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Exclusive J.J. Abrams Interview: STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

We are so excited about STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS!! This week I will be sharing my exclusive cast interviews, so if you are a STAR WARS fan, stay tuned for some exciting coverage including this exclusive J.J. Abrams interview!

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This week, I have shared my exclusive interview with Harrison Ford, AKA Han Solo Daisy Ridley who plays Rey and John Boyega who plays Stormtrooper Finn. I also shared my interview with Producer & President of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy and my interview with Oscar Isaac (Poe) & Lupita Nyong’o (Maz).

Disney provided me with an expense paid trip to Los Angeles for the #StarWarsEvent in exchange for my coverage of the events of the trip. No other compensation was given. All opinions, experiences, memories and character crushes are 100% my own. 

Today, I am sharing my interview with J.J. Abrams, the director, writer & Producer of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. This was such a fun interview and I really enjoyed J.J.’s perspectives and passion for this film. I think you will too, here’s a bit of what he had to say:

J.J. Abrams On growing up watching Star Wars movies

J.J. was not quite 11 when the first Star Wars movie was released. When asked how this influenced his role as director, he answered:

Of course, it did because it was something that meant so much to me for so long.  The thing is that it’s because it’s been engrained in sort of all of our conscientiousness for so long that it’s become a birthright to just know Star Wars, you know. You’re born, you know what a lightsaber is, who Darth Vader is, you understand that. At three years old, kids talk about Star Wars in a way that is so eerie, because you think how could you possibly know so much? And somehow they do and even those kids who haven’t played the games and seen the shows, I don’t know how it is that they understand Star Wars immediately.

My job wasn’t to be a fan boy or an 11 year old kid. It was to be a nearly 50 year old movie director, so I tried to approach this thing from a point of view of obviously acknowledging how much I love what George Lucas created, but understand that being a fan doesn’t make the story work. Being a fan doesn’t make the scenes any good. Being a fan is great, but we all had to be story tellers and filmmakers.

I was surrounded by people like Lawrence Kasdan, who’d written obviously the original Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi, and actors who had been there from the beginning, all the way through visual effects and sound to, of course, John Williams. Who collaborating with him, is like cheating, because he speaks to our soul with music in a way that I think is super-human. And so the whole process was really about trying to love it but also be hard on it, so that the story meant something and was emotional and not just a fan film.Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 10.58.36 AM

On collaborating with Lin-Manuel Miranda

When asked how the music collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda for came about, J.J. explained:

Our 17 year old son and I went to see Hamilton, which if you haven’t seen it, is one of the great experiences of all time, which cannot be oversold. And you hear crazy hyperbolic language being used about it, and then you go to see it, and it’s better than anyone described it, and gets better as it goes, which is impossible. At intermission, I was thinking it can’t possibly continue at this level, and it just gets better.

And then I was distracted at intermission by a tap on my shoulder and I turned around it was Lin-Manuel Miranda, who normally stars in this thing he wrote the songs for, but this night it was his understudy. And he said “Hi.” And I was like, “Oh, my God. Do you understand what you’ve done?” He’s like “yes.” And I was just, you know, essentially fawning over him and he said in this jokey, off-hand way, “if you need music for the cantina, you know, I’m happy to do it.” And it was so weird because a couple weeks earlier, John Williams had said to me he really wanted to focus on the score.  There’s a lot of music in the movie.

And this one scene in the film which is essentially, if we have a version of a kind of cantina scene,  if like someone I work with said Star Wars is a Western, there’s a sort of a salon in every Western, and this was our saloon. And John said, you know, I’d rather not work on this music because I have so much other score to do, and this is really source music. I was like, alright. I thought crap, what are we gonna do and I started working on something as I’m sort of a hobbyist musician myself.

So I was working on a piece of music. Anyway, Miranda says this to me, I can’t believe it. So I email Lynn and I say listen, “I know you were joking, but the truth is we sort of have a need for some music in the scene, if you’re serious.” And he emails back. He’s like “I’ll drop everything.” I’m like “oh, my God. You’re kidding me!”  And so we started collaborating on this music and we both use the same music software and we have dropbox and we would send files back and forth. And we came up with this, this piece of music, actually two pieces of music for this sequence, and to get to work with him was preposterously fun. 

How directing this film came to be

It was Kathleen Kennedy, who I’ve known for a long time and she called and asked if I was interested in working on Star Wars. And, of course, you know, it was a very surreal question and it was very flattering. And my answer was no. Partly because Katie, my wife, and I had plans to take our kids away. I’d been working on a lot of back-to-back projects for a while. Partly because I’d worked on a number of sequels, and it felt like enough is enough. And partly because I care about Star Wars so much that the idea of taking it on felt, you know, like a kind of a thing that I couldn’t imagine, and intimidating.

And so I said no thank you, and she said “can we get together?” I said “yes.” And when Kathy Kennedy and you get together, she’ll convince you of whatever it is she wants you to. And she just was amazing and basically said this was going to be an opportunity to continue the story since Return of the Jedi. And I just, as we were talking, I realized this is 30-some years after the fact, the main characters would have been born 10 to 15 years after that movie. 

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They’d be looking back on what we know of the story, that it would be ancient history for kids who were 19, 20 years old. What do they know? What do they believe? And what do they believe in? And the idea of finding these young people who exist in a Star Wars universe was so compelling to me, and that feeling of re-discovering a world and a feeling that was so powerful for growing up, was undeniable. And after the meeting, I went downstairs and found Katie, my wife, and I just said “I think I really want to do this.”

And she said “Really?” I said “yes.” And she said, “You know, this is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. And, you know, you really need to consider it, if this is something you want to do.” And I did and it wasn’t an easy for us, you know, our family, my company, Bad Robot. 

There were a lot of issues that came with it and yet I knew that as challenging as it would be that if we could do it right, that it could be an extraordinary situation and an amazing experience, and in every category from prep and figuring out the story and, and writing the script with Lawrence Kasdan and designing the movie and shooting it and editing it and doing post and scoring it.

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Tell us  more about BB-8 and how he came to be

What happened was we were working on the story, trying to figure out, we knew we had a droid that was gonna be a critical piece of the puzzle, but we didn’t know if he was going to be sort of bi-pedal, like 3PO, or roll around like R2 or some other thing. And I just had this idea that  if we had a sphere and then a semi-sphere on top, you could get quite a bit of expression without a face. 

And so I drew a sketch of BB-8, um, and I had the eye and little antenna and everything and it didn’t have a color pattern and it didn’t have all the critical details that Neal and his team brought in, but I sent that to Neal Scanlan and he began to come up with designs that would sort of follow that. And it was amazing how quickly it looked like it could work. I didn’t know if they would be able to create something that could be performed on camera, which I knew was going to be important.

And they did, and I will never forget the first day that we came to their offices to see BB-8 being performed after we had agreed on design, scale and everything.  We walked in and Brian, the puppeteer, came out and wheeled out BB-8 on his rig. And literally within seconds, Brian disappeared, like he was right there, but it was like he wasn’t there and this thing was looking around, curious and you could feel the soul because Brian was imbuing him with life.

And every time we weren’t shooting and we were on a break, and BB-8 was just sort of sitting there and not being performed, it was like heartbreaking, because he was this like inert thing and you were like “where is he?” And then Brian would get him, and you’d be like, “There he is.” And it was this very odd and very important thing, but it was a result of Neal Scanlan and his amazing team.  

J.J. Abrams next project…

I knew getting involved in this project was an honor. I knew that my role would be as temporary guardian of this saga. I knew also as I was working on it that if the movie works, what a great time to step down. And if the movie doesn’t work, who wants me to work on the next one anyway, you know? So it was win-win. 

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS in theaters December 18, 2015!

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Can’t get enough of the STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS excitement? Check out my post from the STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS press junket which includes fun new merchandise photos, costumes, a BB-8 video and more!

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Trailer

Make sure to keep up with all of the latest STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS excitement!!
Follow STAR WARS on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The STAR WARS:THE FORCE AWAKENS website is also an awesome resource for fans!

Photo credits to Disney and MomStart.com

Remember! STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS in theaters December 18, 2015!

Meet the author – Keri Lyn

The creative and frugal mind behind She Saved for over 12 years now, Keri Lyn shares her adventures in parenting along with her love for family travel, country living and brand marketing. A self-proclaimed “brand loyalist”, Keri Lyn is known for her strong and enthusiastic voice when it comes to the products and brands that she loves. She Saved has become a community for like-minded consumers who appreciate saving money, time and sanity by getting the best deals on quality products and experiences.

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