Updated – Extra! Extra! Juicy Info On Star Wars: The Force Awakens From an Extra!
We received a tip from a dedicated FakingStarWars reader that an extra who acted in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was holding a Q&A on Reddit last night. After the jump you can see our compilation of what went down and what details were revealed. SPOILER ALERT!
Here is the original Reddit link from where we got this from. Supposedly this poster worked at Pinewood Studios for the day, we will call him, “Short Round.”
Short Round: Hello, I was one of the many background performers to work on the new Star Wars film. I had a phenomenal experience, and I was able to work alongside some very talented actors including Carrie Fisher! Ask me anything about my time on set and I will try my best to answer!
Here is the costume I had worn
Reddit reader: Seems legit. Were you one of the “pirates” (as they’ve been described on other sites)? If so, or if not, who was your character, or what was their affiliation? Can you describe what scenes you took part in, as well as any dialogue that happened? What were the other actors (main and supporting) wearing?
Short Round: I never heard any mention of pirates lol. Our description on the call sheet was just “Book Keepers” and there were quite a few others dressed similarly to myself, some without the fur piece and others with capes. The set was rather large and was made to look like a big hall with large stone pillars, there were many large bookshelf pieces which had blue screen on them as well. The two actresses were the lovely Carrie Fisher and Lupita Nyongo and the scene from what I gathered was about Lupita’s character consulting Carrie (Leia, who is now some sort of higher up) some important enemy information. Unfortunately I do not remember the dialogue due to the position I was in. For clothing, Lupita wore a black one piece robe that had big yellow patterned stitching on the bottom and a hood. Carrie wore white dress/poncho looking gown and her hair was in one long ponytail.
Hope this answered your questions!
EDIT: almost forgot, there were a few other extras that looked military, looked like a modern version of WW2 attire
Reddit reader: Hmm sounds like Lupita might be a politician
Short Round: She definitely carried herself as such.
Reddit reader: Was Lupita a human character or was she in makeup as an alien? If the latter, what did she look like?
Short Round: Human!
Reddit reader: What was Leia up to in the scenes you were in?
Short Round: Looking fantastic for her age lol! Her and Lupita Nyongo were walking and having a conversation about something I cannot recall other than “important information about the enemy”, which was the synopsis on the call sheet.
Reddit reader: Have you worked on any films before? Were they doing less takes than usual? More takes than usual? How was the atmosphere compared to films you worked on before, and what info were you given as an extra? Was there any green screen and where? Any puppets?
Short Round: I have worked on many films, mostly extra work. The scene was quite brief, only around 2 pages, but took a good 3 hours to film which is not too bad at all. No puppets, but a fair amount of blue screen.
Reddit reader: How was the atmosphere? Will Force Awakens be on par with the OT series?
EDIT: Needed to be more specific.
Short Round: Very professorial but lighthearted. I can’t comment on the quality of the movie as a whole, but the fact that they shot on film really intrigued me.
Is this fake? Maybe. Probably. Let’s see where the Fake-O-Meter rates it…
Whelp, it agrees with me. 3 stars on the Faking Star Scale for probably fake.
UPFAKE! Short Round returns and has anwered some more questions!
Reddit reader: How did you get a picture of it? Wasn’t security tight?
Short Round: Wardrobe takes pictures of our costumes for continuity sake, all I did was ask for a copy of the photo.
Reddit reader: Did you get to talk to Carrie or Lupita? If you did, what were they like and how were they feeling?
Short Round: I talked to Carrie briefly, she was wonderful and very funny. She was very excited to be back for the new films.
Reddit reader: What was the blue screen to actual set ratio?
Short Round: Percentage wise, about 80% practical. I believe the blue screen was just used to fill the space that will be painted over to make the hall seem larger.
Reddit reader: Is it possible that you’re confusing Lupita Nyong’o with Maisie Richardson Sellers?
Short Round: I can say with confidence that it was Lupita.
More on this as this extra continuing answering questions.
