Little by little we’re learning more about J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the next film in the Star Wars franchise. Following Andy Serkis speaking about the film, Oscar Isaac spoke to Yahoo about the audition process, life as an X-Wing pilot, and fan theories about the film.
We know very little about Isaac’s role in the movie (as with everything regarding this movie) other than the fact that he’s playing Poe Dameron, an X-Wing Pilot for the Rebel Alliance. We can presume he’s a good guy, and several fans are speculating that he’ll join John Boyega’s Finn and Daisy Ridley’s Rey to form a new trio.
Abrams is famous for cloaking his projects in secrecy, and that includes the audition process. Isaac wasn’t even sent the script to read beforehand.
“You go to the place, and they have a room with cameras and you sit there and read the script. They’re incredibly protective, because nowadays, with however many hundreds of blogs and this and that, people are just ravenous for content. So because of that, there has to be such tight security around it. And it gets in the way of the process a bit, but it’s understandable.”
While elevated security can be frustrating (just look at Abrams’ last project, Star Trek: Into Darkness), we appreciate it for this film.
Abrams even addressed fans directly, asking them not to leak or spoil anything. It didn’t entirely stop people, of course, but Isaac seems to be in agreement with his director.
“I can’t speak for the cast and crew, I can just speak for myself, but for me I thought, ‘Don’t you want to wait so you can get the real thing?’ But it creates excitement for it. I don’t think these little leaks necessarily ruined watching the trailer. And also, the [plot theories] that get that formulated based on these things — they couldn’t be more far off-base.”
It’s interesting that he directly addresses fan speculation and states that it’s wrong. Actors have been known to outright lie about secretive projects in the past, or maybe we really don’t know anything about the next adventure in a galaxy far, far away. That uncertainty definitely makes it more exciting, although nothing will stop fans (and us) from wondering.
One thing we don’t have to wonder about is Isaac’s excitement over piloting an X-Wing.
“It was hard to believe that I was actually sitting in there and doing that. And it’s physical. You have to kind of get in touch with that child again that had a little X-Wing and would fly around his room making crazy sounds, you had to tap into that spirit again and that was a lot fun. There was a lot of practical effects. A lot of the stuff they actually made. There wasn’t a lot of green screen.”
That last bit information is unsurprising, especially after Mark Hamill confirmed that the droid BB-8 is a practical effect. Abrams is definitely embracing the weathered but advanced feel of the original trilogy, rather than the shiny and plastic-looking aesthetic of the prequels (which, to be fair, was the look to go for at the time).
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, and Gwendoline Christie, is set to come out on December 18, 2015.
This is a lot of information, so what do you think? Are you excited to see Oscar Isaac in the film? How badly do you want to pilot an X-Wing? Let us know in the comments!
