Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ director JJ Abrams has given a long interview to Wired magazine, in which he talks about the mammoth task of recreating the galaxy far, far away originally brought to life by George Lucas a long, long time ago.
He touches upon the subjects of the trailers and the mystery surrounding the film, working with the original cast and blending them with newcomers such as John Boyega and Daisy Ridley – a process he likens to mingling old school friends with new college buddies – and having John Williams come on board again to supply the incredible score.
Here are the biggest things we picked up from the interview, which you can read in full here.
The film is true to the teasers and trailers
“What I’m excited about is that the movie itself feels like those teasers and not like the movie is one thing and the teasers are something else.”
Well he would say that, wouldn’t he? A large part of Abrams’ job as director is getting people excited about The Force Awakens, and trailers are designed to ramp up the hype. In that sense, he and the trailers have worked better than any other director and trailers in the history of cinema, and with that in mind, Abrams isn’t going to, five weeks before release, admit his film is shitty compared to the four unrepresentatively brilliant trailers and various TV spots so far. But it is at least pleasing to hear him talk like this.
And he’s really happy he’s been allowed to keep so much a secret
Recommended
It didn’t do the film any harm at the box office, but if you’d seen the various trailers for Jurassic World prior to release, watching the full film won’t have offered many, if any surprises. There was nothing left to be revealed. The Force Awakens, however, is still shrouded in mystery, with Supreme Leader Snoke and Luke Skywalker missing from trailers and promo material, and Max Von Sydow’s character without a name. This, of course, is no accident and was Abrams’ plan all along – he’s just amazed Disney allowed him to get away with it. He singled out Disney CEO Bob Iger and chair Alan Horn in particular, saying he expected they’d want an ‘overabundance of material’ but were in fact reluctant to do that.
“They want this thing to be an experience for people when they go to see the film. And I’m grateful for that. There’s a really positive side to keeping quiet. You can protect the audience from spoilers or certain moments that, in a way, obviate the movie experience,” he said, although he did add he knows he’s walking a tightrope in that regard. “If you fall on one side it’s no good, because we’re showing too much. If you fall on the other side it’s no good, because we’re not showing anything and we look like arrogant jerks.”
He loved working with writer Lawrence Kasdan
Kasdan co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi with George Lucas, so he’s certainly got form in the Star Wars world. Abrams says working with Kasdan “ties for first in terms of incredible experiences” he’s had while working on the project, describing the collaboration as an “education in storytelling and doing so with clarity, with efficiency, brevity – wit. It was a little like taking an extended master class.”
He’s learned from mistakes
Abrams says he didn’t really draw on past experience too much while making The Force Awakens – although the giant red lens flare in the third trailer, a signature move of his, suggests otherwise. He did, however, say he learned from past mistakes before going in to making the seventh Star Wars film.
“I didn’t want to enter into making a movie where we didn’t really own our story,” he says. “I feel like I’ve done that a couple of times in my career. That’s not to say I’m not proud of my work, but the fact is I remember starting to shoot Super 8 and Star Trek: Into Darkness and feeling like I hadn’t really solved some fundamental story problems.”
Composer John Williams calls him ‘JJ Baby’
It’s hard to imagine any of the Star Wars films without John Williams’ perfect score. Watch the trailers with the sound down for proof; the emotional heft just isn’t there. Needless to say, it was essential the veteran composer, behind scores for Indiana Jones, Superman, Jurassic Park and the Harry Potter films among many others, was back on board for The Force Awakens.
Abrams says Williams, away from his many achievements, is “the sweetest soul” he’s ever met, an old jazzman who became one of the greatest composers of all time. “He literally calls you ‘baby’,” he explains. “Like, ‘Hey, baby’. He calls me ‘JJ Baby.’ I waited all my life to meet someone who would call me that!”