Category: people

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Filming on Skellig Michael brought back memories for Mark Hamill

tfa-hamillIn today’s Empire tidbit, Mark Hamill doesn’t give us any hints to the film itself (Because Mark Hamill can keep a damn secret,) but he does share an interest parallel:

“It reminded me of when I was in Tunisia on the salt flats [shooting the first Star Wars]. If you could get into your own mind and shut out the crew and look at the horizon, you really felt like you were in a galaxy far, far away. I had that same wave of emotion happen to me when I was on Skellig Michael in Ireland. I wasn’t anticipating it.”

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Carrie Fisher to Daisy Ridley: “Fight for your outfit.”

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Carrie Fisher interviews Daisy Ridley in the latest issue of Interview. It’s super-charming, and Fisher passes on some important advice regarding slave outfits, “sex symbols” and fandom. The pull quote, however, is certainly going to be the slave outfit stuff:

RIDLEY: No, they always talk about how you’re a sex symbol, and how do I feel about that. [Fisher sighs] I’m not a sex symbol! [laughs]

FISHER: Listen! I am not a sex symbol, so that’s an opinion of someone. I don’t share that.

RIDLEY: I don’t think that’s the right—

FISHER: Word for it? Well, you should fight for your outfit. Don’t be a slave like I was.

RIDLEY: All right, I’ll fight.

FISHER: You keep fighting against that slave outfit.

RIDLEY: I will.

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Video: Harrison Ford wears hot dog costume, talks about Star Wars, plane crash with Jimmy Kimmel

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Noted Halloween costume wearer Harrison Ford dressed like a hot dog for his Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance. He’s not revealing any The Force Awakens secrets, but he says the film is “really, really good” and praises the new cast members.


He also talked about his on-set accident at Pinewood:


And his California plane crash:


Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega and director J.J. Abrams will be on a special The Force Awakens-centric episode of Kimmel the night of November 23rd.

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Kathleen Kennedy: “We will eventually hire a woman who directs a Star Wars movie.”

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Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was among those who spoke at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit today, where she addressed the number of women at Lucasfilm (particularly on the Story Group) and said that she’s confident that there will be a woman directing a Star Wars film one day.

“I have a huge number of men who call me,” she says. “And tell me how much of a Star Wars fan they are, how much they want to get involved in anything to do with Star Wars. I don’t have a lot of women who call.”

It’s a strong parallel to points made in an essay by actress Jennifer Lawrence that came out today, about getting paid less than her male co-stars.

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Spielberg expects Ford for Indiana Jones 5

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While promoting his new film Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks, director Steven Spielberg mentioned his hope to work with Harrison Ford on a fifth Indiana Jones film. In a chat with Yahoo Movies, Spielberg mentions his collaborations with Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks:

“We’ve gotta figure this out because now, Tom is tied with Harrison Ford: Harrison and I did four movies, Tom and I have done four movies… Now I’ll probably do an Indy 5 with Harrison, [so] it’ll be five for Harrison, four for Tom. … I’ve got to make another one with Tom, that’ll be five for Tom, five for Harrison. And I think I’m going to leapfrog that way for the rest of my career. With Daniel Day-Lewis in everything else!”

At this point, however, there’s not a lot of progress yet on Indiana Jones 5. According to Cinema Blend, there’s still not past the scripting stage.

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Video: J.J. Abrams on The Force Awakens, Disney


J.J. Abrams was recently part of a Vanity Fair talk with producer Brian Grazer and Apple’s Jony Ive. In addition to telling the story of how he turned it down at first yet again, he also confirms that he has final cut on The Force Awakens – although Disney being Disney, the contract would allow otherwise.

He also praises the Disney folks, saying “I cannot say enough about how Bog Iger and Alan Horn have understood this thing that is now part of the Disney company. And they’re not trying to Disney-fy it, they’re not doing anything other than, I think, an incredibly smart thing, which is letting Kathleen Kennedy — who is a remarkable person and producer — run and lead Lucasfilm to a place where I think it wants to go. They let us make the movie we wanted to make.” (via)

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Lupita Nyong’o is on the cover of Vogue – again

lupita-nyongo-vogueThe cover of Vogue is a big deal, and Lupita Nyong’o has now scored her second in as many years. The October issue features the actress, who talks a little about The Force Awakens – and J.J. Abrams himself sheds a little light on what they were looking for in the role:

While we tuck into delicious platters of fish, sorbets, and cheeses, Lupita tells me that she has just spent four months filming a CGI character—a pirate named Maz Kanata—for J. J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opening this December. “We needed a powerful actress to play a powerful character,” the director explains to me later. “Lupita was someone I’d known a little and was enormously fond of. More important, her performance in 12 Years a Slave blew my mind, and I was vaguely desperate to work with her.”

Acting a motion-capture character was “really bizarre and lots of fun,” Lupita says. “I really enjoyed the fact that you’re not governed by your physical presence in that kind of work. You can be a dragon. You can be anything.”

Again, it’s very Vogue, but she also talks about her life in Kenya and America. She answers a few more Star Wars questions on video:


(Pineapple!)