There is a lot to the character of Kylo Ren as we saw in his debut in The Force Awakens. And we’re about to learn much more about him come December in The Last Jedi. Adam Driver comments on how he approaches playing Kylo in this piece with Vanity Fair. As expected, Driver does not take things lightly when it comes time to don the dark outfit and arrive on set for filming.
“There’s big personal things that I find about every character, not just in Star Wars, that you have to make as personal as possible,” he told me. “It’s the big joke about being an actor, that you make everything you’re doing seem like it’s life or death”—including his internal process of becoming Kylo, about which he is circumspect. “The things about that character that I find painful, that I really relate to, I kind of prefer to keep to myself,” he said.
Driver’s in-the-zone solemnity is something his castmates can’t help but take note of. “He’s very moody and intense,” Mark Hamill said. “I remember saying to Adam, ‘I don’t know how you work, or your technique. But, at some point, you were my nephew. I probably bounced you on my knee. I probably babysat for you. There’s that side, and now we’re both estranged from the Skywalker family. All I’m suggesting is, if you’d like, maybe we could go to lunch, we could get together and hang out.’”
