Phoebe Waller-Bridge Had No Idea What a Droid Was When She Auditioned for Solo

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Had No Idea What a Droid Was When She Auditioned for Solo

Star Wars is so much a part of the cultures collective consciousness, its shocking when we hear some..

Star Wars is so much a part of the cultures collective consciousness, its shocking when we hear someone we know hasnt seen any of the movies, or doesnt know who voices Yoda, or what color Luke Skywalkers lightsaber is. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve and star of the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story revealed to Graham Norton that not only had she never seen a Star Wars movie before getting the call for Solo, but she also had no idea what a droid was.

Now, since we have seen Star Wars, we all know that a droid is the Star Wars word for robot, anything from C3-PO to BB-8. When Waller-Bridge received the script pages she was to use for the audition, a quick Google search didnt help to clear the matter up. Neither did her taxi driver, who actually called his family to try in vain to figure it out. So, she crossed her fingers and played her character, a robot named L3-37, as if she were a human.

She finally learned what her character was supposed to be when one of the directors at her audition asked her, “Could you try it a bit more droid-y?” and then moved his fingers like a jerky little machine. At last, everything snapped into place and Waller-Bridge understood what was going on: “Its a f—ing robot.”

Playing L3-37 like she was a person may have actually helped Waller-Bridge in the long run. “They decided they didnt want it to be droid-y at all in the end,” she said, “so I think it might have worked in my favor that way.”

Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.

CATEGORIES
Share This