Adam Driver is back as Kylo Ren in the latest Star Wars film, “The Last Jedi”.
I caught up with him to chat about the global impact of Star Wars, his initial fears when taking on the role and the power of his costume and the light sabre.
“He skips straight to what Vader became (later in life), which is a villain who has more of a connection to a hero and is not just someone to be vanquished. He’s someone who’s going to take a more complicated journey.”
I was reading a French Star Wars magazine and suddenly there was an excerpt from a Kathleen Kennedy interview concerning Kylo Ren that I found pretty interesting. She discusses the character, makes parallels with our contemporary world, and at the end I had the impression she wasn’t talking about him as a villain, but as someone who still has to grow and who’s definitely good inside, or at least not bad at all (this is pretty hilarious when you think about all the absurd Kylo Ren drama we have here on tumblr…)
I don’t know if she has talked about this in other interviews, it’s probably the case, but I’ll leave this here for discussion.
I’ve made a rough translation of the French excerpt (English to French to English, feel the irony), probably not the best translation, but at least you’ll have the general idea :
“[Q] You really wanted Adam Driver for this role. What made him the perfect Kylo Ren ?
[KK] I had the opportunity to work with Adam on Lincoln. That was our first met. From the moment we started to think about this character, Kylo Ren, Adam was an obvious choice to me, and one of the few actors who could play him. J.J didn’t know him as well as I did, but he was immediately convinced when they met. He was one of the first actors we had considered for the role and it was an early decision. One of the most interesting aspects of Kylo Ren is his young age. Most of the time, villains are damaged, troubled and older. Making the new Star Wars villain a 30 years old man was a captivating choice. We could take advantage from a troubled adolescence and a past we know very little about. There we could find this tension between light and dark which dominates all the Star Wars universe. We could use it as a metaphor for the path that leads a young adult to his accomplished adult life. The characters who can be drawn to the dark side and seduced by all sorts of experiences that might be dangerous are compelling for us. For today’s audience it’s an original, fascinating and appealing character.
When we look at our own lives, it all depends on the choices we’ve made. Kylo Ren seems to have taken many bad decisions, but they aren’t necessarily bad decisions within the context of Star Wars, where they can lead to almost anything. This story reflects the real world. Many kids evolve in a political environment that can be difficult to decipher, and many events suggest that people are drawn to danger, trouble and agitation. In terms of international policy, there’s a sense that we live a time full of upheavals. The political structure of the Star Wars narratives reflects this in a unique way. Kylo Ren represents this dark side of society that can be appealing when we don’t know which side to choose and right and wrong become very vague concepts. All these aspects make Kylo Ren a really complex character and offer us many different options for future plots.”
Emphasis are mine. But seriously. Seriously. If Kylo Ren really is, for the writers, an image of our contemporary youth searching for answers, making mistakes and trying to grow in a chaotic world, who can simply imagine that he will die unredeemed, and that the message of this new trilogy won’t be a message of hope ?
I leave the original French text and the references under the cut for those who are interested.
I just want to point out this excerpt from an Adam Driver interview to the many rude, angry anons I’ve received, re. identifying with Kylo Ren as a character.
“Which of the characters that you play, do you feel is most similar to Adam Driver the person?”
Adam went with Kylo Ren: “I think that character makes sense to me. The family dynamic and desperately wanting family to be a part of his life and not getting it. You know, the anxiety and a lot of anger that that creates, that lasts a lifetime. You know, when we finished that, I was like oh, that felt like we made it personal.”
This interview wasn’t even about Star Wars, it was to promote Paterson – a film set in the US, in the present day, in which Adam plays a charming and artistic character of his age with a beautiful wife and cute dog. But he wanted to talk about Kylo Ren first, in response to that question.
So if you have an issue, please take it up with the people who took their time and talent to tell this character’s story. Not the fans for simply loving it.
Playbill:Was it difficult portraying your character in Slipping? An old saw says that every actor finds a way to like the person he’s playing. Chris is a tortured, closeted jock who treats the central character, Eli, very badly.
Adam Driver: To me, it seemed Chris was struggling with having to deal with addiction. He’s addicted to Eli. That was something that resonated for me. It’s something that he knows isn’t tolerated in his circle of friends — a homosexual relationship. Yet he wants it so badly. That struggle resonates with me and interests me. So it wasn’t very hard to really get excited to dive into that mindset.
[…]
Playbill: Has your experience as a Marine helped you as an actor, discipline-wise?
AD: I think definitely. I think some of my best theatre training has been in the Marine Corps. Not only meeting a bunch of characters, but growing up. You’re in really adult situations at a young age, as far as being in charge of people. I was in the infantry, so I think our concept of life was very different from normal people in college at that time. That kind of discipline makes you grow up quick, and helps you at times like now when you have to be coming out of the gate at Juilliard. You have to be forward-moving and able to balance a lot of things at the same time. I attribute a lot of that to the Marine Corps and Juilliard both.
Playbill: I guess compared to the Marines, the perils of the New York acting scene don’t look so daunting.
AD:Right. The only difference, I suppose, is me getting up at five o’clock in the morning, as opposed to someone yelling at me to get up at five o’clock in the morning.
I Called it in early 2016. The twist? There is no twist. Rey is no one. Daisy said it multiplie times in interviews….
Plus this was the exact storyline for Bladerunner 2049 with K. Audience thinks and believes with K that he is born from some important replicant. Twist ? He is no one.
Reylo Source 