Fire and Freezing Rain Exclusive Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk Rogue One Interview

I was invited by Disney to a Rogue One press trip to facilitate review and interviews.

I must say that some of my absolute favorite Star Wars characters are the members of the droid team.  It is so easy to fall in love with them, don’t you think? K-2SO won my heart over in a heart beat.  After we learned a bit about the technology for motion capture, I realized it was not a simple as it seemed to play a droid.  Obviously Alan Tudyk does an amazing job playing the role of K2SO.

 The first scene we saw during the 28 minute screening at the Skywalker Ranch featured powerful acting by Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso (Jyn’s father). I loved mad in Doctor Strange and while he could appear to be a villain in Star Wars, in the end, he might not be.  In any event, these were two interviews I was looking forward to that did not disappoint!  Here is our Fire and Freezing Rain Exclusive Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk Rogue One Interview

Exclusive  Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk Rogue One Interview

Mikkelsen and Tudyk walked in together and sat down to a table full of toy characters from Rogue One.  The first thing that stood out was that Mads Mikkelsen did not have a bobble head.  He told us it is in the production stage, while Alan played with the small K-2SO putting it on Captian Cassian Andor’s head 🙂

To start off the interview, each of them told us a bit about their characters.  Mads Mikkelsen started off sharing: “My character is called Galen Erso. I am a scientist, working closely together with Krennic in the film,before the film actually, and working on a project that has the potential of making the world a better place, and also the potential of not doing so. I’m also the father of our hero (Jyn).”.

At this point, Alan interjects to say the true hero of the film is K-2SO 🙂  He goes on to tell us about his character:”K-2SO is a droid who was formerly of the Empire and he’s been reprogrammed by Cassian’s character (played by Diego Luna). He has been working with him prior to our introduction, to Jyn.  (That means) he’s a soldier in the Alliance. The reprogramming has caused him to be free with his own personality, which invites some brutal honesty in moments where honesty isn’t really required. He can be funny in that way, and sarcastic, and passive-aggressive, and all those fun things that sidekicks (are). Although,  they’re partners. He wouldn’t see himself as a sidekick.”.

Alan Tudyk really got a chance to stray away from the script some.  This allowed him to infuse K-2SO with the humor and really shape his personality.  The set and work allowed for them to have fun which in turn permitted for Tudyk to say whatever he wanted in the moment of the scene that flowed perfectly.  This is not to say that he was just “off-roading” all the time.  His improvisation was based on the lines he already had.

On Getting the Rogue One Role

Both actors told us how they found got chosen for the film.  For Mikkelsen is was a phone call with director Edwards.  When asked, he knew he didn’t need to see a script or anything because, well, it is Star Wars.  Tudyk recalled how he didn’t know he was being interviewed for the role.  Instead he thought his brain was being picked at to help build a droid (which he is recognized for as well).  He went on about the do’s and dont’s.  In retrospect he would have had a very different conversation if he knew he was being “auditioned”.

Fire and Freezing Rain

The hard work of acting had its incidents for the pair.  They talked about fire and ice while filming Rogue One. Here are their stories and exchanges:

Alan Tudyk: I caught on fire! We were in the trenches, literally.  There was a battle going on, and they had explosions, and I’m wearing my skin tight pajamas (the motion caption suit),  there are pots of explosions, and people are ducking down, and suddenly my back gets hot. I think, ‘Oh, ow, ow, ow,  I’m on fire’ and it was like a spark hit it and then just spread out.  It was very flammable.  I didn’t realize it.

Mads Mikkelsen:    They were not aware?

Alan Tudyk:    They were not aware.

Mads Mikkelsen:    Sue them.

Alan Tudyk:    I hope, what is the statute of limitations? I don’t think I could go up against their lawyers and really… do very well.  But I wore fire retardant, undershirts after that.  And it hit again, there was a lot of explosions that day.  There were amazing pyrotechnics, and there was one point where we were running on the beach, they had a spaceship land.  So they had built a space, what looked like partially a spaceship, but it was a box where people were in it, guy’s on a gun, we’re in a battle, running down this beach, the thing comes over, they’ve got it on a crane, it’s got smoke coming out of the bottom, it lands, troops go out either side, it takes back off again, soldiers are hitting these things that are vaulting them in the air, and falling like that, explosions… they’re like, “That’s your track, aim for that.  You don’t wanna get off it because uh..you’ll catch fire. Yeah.  It was madness.  It was fun.

An what of the freezing rain?  Talking about his most difficult scene in Rogue One, Mads Mikkelsen said: “We went to Iceland for a week, we shot there, so that was my debut on the film, and my very first scene, I’m walking and walking and… I’m meeting Krennic…It was raining constantly.  It was just pouring down.  It was windy, chilly, and I was like, ‘God, we’re done here’ but it was such a beautiful place.  I love Iceland. We’re going back to the studio, but they came up with this brilliant idea that all the shots inside in the studio should be in rain.  So I basically am wet the whole film. Those were cold and long days, but yeah.  It’s worth it.  It looks fantastic on film. 

Talking Villains

I loved Mikkelsen as the villain in Doctor Strange.  It was not the first time he was a bad guy in a movie, so we asked if they prefered being the hero or the villain in the film.  Mads Mikkelsen answered first: “I’ve done a lot of villainous; I’ve also done a lot of good guys and also normal people and a butcher once. But, I think they go hand-in-hand. You gotta find something likeable, something you can relate to in a bad guy, and vice-versa. In the good guy, you have to find his flaws, the stuff he’s struggling with, or she’s struggling with. So for me, they go hand-in-hand. You have to be a really nice person to play a good villain.”

Alan Tudyk says: “I don’t care if they’re villain or a hero, as long as they have humor. Honestly, my favorite villains have humor in them. Even if it’s evil, they’re just using it to make a point that is murderous. Because that’s the way my mind bends, and it’s just makes for an easier connection with the character. I watched Ben in his role (Krennic). To see [Ben] do such a bad, such a dark character – with such charm, that’s what’s good.”

Interviewing both amazing actors just got me even more excited about watching the entire Rogue One.  So much has gone into this film, I am sure it is just going to blow up the big screen!  Are you as ready as I am to watch it on December 16th?

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