Kathleen Kennedy Performed L3-37’s Motion Capture For Solo
The most polarizing new Star Wars character since Jar Jar Binks may have just taken the top spot — courtesy of the woman on top! FSW has learned that L3-37, the curvy hipped droids rights activist featured in Solo: A Star Wars Story was actually a collaboration between English comedian Phoebe Waller-Bridge, ILM, and none other than Kathleen Kennedy herself. That’s right. The president of Lucasfilm performed the motion capture for the “woke” droid, which Red Letter Media referred to as the galaxy’s first SJD — Social Justice Droid.
Sources tell us Kennedy insisted on getting hands-on in bringing the progressive droid to life, much to the dismay of original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
“They were playing L3-37 as a tongue-in-cheek jab at the overly political nature of Star Wars under Disney. But Kathleen doesn’t really get comedy, least of all satire or parody, so she had no clue. In her head, this new droid was going to be taken seriously and spark conversations about AI and ultimately lead to greater representation for erotic machines,” said a source close to the production.
It wasn’t until screenwriters Jon and Lawrence Kasdan saw dailies featuring Waller-Bridge improvising all sorts of over-the-top ad libs that Kennedy caught wind of what Lord and Miller had done. As a result, she fired the duo on the spot, despite having worked closely with them for several weeks on the droid’s movements.
“Lord and Miller egged her on, to sway her hips and do all these ‘talk to the hand’ gestures and generally be a sassy droid… but they were trolling her the entire time. They even told her that the droid’s name L3-37 was chosen because it’s what pansexual millennial hackers say these days to identify the most elite, most progressive among them.”
As one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, Kennedy was in a pickle. She could not be seen as having performed a droid who pokes fun at everything she’s tried to do since taking over the Star Wars brand. Namely, add greater representation and diversity beyond straight white males to the fictional universe. Unfortunately for Kennedy, given the exorbitant costs of having Ron Howard reshoot most of the live action again, Kennedy had no choice but to leave L3 in the film. There was one silver lining though: Kennedy found someone else to take credit for her motion capture performance. It’s safe to say we will never see a droid as bizarre and schizophrenic as L3-37 again.
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