Our pal Lee Towersey, who you will see controlling his R2-D2 droid as part of the R2 Builders parade this past Saturday at MCM Expo Birmingham, is interviewed by Alex Kane over at StarWars.com, about his role in The Last Jedi.
StarWars.com: Did the scene with Mark Hamill on the Falcon make for a pretty emotional day?
Lee Towersey: Yeah, it did. I felt at the time that it’s quite an iconic scene that we were filming. I’ve had a few people ask me questions about that scene since The Last Jedi’s come out, and they felt that it was quite an up-there moment in the film. And when we shot it I felt it was quite special, as well. Mark was as professional as ever; he was in the moment. We did a few takes, and I remote-controlled R2-D2 across the floor space in the Falcon.
Something else people ask, with the projection of Princess Leia, is, “Was that an homage to Carrie Fisher?” Because she’d sadly passed away. And no, the answer there is that we’d already shot that; that was always going to happen. But it means even more now — it’s even more special because of that classic scene. And when we shot that, and Luke is talking to Artoo, Jimmy Vee was inside. That’s the two-legged version; we did a quick switcheroo. Jimmy’s in the droid the whole time, I’m doing the remote control on the head, and some of the shots are quite wide, so there’s nowhere for me to hide except for at Mark’s feet. So while that shot’s being taken, I’m lying on the floor in between Mark and R2-D2.
