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Every film that gets made, and I'm not just talking about 'Star Wars,' I'm talking about Marvel, DC, every tent pole film - they seem to just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. The worlds get bigger, the stakes get bigger.
I was always like, 'No, I don't like sci-fi,' and then I started watching it and thought, I didn't know that's what it was. I think I'd somehow got it confused with action and space-travel action - that sci-fi could only be like 'Star Wars.'
When I first met my girlfriend, Mercy Malick, she asked me if there was anything I should tell her that could put her off me if she found out later. So I told her that I was a total 'Star Wars' geek and had boxes of 'Star Wars' toys in storage.
I liked how 'Star Wars' felt both old and new. I even built a model of R2-D2, taking about two months mixing two kits to make one that looked just like the real thing. I'm the kind of person who gets really into it when I do something like that.
That aesthetic of the Star Wars universe: the do-it-yourself, hotrod ethic that George Lucas exported from his childhood, is exactly the same kind of soul behind what we do and build for the show. It may not look pretty, but it gets the job done.
One of the things 'Star Wars' is most deeply about is fathers, sons, and redemption. In its own way, it points to the indispensability of paternal love, and it has a lot to say about the lengths to which people - boys or girls - will go to get it.
In the original 'Star Wars' movie, there is a small toaster-sized and shaped robot on the Death Star that guides Stormtroopers to where they need to go. I always liked that robot because I could imagine how to build it - and it served a real purpose.
For everyone, 'Star Wars' has been a part of their lives in some capacity. I remember watching it very early on with my cousins and my brother, and we were all cuddled around the VHS player, which sounds very old-fashioned, but that was the way then.
I thought working in other universes that had a lot of history - and I had personal affection for, like 'Sherlock Holmes' or the 'X-Men' movies - would prepare me for it. But the truth is, there is nothing and has never been anything like 'Star Wars.'
Star Wars' is so rich and it seems crazy that everyone's, like, a white male guy. That's due to the 1970s and the fact that it was shot in Britain, but I was very lucky: I'm British, I grew up in England, and I got to see myself represented in a film.
The overwhelming reaction on set was everybody loved the porgs. And I love 'em, so you know what? I get it if people are a little wary of cuteness in the 'Star Wars' universe, but I personally love them, and I think they have their place in the movie.
I've always loved 'lived-in' sci-fi. We take it for granted now, but it was a revelation in the late '70s - '80s, when movies like 'Alien', 'Escape From New York', and even 'Star Wars' introduced us to the idea that the future could, in fact, look old.
Other projects later this year, but I think it's going to be a very very busy year this year with Star Wars and the re-release, so I'm sort of running about going backwards and forwards to America, Japan, Mexico. So there will be a lot of things to do.
We can watch videos of our whole journey - from old tours to doing the AMAs (American Music Awards) in 2013 and through the 'Star Wars' medley or when we sang with Stevie Wonder on the Grammys. I just sit back and say, 'I can't believe we did all this!'
I wanted to be a film composer because I heard scores that could stand alone, from 'Vertigo' to 'Star Wars' to 'La Dolce Vita,' because this music has so much history. They're weighed with the history of music. They come from somewhere, they have a past.
'Star Wars' is such a phenomenal global supernova that anything that gets said about it becomes kind of fact and gospel, and then taken by the legions of fans who are so excited to have more 'Star Wars,' that they roll off on all sorts of flights of fancy.
When you see 'Star Wars', and you see Greedo hustle up to Solo, you know they have a history; you understand that there's a dude named Jabba the Hutt who's after him, and Greedo is going to try to shoot him and get the money. You get what's going on there.
The special thing about 'Star Wars' is you can come to it and become a fan at any age. It's such an interesting franchise. I wasn't lucky enough to see it as a young kid, and I didn't have any older siblings that loved it and made me want to watch it, too.
In 'Star Wars: Episode II,' when Jango Fett is chasing Obi Wan Kenobi through an asteroid field, they needed a big asteroid to shatter into a million pieces, and I had to figure out how to do the fracturing, write the code, and show an artist how to use it.
I rewatched a lot of 'Star Wars' when I did 'Rogue One,' and the thing I learned was that as a young person, consuming 'Star Wars' at the level that I consumed 'Star Wars,' it kind of molds your visual psyche, so you see the world in 'Star Wars'-ian fashion.
I mean listen, ultimately I'm positive George Lucas was inspired by 'Dune' when he made 'Star Wars.' I don't know if that's sacrilegious to talk about, but there are a lot of similarities in some areas, so you could tell he was definitely influenced by that.
'Star Wars,' 'Doctor Who,' 'Forgotten Realms,' even 'Firefly' and 'The X-Files' have shared world novels and other media. I can't help but notice these settings have large shelf space in bookstores, so their publishers and authors are getting something right.
'E.T.' and 'Star Wars' were cult movies then and opened up a brand new world of adventure and mystery. But as much as I would have loved to be friends with E.T., I realized that following in the footsteps of Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan was more realistic.
My boy cousins used to sit my older brother and me down and take us through a film-studies course. It included 'Tremors', 'The Goonies', and, of course, 'Star Wars'. That was when it began: sitting cross-legged watching as the opening crawl goes up the screen.
When I was involved with 'Star Wars,' I was very interested in all the backstories, and I used to pepper George with all kinds of questions about anything that crossed my mind, because I was very, very into it. But when the job came to an end, I had to move on.
I guess because I'm so young, I m not sure of what lies ahead for me. I'm more into going the route of producing and directing. I just made a little short film. I'm more excited about going the route of doing a Drew Barrymore or... what's the one from 'Star Wars?'
'Jurassic Park' and 'Star Wars' shoved me into loving sci-fi and film in general when I was a barely coherent 3-year-old. And 'Lord of the Rings' took me to another planet entirely. Before that series, I knew I loved writing, but after, I knew that I had to write.
I'm a 'Clash of the Titans'/'Star Wars' baby. I'm not a new 'Star Wars' baby. I'm not an 'Avatar' baby. That full CG doesn't work for me. I need interactivity. I need to feel the goo. I need to feel people coming out of animatronics and just interacting with props.
My favourite film is probably 'Star Wars'. I do love 'Starship Troopers', it is a great film but it's not a film I watch over and over again. Whereas 'Star Wars' I've watched over and over again all my life, and it's a film I can tolerate watching with my children.
In the end, all that time I spent in the 'Star Wars' universe fostered galaxies of creativity and made me a better person here on Earth, because it taught me that everyone counts. That's why I can sincerely and with a straight face say: 'May the Force be with you.'
Way back at the beginning, I went to see George Lucas when he first came to London for 'Star Wars.' I met him months before they started, and he didn't ask me to do the picture at all. But the actor whom he had employed to play Wedge didn't work out for some reason.
I'm really into sci-fi. The reason I'm an actor is because of 'Star Wars' - I saw that and I knew that's what I wanted to do. But most of the projects I'm offered as an actor are straightforward dramas, so I haven't really been given a chance to do that kind of role.
My dad and I used to shoot little one-stop animations on an old 8mm film camera when I was no more than 7 or 8, and when he was away at work, I would keep shooting nonsensical, short animated films using 'Star Wars' figures or Smurfs - depended what the narrative was.
At the last Celebration I spoke before an auditorium full of people and I could just feel the affection and the positive feelings that they were exuding. It was actually moving. I remember thinking, 'I'm not worthy,' because 'Star Wars' is so much bigger than all of us.
Since Star Wars, that film's success led to bigger budgets, more hardware, that the great movies like the ones I did, which were studio movies, are now independent movies. They range from half a million to several million, and a lot of those have very interesting roles.
I literally cannot remember a time when I was not asking myself what events in 'Star Wars' were like for Princess Leia. The good side of all this is that what looked like 'goofing off' or 'daydreaming' these many years has all turned out to be valuable career preparation.
Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga' was huge for me. Seeing how all the creatures were made, looking inside Jabba The Hut, all of the maquettes lined up, building the world... 'This is a job?!' I was always avidly watching special features and behind the scenes stuff.
While I prefer generally more personal dramas in which I can stretch myself... and while I'm not a science fiction buff, I consider '2001' a great film, absolutely enthralling; at 'Star Wars' I had a fabulous time, and, at 'Alien,' while it was a silly story, I was knocked out.
Sometimes it takes time to become part of the collective unconscious, just like 'Fanboys' did. Going into that movie, I said to myself that if you were a 'Star Wars' fan, you were going to love that movie. It's an homage to everything science-fiction, but especially 'Star Wars.'
Whenever I do a play, there are 'Star Wars' fans at the stage door, and they're always lovely - so excited and so effusive about the storylines and the characters. When you're doing something really serious, and the 'Star Wars' fans are waiting outside, it's a nice juxtaposition.
I would much rather have watched Jill Clayburgh in 'An Unmarried Woman' than 'Star Wars.' Even though I saw that movie when I was 11, I related emotionally to being left and thrown in a trash can on the side of the road. Her damage - I got it. I didn't understand Han Solo at all.
I was approached by Disney to reprise my role but I wasn't interested. The movies are sure to be brilliant but I don't want to be in them. I've spent the past 20 years talking about the last movies and I'm bored with it. I don't want to spend the next 20 talking about 'Star Wars.'
The first 'Star Wars' film was enormously important. I grew up right smack-bang in the sweet spot of all of those. It's true cinema magic. It's fair to say that, as a kid, I would have been very happy to be Han Solo, and I would have been happy to have gone out with Princess Leia.
Funnily enough, I had a real giggle with Gary Oldman when we were doing an interview together for 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.' Because I joked I was probably the only British actor who wasn't in the 'Harry Potter' franchise. The same is true of 'Game of Thrones.' Also 'Star Wars.'
I've always been more of a nerdy, academic type. I loved 'Star Wars' growing up. I have three older brothers, so they were a big influence on me. We loved 'Danger Mouse,' and we love 'Monty Python'. We loved any kind of British comedy and 'Wallace and Gromit' and all of that stuff.
I'm not a sculptor; I'm a hard-edged model maker. You give me a drawing, you give me a prop to replicate, you give me a crane, scaffolding, parts from 'Star Wars' - especially parts from 'Star Wars' - I can do this stuff all day long. It's exactly how I made my living for 15 years.
I don't have sophisticated tastes. I have average tastes. If you looked in my collection of DVDs, you'd see 'Jaws' and 'Star Wars.' In the book library, you'd see John Grisham and Sidney Sheldon. And if you look in my fridge, it's, like, children's food - chips, milkshakes, yogurt.
'Star Wars' is so much bigger than any single person involved, so you feel like you want to do that justice and also feel like you want to do justice to that little girl inside me that never saw anyone who looked like her, that person who's starving for representation - it's a lot.
'Rogue One' does not feel like a 'Star Wars' movie. There are no scrolling yellow letters. There is no classic John Williams score. It feels like a movie of a different type set in the 'Star Wars' universe, a movie where there is no magic to save you. It is not a movie for children.
When are boots in the ground no longer going to have to even be people, and is that right? When does it become 'Star Wars?' When is enough enough? When do we put this time and energy into eliminating war or reasons for war instead of creating new technology to make war easier for us?