One of the most amazing sequences in ‘What A Festive Evening‘ was Kleya and Lonni as she worked to remove the recording device from Davo Sculdens museum as Krennic, Sculden and the rest of the party slowly work their way through the artifacts towards them It’s a masterpiece of tension, a thrilling scene without physical action (other than the blood-letting crush of the key as Kleya fights to loosen the device) and it’s the center of Elizabeth Dulau’s conversation with EW.
EW: Let’s talk about this episode 6 scene at Sculdun’s party as you have to remove the bug.
ED: I’m so glad you’re bringing this up. I’ve been dying to talk about this with someone.
EW: Tell me about working with Robert Emms as Lonni in that dance you all do there where you’re forcing him to help you, and he clearly would rather be anywhere else in the world than right there with you.
ED: I love Robert so much. We had a lot of fun working on this scene, and he was just so encouraging the whole time as well. Luckily, the lines for that scene did not change very much at all. And when I first read the script, for that two months before we shot it, I remember thinking, “This is such a technical scene, all the different components of it. I need to be off-book so early so that on the day I am not thinking about the lines.”
I didn’t want to do that thing that some actors talk about where they learn the lines that morning to keep it fresh. I’m so glad I didn’t do that because I would just ruin it. I wouldn’t remember a thing because I think the key for that scene is that Kleya’s mind is in four different places. She’s thinking about the bug that’s hidden underneath the piece, and she’s focusing on that, trying to get it out. She’s thinking about seeming as though she’s not trying to do that at all, as though she’s just flirting with Lonni. She’s also thinking about Lonni and making sure he doesn’t run away and blow her cover. And then she’s also thinking about the other group in the room and keeping track of where they are. So my brain explodes just thinking about that.
And on the day working with Ariel Kleiman, the director, we realized that what we need to do is pick each moment and decide: Okay, in this moment, am I playing it to Luthen across the room? Am I playing it to Lonni? Do you see Kleya thinking about the bug underneath the piece? Do you see her putting on a front? Pick. You can’t play all four of them all at once all of the time. It wouldn’t work.
So you’ve got to pick one and keep switching between them. It was a whole lot, but I’m really glad with how it’s come out. I think you see her switch between just, like, an innocent shop girl to deadly ruthless Kleya, and that was really fun.
We sat down with Robert Emms at this weekends Star Wars Fan Fun Day to discuss this scene and others, a chat you’ll be able to hear on a forthcoming episode of Making Tracks.
