solo, what is she doing?
I don't know. But it ain't good.
Hmm.
- (BELL RINGING) - (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ABRAMS: So we're on E stage, which is the Resistance base.
And it is one of the first sets that we actually designed,
and originally was conceived
when there was more of a jungle up above.
But the idea of the roots was something that I loved so much,
feeling that it was really underground,
and part of it is, obviously, the kinship
with the original Star Wars jungle base.
We have vines and roots intertwined with cables,
and the kind of makeshift base that the Resistance has.
So, at the very beginning of this, you say, "It's a Death Star."
And then you say, "I wish that were the case."
It's gonna be four feet above the center of the table
that expands to a big sphere
that would basically be the diameter of the circle.
That's when I say, "It's Starkiller Base."
BOYEGA: The scene that made me feel like, "Oh, my gosh, this is crazy,"
is when all of the cast are around that table, planning.
I just wanna say one more thing when everyone's done.
ROSENBLATT: The moment that meant the most to me personally
was Ackbar was on set.
Steps here. Step.
And security has been so tight.
We're not allowed to take pictures or anything,
but I had to take a picture of Ackbar on the set and show it to my brothers.
Because we loved Ackbar. "It's a trap!"
How is it possible to power a weapon of that size?
It uses the power of the sun.
BOYEGA: You see General Ackbar speaking,
and you couldn't buy this as a Star Wars fan.
It doesn't get any cooler than that.
I can shut down the shields, but I need to be there. On the planet.
BOYEGA: I mean, that scene was incredible, though.
Poe Dameron's there, Harrison was there, C-3PO, Princess Leia,
R2-D2's in the corner.
This is R2-D2's tent. This is Lee, this is Oliver.
Both guys responsible for making the R2-D2s on the film.
KENNEDY: We brought in fans
who were also people working in the business,
so we had different degrees of obsession.
OLIVER STEEPLES: I just studied electromechanical engineering
and needed a hobby,
so I joined the R2 Builders Club in 2003,
and it wasn't until 2007, I actually had my R2 almost finished.
I went to Star Wars Celebration Europe, and we had backstage passes,
and I was very cheeky and asked Kathleen Kennedy
if they were making a film,
and they needed any droids, contact me.
And then, a few months later, I got an e-mail.
And here we are.
LEE TOWERSEY: Oliver kindly invited me to join him on board with this job.
Coming here on a daily basis, five days a week,
I don't take it for granted any second I'm here.
It is unbelievable.
TOWERSEY: Anthony Daniels came over mid-shoot
and said what a good job we'd done.
And how they compared to the old ones. He was impressed.
Which was a big compliment from someone
that's worked with so many R2-D2s.
(BEEPING)
C-3PO: BB-8.
- You're wasting your time. - (CHIRPING)
DANIELS: In the first film, in Episode IV, Threepio, his left leg, it was silver.
And the idea was that Threepio had a history.
Star Wars didn't just happen out of nowhere.
It wasn't page one of a new story.
But you were tuning into a chapter here.
Move forward, and J.J. takes that idea several notches higher.
ABRAMS: I wanted to make sure that when you saw Threepio
in The Force Awakens,
that you knew it was from this era and this moment.
I wanted to mark him in a way.
DANIELS: Threepio, he has a red arm.
Because something's happened to him in the last 30 years.
The rebels have had all sorts of dramas.
And one of his was, clearly, losing a limb.
And then,
"Hey, here's one. It's not the right color, but we'll spray it later."
ABRAMS: And the idea was
he's been burdened with this damn red appendage.
And by the end of the movie, he's gotten his arm back.
He's got his proper arm reinstalled.
The story as to how he got his red arm is actually going to be in a comic book
that they're doing as a separate piece.
I'm the custodian of Princess Leia, so it's my job to protect her.
It's my whole life.
So I was very nervous.
The first day I had was this massive scene.
I was scared that I would make mistakes,
and I made mistakes.
This droid may be the one chance we have of finding my brother.
ABRAMS: She hadn't acted in a while.
I think she was nervous going into this.
FISHER: It was basically the worst day I've ever had on a film set in my life.
Then it ended, and I got to go to sleep
and come in another day, and it was better.
Dude, that was so good.
ABRAMS: Once we started to do it, she seemed to fall into it very easily.
To bring a character to life that you hadn't played in 30-some years.
I understand for all of them, how daunting that could be.
Carrie's an amazing and unique person.
I'm trying to be helpful.
(CHUCKLES)
When did that ever help? And don't say the Death Star.
FORD: We don't see each other that frequently when we 're not working,
so it was fun to catch up.
They've written some really interesting scenes for us.
You could always see him clearer than I did.
I don't know what I saw.
FISHER: Can you imagine those two people together?
They were good initially, and then they reverted to type.
I went back to the only thing I was ever any good at.
We both did.
ABRAMS: It's about these two people who loved each other,
who came together,
but whose natures were always very different.
The idea of Han remaining in one place is hard to imagine.
The idea that Leia would stop fighting for the cause and the greater good,
that's hard to imagine.
But they had this kid who was born with equal parts good and evil.
He is someone who is broken.
KYLO REN: Forgive me.
I feel it again.
The pull to the light.
DRIVER: There's nothing more powerful than genetics.
If you really imagine the stakes of him in his youth
having all these special powers
and having your parents be absent during that process,
with their own agendas, equally as selfish.
He's lost in the world that he was raised in
and feels that he was abandoned by the people that he's closest with.
He's angry because of that, I think.
And he has a huge grudge on his shoulders.
ABRAMS: But it's more than just having a bad seed as a kid.
Snoke had targeted this kid,
knew that this kid was gonna be incredibly powerful in the Force
and wanted him as an ally.
So this mother and father had a target for a son.
Someone was watching their boy.
And these parents aren't there enough to guide him.
You're his father.
There is still light in him, I know it.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(MOUTHING)
- I get it. I get it. - But it could be...
I mean, she could be like this...
(CHUCKLING)
ABRAMS: The fun of celebrating
the return of these characters that we know
is certainly a part of this movie.
But I never felt like we were telling a story
about Leia, Luke, or Han, necessarily.
It felt like a story about a generational handoff.
That this was really a story about Rey, about Finn,
about Poe, about Kylo Ren.
And you can't have that handoff without cost.
Background!
Action.
You know, no matter how much we fought...
I've always hated watching you leave.
ABRAMS: It needed to serve this purpose of
giving our new characters the mantle.
And that was a big, scary decision.
If you see our son...
bring him home.
KASDAN: So we had to deal with that.
There was a lot of discussion about it.
J.J. and I went back and forth and talked about a lot of different things.
And this is where we came.
It was the scene that, I think, terrified me the most.
And yet it was an absolutely critical part of the story.
And mostly, perhaps, for the villain of the piece.
FORD: His destiny is resolved
in a powerful and effective way.
Right. And you go over there.
And then three, two, one, two. And that's yours.
DRIVER: I remember a specific time, walking on set with Harrison,
and him saying, "Look what we get to do."
For me, that was an amazing moment.
'Cause he's someone who has accomplished so much.
He's just as in awe of the process and feels so lucky to be involved in it.
It's a very inspiring thing.
Bang!
FORD: I enjoyed playing the character in the first.
I enjoyed playing the character in the second.
By the time we got to the third,
I thought there was possibly no useful purpose for this character
except as a human sacrifice.
It's not that I wanted Han Solo to die.
I wanted Han Solo to be able to
lend some significant emotional weight to the story.
I was resolved to be useful,
and to pass on the responsibilities to others and get out of the way.
When you say, "Do you have the detonator?"
Joonas, you should hold that thing up.
Yeah, make sure... Like that.
KENNEDY: We spent a lot of time
keeping as few people as possible on the set.
It's a serious scene.
It was emotional. It was emotional for the actors,
both Harrison and Adam Driver.
DRIVER: I wanted to avoid that scene as much as possible.
I was also very excited to do it.
But to go to that place,
what it brought up in myself was a lot.
ABRAMS: And, action!
We're not kidding here. This is serious stuff.
And we wanted it to be right.
You have all those things that are going on in your head.
But that really goes away when you're staring across from that other person.
Ben!
The unique and very deeply emotional
and troubling way in which
Han Solo meets his fate,
I thought, gives an incredible opportunity
and helps realize the full potential of the character
that Adam Driver plays.
DRIVER: He was so generous that
there really wasn't much I had to do, other than respond to him.
(INAUDIBLE)
I don't even wanna think how people are going to react to that.
It was a necessary component.
This is not just The Force Awakens in a young woman,
this is the dark side of the Force awakening in the villain.
ABRAMS: So, ladies and gentlemen,
this is a moment for me to acknowledge
a man who was a hero to us before this movie,
but he's even more so today.
And I cannot thank you enough for the gift of you in this movie.
We love you. Harrison Ford, ladies and gentlemen.
- (WHOOPING) - (CHEERING)
(WHISTLING)
Luke Skywalker was, for me, always the way into Star Wars.
This movie was always very much about getting to him.
CARTER: If you imagine a place where
the Jedi Order could have actually first emerged,
that's what led me to Skellig Island at the end of this movie.
Because this is a place that emerged in 600 AD
as a Christian retreat from the world.
(INAUDIBLE)
HAMILL: It's an ancient site of a monastery.
And it's like nothing you've ever seen. Ever.
ABRAMS: And only 50 people could go onto the island.
It's a very small island.
And there were 600-and-some steps to the top.
And everything had to be brought up by hand.
HAMILL: And once you get up there, boy, it's so beautiful
and so magical.
There was a point where I was as off to myself as you could be,
and I was far down the path, and the ocean beyond,
and this feeling came over me that hadn't happened since Tunisia
on the very first one.
Because I was there out in the desert,
and I had this really strong feeling that
I was in an otherworldly place.
'Cause you really felt, "I'm there."
RIDLEY: Skellig was the first meeting of Rey and Luke.
And so late on, there's such a big buildup.
HAMILL: There's a real ambiguity as to what his reaction is.
I think he has great reservations.
He's really conflicted. Who knows?
We'll have to wait and see.
ABRAMS: While this was never his story, this movie,
it was all about him.
It was all about how critical Luke is to the continuation of this amazing story.
So what I'm most excited about is
the story of Luke Skywalker and where it goes.
I think, for many people, a marker is Star Wars.
I know it's a film.
But, actually, it means much more than that.
For me, Star Wars seemed like
a kind of universe that might accept me.
There might be a place for me in that universe.
FISHER: People love it so much.
It is a family experience.
That's what it is, it's not even a movie.
Just families do Star Wars together.
It's a verb.
I don't think there's anything quite like it in the history of film.
We have the opportunity over decades to
take the same material and use it again,
and add something to it,
and re-voice it and rework it.
It's been a challenge, and it's been fun,
and it's been certainly a privilege.
I think, in the end, I have to say that I just feel very grateful.
HAMILL: This is like an opportunity to thank everyone
for a lifetime of support, of love.
If it weren't for the fans,
we wouldn't be sitting here.
And I've never forgotten that.
ABRAMS: The other day, I was looking at that original poster,
and I was remembering, there was something about Star Wars
that made me feel like anything was possible.
When you see that star field,
it felt like every point of light was a story.
The value that people place in these stories is deep and abiding.
These stories have been passed down in families
from generation to generation.
It becomes valuable as a family experience,
and so it's passed on like family history.
REY: We'll see each other again.
I believe that.