Rian Johnson reveals how the characters of Rose Tico and Vice Admiral Holdo were different in early iterations of The Last Jedi.
In Holdo’s introductory scene (her speech to the Resistance), Johnson described the initial version of the admiral as “hippy dippy” in order to illustrate how her leadership style contrasts with others we’ve seen. Later on, he became concerned Laura Dern’s performance was “too spacey” and decided to retool her characterization to make it stronger. Johnson maintains Holdo still has the “feminine energy” he envisioned, but it’s simply dialed back so it doesn’t become overbearing.
With Rose, Johnson had imagined her as a “grumpy, Eeyore type,” but that changed in a huge way when Kelly Marie Tran was cast. The actress’ upbeat personality and enthusiastic outlook influenced Johnson to rewrite scenes during production (like when Rose meets Finn) so the character was a better fit for Tran’s style. In the commentary, Johnson explains he first made Rose “suspicious” of Finn, but reworked it to make her a big fan of the First Order defector. Rose is the one who inspires Finn’s change of heart and makes him see the bigger picture, so this makes a lot of sense.
Take the link to read the full article over at Screen Rant.
