One element of the Star Wars fandom that has its light and dark side is the fact that there are more great Star Wars characters than the franchise has time to explore. A more recent (yet divisive) contribution to this came in The Last Jedi. Rian Johnson’s film introduced two key women in the rebellion: the Tico sisters, played by Kelly Marie Tran and Van Veronica Ngo.
Early on in The Last Jedi, Van Veronica Ngo’s Paige Tico sacrifices her life during a battle against the First Order. As the actress tell it, she had no idea how important her scene was when she was briefly on the set of director Rian Johnson's 2017 film:
I saw the explosion on the screen and I was like, 'Holy shit, I did that! When I shot it I had no idea how big the ship was or the ship I was bombing, I just acted the way Rian [Johnson] told me. The way it turned out, it was a great feeling.
Van Veronica Ngo was not given the context of her scene in The Last Jedi due to the secrecy surrounding the follow-up to The Force Awakens. As she described it to Insider:
I remember being nervous and scared going into the project because they are so strict. It's understandable, because it's so big, but I couldn't see anything, read the script, take any pictures. Thankfully I had just one line.
It’s not a lot to work with, but the scene turned out great. It’s easy to remember Paige Tico’s emotional death scene at the top of the epic space movie. Remember this:
Since The Last Jedi, the curiosity about Rose Tico (and even her sister Paige’s adventures in the Rebellion before her death) have been a topic of discussion among fans. Crazy Rich Asians’ director Jon M. Chu even put his name in the ring if Disney+ decided to make a spinoff show about her. At the time, fans were furious about Rose Tico’s shortened screen time in Rise of Skywalker and got the #RoseTicoDeservedBetter hashtag trending.
Van Veronica Ngo has recently had small roles in two massive Netflix films. She played famed Vietnamese radio personality Hanoi Hannah in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods and Quynh in The Old Guard. Check out Ngo and Charlize Theron on the set of the action movie here:
If you’ve had a chance to see The Old Guard, you understand the intriguing implications Quynh may have on the storyline if the movie nabs a sequel. CinemaBlend has broken down what the conclusion could mean after the credits. It’s exciting to see how the actress has been building her resume since The Last Jedi and overseas Van Veronica Ngo is actually quite well known for her pop music and time on 2010’s Dancing with the Stars in Vietnam.
Check out Van Veronica Ngo in Da 5 Bloods and The Old Guard on Netflix now, and stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more movie news.
