By Mike Redmond | Film | January 29, 2020 |
By Mike Redmond | Film | January 29, 2020 |
Even before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brutally belly-flopped into theaters last month, there was some head-scratching over why the hell J.J. Abrams would bury Adam Driver’s internet splooge-fest of a face under the same goddamn helmet Rian Johnson just freed him from in the last glorious masterpiece of a film that our dumbass world didn’t deserve. Except there wasn’t too much thought put into the choice because the answer was probably going to be very easy to guess: MERCHANDISING!
(The kids love it.)
But then Rise of Skywalker plopped into our laps like the wet turd that it is, and pretty soon, people started having questions, lots of questions. Questions that, a month later, are showing no signs of stopping because, seriously, what the f*ck even happened in that movie? However, as the filmmakers continue to talk — for better or worse, Chris Terrio — pieces are slowly starting to fall into place. In this case, the theory that Abrams didn’t put Driver back inside the mask just to piss on The Last Jedi (entirely) or for some bold narrative decision, but as an easy backdoor to change Kylo Ren’s lines during a mad scramble of a production, which has basically been confirmed by sound editor Matt Wood during an Oscars podcast.
Matthew Wood says that the very last ADR recording session they did was to change some lines for masked Kylo. He flew to New York & had Adam Driver record them in his own closet, the same day he appeared on Seth Meyers. @SoundWorksTweet https://t.co/12VBxJD2nb #TheRiseOfSkywalker pic.twitter.com/m3ydYuviDe
— sleemo (@sleemo) January 28, 2020
After a quick flick o’ the Google, eagle-eyed Star Wars fans were not exactly thrilled to learn that Driver shot his Late Night appearance on November 21, 2019 a.k.a. less than three weeks before Rise of Skywalker’s release. If you want evidence of a nightmare of a production, finding out one of the lead actors practically had to read new lines as the movie was playing is one hell of a smoking gun.
Needless to say, Twitter handled this information accordingly.
I’m just in disbelief at how Disney and Lucasfilm so obsessively curated Star Wars canon over the last five years down to even the theme park being canon and then the final most important movie was just utter chaos.
— Borri (@borriborri_) January 29, 2020
— HopeyFury&Forbearance (@Hopey0711) January 28, 2020
Shocking reasons for the helmet's return revealed!
— Ben Solo stan account (Christine) (@vaderscastle) January 28, 2020
LOL JK it's so they could ADR with ease…
I hate this movie.
“He flew to New York and had Adam Driver record them in his own closet.” pic.twitter.com/dg9VsHU6iR
— Skye (@skyelo_ren) January 28, 2020
No wonder Adam went awol and Daisy wanted to cry at the premiere. This is a joke. pic.twitter.com/VxSoUnomd2
— Seduff (@seduff_) January 28, 2020
I suspect that may have been the case. It’s all pointing that way.
— Seduff (@seduff_) January 29, 2020
@MarienneMaid pic.twitter.com/NLV6hPB4Z6
— 🎙Mel Nobody (@AbandonedPorg) January 28, 2020
And, finally, my personal favorite reaction even though Dustin gave the SNL sketch it’s based on a meager 6 out 10 when it was easily an 8 along with Tampon House. (What? You don’t hold grudges that eat you away inside? Pfft.)
Matthew Wood directing Adam Driver: “nah, it’s more like ‘Ahh, man, I’m all outta cash!’”
— A Good Egg (@pairx2) January 29, 2020