For a certain type of fan, there's nothing quite as cool as Star Wars. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is part of the generation that grew up with Star Wars and she's now part of the franchise, as the scene-stealing droid L3-37 from Solo: A Star Wars Story. She has been on board the Millennium Falcon and she has stood on alien planets, at least in the movies. However, of all the things the actress was able to do in Solo, she says the coolest part was pulling on the lever that sent the Falcon into hyperspace. According to Waller-Bridge...
Going into hyperspace was probably the coolest moment. You know you're an adult, you know it's not real, but you press this lever and then the stars came and we both just went AHHHHHH. For a second, a second, I really believed I was going into hyperspace.
In the special features attached to the Blu-ray release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, you see that the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon was actually surrounded by a large screen during production which projected everything that the cast was supposed to see out in space. This meant that when the Falcon made the jump to hyperspace, the stars actually transformed from dots to lines and Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Donald Glover saw the same thing that fans see in the movies when Star Wars ships make the jump to lightspeed.
As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I can't blame Phoebe Waller-Bridge for getting ridiculously excited at the idea of sitting in the Millennium Falcon cockpit and making the jump to lightspeed. In that brief moment where Lando and L3-37 physically pulled the lever and saw the stars change around them, it probably really did feel like they had made that happen. It used to be that sort of thing was only added after the fact, so actors had to imagine what they were experiencing, but here they got to really see it. Movies are magic.
To be fair though, it really looks like Phoebe Waller-Bridge may have had more fun making Solo: A Star Wars Story in general than really anybody else. L3-37 pretty much stole every scene she was in with her presence and her fantastic dialogue. She got to play a character unlike any that Star Wars has seen before.
On the plus side, there may be a way that the rest of us will be able to experience the same thrill that Waller-Bridge did making Solo. In 2019 Star Wars Galaxy's Edge will make its debut at Disneyland and Walt Disney World and the new land will include an attraction that lets guests actually fly the Millennium Falcon. From all appearances, we'll all be able to make the jump to lightspeed ourselves one day soon.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is now available on Digital and Blu-ray.
