The Star Wars franchise is a film series with a lot of moving parts. Fans of the movies could easily tell you about droids or The Resistance, but what about those who have never seen a Star Wars movie? That's a situation that came up with Solo: A Star Wars Story, as actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge didn't even know what a droid was before she went in to read for the role of L3-37. Her time researching didn't yield the best results, and the actress opened up during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show to explain her awkward antics ahead of her audition, noting,
I was going to the audition and I thought, 'This character is amazing, she's a revolutionary, she's really cool,' and the dialogue was amazing, and it said, just in one of the stage directions, 'droid.' So I was like, 'Droid...droid...what's a droid?' And then I Googled a droid and then, nothing much really came up with the pictures, it wasn't explicitly a robot. I was in the taxi on the way to the audition and I was like, 'Shit, I really should know what a droid is,' and I was asking my taxi driver, he was like, 'I don't know what a droid is.' And he called his family, like, 'What's a droid?'
Talk about secrecy. Not only did Phoebe Waller-Bridge not know that she was auditioning for Solo: A Star Wars Story when she went in to try out for the part, but she also didn't even know what a droid was. But despite her lack of experience in dealing with all things Star Wars, she managed to do well in her audition and clinch the role. Look, sometimes it clearly pays not to have all of the answers when you're going out for a new gig.
I got to the audition and thought, 'I'm just going to play it like a human,' because the chances are its a human. Because most of the time when you audition, it's for humans. So, I went in as a human and I did the audition. The guys were like, 'Oh, that's really great, thank you. Could you try it a bit more droid-y?' I was like, 'What sort of droid-y vibe do you want?' Luckily one of the directors went like this [made robot arms], and I was like, that's a fucking robot!
It sounds like the actress' lack of Star Wars knowledge didn't just extend to her not knowing what a droid was. In fact, elsewhere in Phoebe Waller-Bridge's appearance on The Graham Norton Show, she revealed that she had never seen a Star Wars film at that point. Don't worry, your shock was shared by others in attendance, as David Tenant quickly made sure to tell her that not seeing a single Star Wars movie was "a disgrace."
Of course, this is only the latest in a long line of stories about how interesting the Solo: A Star Wars Story audition process was for the principal cast. In fact, Alden Ehrenreich similarly spoke out about his bizarre audition process and explained how Phil Lord and Chris Miller made him play a mysterious role called "Mike" and act alongside a dog puppet in place of Chewbacca.
Make sure to watch out for Phoebe Waller-Bridge's debut in the Star Wars franchise next weekend when Solo: A Star Wars Story premieres in theaters on May 25. Stay tuned for more updates related to the film, and check out CinemaBlend's full review to see what we have to say about it, then head over to our review roundup to see what other critics are saying!
