An interview with Domhnall Gleeson about Star Wars : The Last Jedi

Star Wars : The Last Jedi opens in theaters tomorrow! Star Wars fans across the globe are so excited! With cast and crew being tight lipped to avoid spoilers, the anticipation is growing! I am so excited to share that while at the Star Wars Press Conference I was able to interview several actors from Star Wars : The Last Jedi. Today I am thrilled to share the highlights of our interview with Domhnall Gleeson who plays General Hux. He was witty, funny, and charming, and I am so excited to share.

Domhnall Gleeson, unlike the rest of the cast did not actually see the film before the interview. He explained his reasoning for that right off the bat.

“I decided I would rather see it with like two thousand people who don’t know what’s going to happen. Just the feeling in the room of like, cause at the Force Awakens, that premier was insane. I was there with my dad and my friend Lawrence. Like what the hell is going on. Like, whoops and cheering and big gasps and everything. I didn’t want to miss out on that being my first experience with the film, so I’m waiting till whatever day it is next week. Yeah.”

He was asked what he thought about the cameo he plays in the new Star Tours ride at Disneyland.  He seemed to think this was very cool.

“It’s cool. Like, being part of two different rides that, like, literally millions of people will go on is kind of ridiculous. But, in a way it’s no different than the films. So many people are going to see Star Wars that, it’s a bit nuts. The whole thing is a little bit nuts. It’s good though, I think.”

Photo credit to MomStart

He shared that he thinks Harrison Ford is the coolest, but not necessarily because of Han Solo.

“See, when I was a kid, I was an Indiana Jones kid. More than Star Wars even. So that was like my childhood was, Harrison Ford in a different movie.”  He shared that he actually missed the Star Wars trilogy the first time around and saw it many years later.

As most know, Domhnall is Irish and some of the film was shot in Ireland.  He was asked how he felt about it being shot in his homeland.

“I love it. And I love that the people who went there had an amazing time. I love that they got good weather. I love that they were all the way up and down the west coast, and Ireland is my home. I think it’s the best place in the world, and I’m just happy for people to see it. It’s an intensely beautiful place, and they got to see it in intensely beautiful weather, which is ridiculous. That never happens. So when they came back and they were all talking about what a good time they had in Ireland, even though I had nothing to do with that. I have to say I was pretty proud, yeah.”

He was asked if he brought anything from past villains to his character.

“You can’t steal, right, but like obviously his place in things at the beginning of the film is like Peter Cushing’s kind of role. That’s kind of, like, in terms of just the scheme of the way the villains are set up. He would be kind of fulfilling that role a little bit, so that very clipped English accent I liked for that. But then you have to go to the real world to find you influences. You can’t take you character notes from other characters. I think you want to base it on something that’s real.

You know, that you can kind of look into, so I understood where he stood in things, but no, the influences would have come from elsewhere. And also just about how he’s got to fit into the story, you know, like that was a real process with JJ of understanding the most interesting version of Hux, and the most interesting version of Hux, it turns out, which is not there from the very beginning, was the one that’s actually very disfuntaional with Kylo Ren and kind of battling for their place in things. And for favor from Snoke. That ended up, finding that along the journey, as opposed to it being there from the very beginning.”

Star Wars is such an epic franchise to be a part of. He was asked if he ever had a moment where he geeked out and thought “Oh my gosh, I am in this?!”

“Oh my gosh? That’s so polite. I use different words. Yes, there are. There are lots of moments like that because the scale of things. Because of how much Star Wars means to people….. There are so many things which are part of growing up, which are part of people’s childhoods. Star Wars would have been the first movie that a lot of people, you know what I mean? There’s just something that’s a position of privilege, so loads of moments like that. Any time, without giving anything away of who I worked with on this or didn’t work with, but when you’re on set, other people have to come on set to show Rian a costume in person to talk to him about something.

So the days when you don’t know somebody’s gonna be in, and you’re kinda talking to Ryan about something and then Mark Hamill just stoles up in his Luke Skywalker gear, you’re like what the F?. You’re like, oh my gosh! Those moments, when you’re not expecting them, and he’s there on a Star Wars set and you’re like, what are you doing in the evil place? Why are you hanging out here, and it’s like, oh he just here to see Rian. Those things are kind of amazing. Those where you pinch yourself.”

We have some big Harry Potter fans in our house and they were very excited to hear his answer for the following question. Fans know he is Gryffindor, on the good side. Now he is playing a villain. He was asked “Which, which do you tend to side with more, like, personally? Are you light or are you dark?”

“We all have our dark moments, you know, everybody has those, and those moments when you remind yourself that you should be a person than what your instinct to do is or whatever, that there are other people. I think generally, hopefully I’m not that bad about remembering that the good of the people is more important than the good of your own thing, which obviously these days is getting trampled all over all over the place, but yeah, I’ve never killed anyone. Yeah, you just start there and work backwards.”

Even though the cast has been quite good at keeping a lid on spoilers, I have felt so privileged to hear a bit from the actors.

Make sure to check out the trailer below and purchase your tickets through Fandango! This is one of the most highly anticipated film of the year so you want to make sure to have your tickets ahead of time. Skip the lines, ensure you have a seat waiting for you, and support our little site by purchasing through our links at no additional cost to you!

Thank you to Domhnall Gleeson for taking the time to meet with us.