Adam Driver plays the mysterious new character Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with his mask and light saber with extra beams. Given how secretive his role is, he tried to tell us as much as he could about Kylo Ren and the film at the press conference. I’ve included every quote Driver gave on the panel.
The first shot of Kylo Ren that got everyone talking`
Adam Driver on finding out what happens after Return of the Jedi:
“I would say that it’s still called Star Wars [is significant] for me. In a way it’s 30 years later but the exact same things are going on in a way, which I thought was so telling, so true to life. I feel we have such short memories of huge events and mass genocide. Then we kind of forget about it it seems and the same people are still in charge and the same group of people, younger or older, everyone comes and feel that their problems are unique and then it’s all a cyclical thing. It seems like finding these people and a lot of things have changed, like the setting, but really the circumstances are the same I thought was very true. That, for me, was what I took. Less plot points, like, ‘Oh, I always knew that Leia would be doing this or Solo would be doing this.’ More like nothing really changes.”
Adam Driver on Kylo Ren (even a joke about being like Rupert Pupkin):
“Yeah, he makes a lot of videos for his mom. He’s a great cook. He’s a scorpio. He’s very unpolished and unfinished. I think what J.J. [Abrams] and Larry [Kasdan] did keeping all the vocabulary that everyone’s very familiar with as Star Wars and The Dark Side and keeping that very much intact but also adding a kind of recklessness or something that’s kind of un-neat about it that I think people normally associate with The Dark Side being organized and very in control and calm and in command.”
Adam Driver on the history of great villains in Star Wars:
“I think a lot of it is beyond my control I would say. Again, I feel like I was so aware of the movies. My friends’ kids now, they don’t know anything about, they haven’t seen the movies but they’re somehow so aware of everything that happens. I think that’s how I was introduced to them through the merchandising, toys and storm trooper helmets and things like that. So I feel like we tried to not think about that as much as possible. I remember early on, not think of him being bad or evil or a villain and try to make something that was more three dimensional. That, to me, when we were talking, originally seemed more dangerous and more unpredictable, someone who feels morally justified in doing whatever they need to to publicly say that what they’re doing is right seemed more active to play than just being evil for the sake of it. That’s not really fun to play I guess.”
Adam Driver as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Adam Driver on suiting up as Kylo Ren:
“The first time took like an hour and a half. Then we got it down to like 20 minutes.”
Adam Driver’s scariest moments making The Force Awakens:
“I don’t know, I guess I’m kind of terrified before most jobs. The prospect of Star Wars and all the kind of iconography associated with it, I tried to not think about as much as possible. So maybe when I first started, then kind of suppressing that as much as possible and trying to break it up into moments in that way. But I don’t remember one thing in particular that seemed particularly terrifying.”
Adam Driver on similarities between J.J. Abrams and Girls creator Lena Dunham:
“Yeah, actually, an amazing ability to compartmentalize. They do this both in very different ways. They’re both crazy, nuts. [Joking] I think that I would imagine when you have something like Star Wars, if it was me, I would go nuts thinking of having to be the spearhead above it who everyone’s looking to, asking you questions. J.J. was consistently calm and couldn’t have been more collaborative and I feel the same with Lena. Much is made about how young she is just because you can’t help but compare or imagine what you were doing at 22 or 23.”