Mark Malkin at Variety.com recently caught up with Jeremy Allen White, and the conversation turned to the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, with the actor sharing how he came to get the role of voicing Rotta following a call with Jon Favreau.
I didn’t know Jabba the Hutt had a son.
Neither did I.
They say, “We want you as Jabba the Hutt’s son.” How do you begin to prepare?
I’ve been a fan of Jon Favreau’s for a very long time. “Swingers” and “Made” had a tremendous effect on me as a young man, a young actor. We met at a party. I told him that, and he was like, “I have something I want to talk to you about. Can I call you?” It was the next day and he was talking about “Mandalorian,” and I said, “It’s a great show. You do a great job. I’d known Pedro Pascal for a little bit, and he’s great and has fun on it and he loves you.” He was like, “I want you to be in it.” Fantastic, of course. And then he started explaining it and started talking about Rotta. I’d never done voice work. There isn’t any stop-motion work or anything physical like that. I was excited about doing a job that is in this world of “Star Wars,” a world that I have admired for a very long time. I was also excited about doing the movie that my daughters [Ezer, 7, and Dolores, 4, whom he shares with his ex-wife Addison Timlin] can go and see.
How do you find your Rotta voice or is it just your voice?
I did a bit of a voice, but then I think Jon also ended up tweaking it a little bit. It was maybe a year ago. I did a couple sessions. I’ve not seen any of it.
Do you find parts of yourself in Rotta?
Yeah, for sure. I’m not gonna tell you too much about it, but yes.
The Mandalorian & Grogu arrives on May 22nd 2026.
