NYCC: Star Wars Highlights from the Alan Tudyk Panel

Alan Tudyk, voice and inspiration behind the upcoming droid character, K-2SO in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” was at New York Comic Con where he spoke of his series “Con Man,” his experiences as an actor, and his upcoming “Star Wars” franchise role. What follows are highlights from his panel focusing on “Rogue One” and his acting career. All quotes are paraphrased, having been edited for clarity and grammar for the written form. “Q” indicates an audience question.

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Moderator: How did you get connected to the “Rogue One” role?

Alan: I was the robot. My wife filmed me doing the lines on her phone, and we sent that in. They called me asked if I wanted to do it, and I said yes! Gareth took me around and showed me tons of things, and I was like “either they’re going to kill me or give me the role”.

Q: What is your process for keeping the different robots you’ve played in your mind?

Alan: Well, K-2SO is the main droid in this movie, and he has a personality. The different robots are different characters, so I just think of it that way. (He then went on to poke fun at BB-8, comparing him to a volleyball.)

Q: What is your favorite character you’ve ever played, other than Wash?

Alan: You know Wash is very close to my heart, and obviously people respond to him very well. He’s the closest character to my own personality I’ve played. “Rogue One” is pretty great because it’s “Star Wars” and I’m surrounded by aliens; I’m giddy, looking at spaceships, and getting to work with Diego Luna and Felicity Jones. It was a blast! It was such a blast.

Q: You’re an angel!

Alan: HAH! Just like the devil is an angel….

Q: When did you discover you wanted to be an actor? What’s your acting process?

Alan: I dunno. I was always trying to get into the talent show in elementary school. I would try these stupid ideas and they would never let me in. I was always making voices and stuff. I did plays in high school, and eventually chose acting for my major. The process is always different. Sometimes it’s the physicality, sometimes it’s the coat you wear, and sometimes its like, I don’t got it….  You have to be a witness to the world, and just borrow things; put life into things.

Q: Is being silly or letting go difficult for actors?

Alan: It depends on the actor. For me it was always too much. Directors would be like: “you’re at an 11, lets pull you to a 9… actually a 7”. I’m a silly person I think, or at least on the border of silly, so you just pull from your own mind. It just falls out of you. Wait, that sounds weird to say….

Q: What one thing do you still really want to do?

Alan: A lot of times I just read a script, and I wanna go back to Broadway. I’m in love with doing theater here (NYC). It would be great to do a play, but again I don’t know what play.

Q: Who is your favorite character in “Rogue One” besides yours and why?

Alan: That’s tough! It’s split between Jyn and Cassian. I interact with them so much in the movie because I belong to Cassian. Diego is very funny. I was on stilts, and they were like a foot high because the character is so tall. There were times we had to run, and once there was a cliff. It was like DEATH! They were like: “Alan you can’t be on stilts”. And, I had to wear this really stupid mask, and Diego was like: “Alan, it’s terrible what happened. Everyone respected you so much until you put that thing on. For the sake of the movie and the love of God, take that thing off!” It was very fun, and Felicity was such a beautiful beautiful beautiful person. And my wife agrees with that.

~Bethany Blanton

Author: Bethany Blanton

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