On the fifth anniversary of Rogue One, the Star Wars prequel which told the story of the brave crew who stole the Death Star plans and opened up the path to destroying the battle station, director Gareth Edwards caught up with StarWars.com to discuss the film and his experience making it.
StarWars.com: It was only the second film in this new wave of Star Wars productivity at that time, and there had never been a Star Wars spinoff like this. I’m wondering if there was pressure that came from that, and if that ever got to you during production.
Gareth Edwards: There was pressure. Obviously, there’s pressure at all time, every day in every way, so 1000 percent.
I got some strange analogies for it that probably don’t make sense in print, but no one can put as much pressure on me than I would put on myself. It’s a strange thing to say, but for a whole generation Star Wars was kind of a semi-religion. I think in the past, kids would grow up and be told campfire stories, or spiritual, mythical stories, you know, and religious stories about the world and fantasy ideas that speak about good versus evil. It really resonates with you as a child. Those stories kind of grew into religion over thousands of years. [Star Wars] took the place of a sort of spiritual foundation in a lot of kids, weirdly. Star Wars was a very profound thing, I think, for a lot of us.
I felt a lot of pressure all the time, but I also felt like, if I had one specialist subject in my life, it’s probably Star Wars: A New Hope. And if I had one thing that I always wanted to do more than anything else, it’s make films. And so I felt internally confident that I knew what I wanted this film to be, but I wasn’t sure at all that anyone else would want it to be that. That’s probably where any doubts would kick in.
There’s constant pressure. There’s pressure making just a tiny movie for yourself. The first film I ever did, for no money, [I was under] constant pressure. But making Star Wars, you kind of knew like, this is all or nothing. Everyone is going to see this and they’ll know about it. The sort of pressure to not [mess] it up was probably the most it’ll ever be on any movie you could ever make.
Long-time listeners to Making Tracks will remember our extended chat with Gareth back in 2018 spread across our first two episodes, which you can listen to below.
