The Rise Of Skywalker Directing Choice Star Wars Actors Turned Into A Joke
All these years later, most Star Wars fans are still trying to figure out what went wrong with The Rise of Skywalker. The full set of answers to that particular question might be enough to fill its nine-film saga, but it seems that one of the biggest issues was the directing choices of J.J. Abrams. In an interview, Daisy Ridley revealed that the Rise of Skywalker director would ask actors to try doing scenes without dialogue, something the cast soon turned into a joke.
We Need A Blooper Reel
The final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy is full of dialogue, some of it stupider than we ever imagined possible (somehow, awful writing returned). How, then, would doing scenes with no dialogue even work? According to Ridley, Abrams “would ask us to do the scene without speaking, just to feel the emotional… whatever.”
As it turns out, “whatever” is a good summation of this exercise because the various Rise of Skywalker actors who tried to do this eventually realized what a joke it really was. “It became a joke,” Ridley said, “because we would just wet ourselves laughing.” Abrams’ instructions would so reliably lead to silliness on set that Ridley told the director, “You have to do a bloopers reel.”
Intentional Humor Might Be A Good Thing
In case you’re wondering, in The Rise of Skywalker, lead actor Ridley made a joke about Abrams’ exercise just as badly (if not worse) than everyone else in the cast. “I couldn’t keep my sh*t together at all,” she confessed. With this context, we have to agree with Ridley that a blooper compilation of these takes would be fun to see…plus, it would be fun for this film to make us laugh on purpose for once.
J.J. Abrams’ Vague Instructions
Of course, J.J. Abrams didn’t intend for his directing exercise for The Rise of Skywalker to turn into a joke, so what was the actual purpose of these strange instructions? According to Ridley, the director told the cast, “You never know what could come up.” This was likely unintentional, but it sounds like Abrams’ vague instructions to his actors are very reminiscent of George Lucas infamously telling actors in the first Star Wars film to run scenes again but only “faster and more intense.”
Leave Improv To The Comedy Troupes
If we had to use The Force to read between the lines here, it sounds like Abrams was trying to give the film something of a quasi-improvisational air. Had this strange directing exercise gone well, it might have led to actors like Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver discovering new motivations for their characters and new emotional depths they could channel onscreen.
It’s an okay idea on paper, but it seems to provide more proof (as if we needed it) that everyone involved with the Sequel Trilogy should have planned more and left fewer things to chance.
Abram’s Instinct Was Off This Time
In telling her Rise of Skywalker story, Ridley wasn’t trying to dunk on Abrams by discussing how the cast turned his big idea into a joke. Nonetheless, she revealed a dark irony hidden in this final film: one of the reasons Disney brought Abrams back was that The Force Awakens director had a good handle on the characters, but he ended up resorting to sad film school tricks in the hopes that his underwritten characters might finally find motivation.
Congrats, Abrams…we didn’t think you could end things worse than Lost, but like Anakin Skywalker, you’ve proven yourself full of surprises.
