Book of Boba Fett Star Didn’t Know What Show She Was On
One star of The Book of Boba Fett didn't know what show she was working on!
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The Star Wars franchise is home to one of the best kept cinematic secrets of all time — that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father. So, it shouldn’t be too much of a shock that productions from the franchise continue to give a high priority to secrecy. Still, hearing about just how secret things can get is often as surprising as the reveals themselves. Case in point — Jennifer Beals, who plays a Twi’lek in the upcoming The Book of Boba Fett, says she did not even know what series she was on when she first showed up for work.
Last week, Beals told Variety that while she knew about her character and that she was working on a Star Wars production, at first she had no clue about the series. Asked about how much she was told about her character, Beals answered she knew plenty but, “this is how good they are at the lockdown of secrets: Even when I first stepped onto the set, I didn’t realize that I was in The Book of Boba Fett. I just knew that I was getting to be part of this story.”
Jennifer Beals, known best for the iconic 1983 dance drama Flashdance, is herself indicative of just how secretive the production of The Book of Boba Fett has been. With the series premiere only a little over a week from streaming on Disney+, Beals remains the only recognizable actor other than series leads Temuera Morrison or Ming-Na Wen in the various TV spots and trailers. In fact, Beals is the only actor listed on the series’ IMDb page other than the leads, and her character’s name isn’t even listed. Of course, that hasn’t stopped stopped the speculation that everyone from Pedro Pascal to Harrison Ford might show up.
Surprisingly, Beals did reveal a little bit about her The Book of Boba Fett character. Her interviewer mentioned that while most Twi’lek are enslaved in the Star Wars universe, in the trailer her character is dressed expensively as if she were a “person of stature.” Like an uncooperative witness at a Senate hearing, Beals responded, “I would say that’s fair, just to summarize it that way.”
There was also an interesting, frustratingly cryptic exchange about Jennifer Beals’ character just before the “stature” comment. The interviewer reminded Beals that Bib Fortuna — likely, the most well-known Twi’lek in Star Wars — is murdered by Boba Fett in the post-credits scene of The Mandalorian‘s season 2 finale. The interviewer then said, “Please remain silent if that is significant for your character.” Beals then repeated the “Please remain silent” sentence back to the interviewer, clearly not comfortable with the question.
Beals told Variety that for her, being cast in The Book of Boba Fett brought her to a world in which she previously found a deep connection. She said while she was by no means an expert on Star Wars lore, that hearing about the Force in the first 1977 movie represented for her the beginnings of her “understanding of the universe.” She said when hearing Obi-Wan instructLuke Skywalker about the Force, she thought, “that’s what this thing is this, this energy that, that I will feel sometimes if I’m in the forest or I’m focusing.”
We’ll get to learn more about Jennifer Beals’ Twi’lek character soon. The first episode of The Book of Boba Fett will stream on Disney+ next Wednesday, December 29. Along with Beals, the premiere will star Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett, Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, and almost definitely a whole bunch of people behind lots of prosthetics.
