An Interview With Captain Phasma – AKA Gwendoline Christie

On December 2-4 I had the experience of a lifetime to travel to Los Angeles and experience the magic, wonder and mystery that surrounds Star Wars – The Last Jedi. The trip surrounded the December 3 Press Junket and brought forth a ton of excitement from all of the actors that were present, but also all of the people in the audience too.

After the press event we interviewed: Domhnall Gleeson (“General Hux”), Gwendoline Christie (“Captain Phasma”), Laura Dern (“Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo”), and Kelly Marie Tran (“Rose Tico”).

Gwendoline Christie was so gracious as we gave her a warm welcome to our room full of bloggers. We were impressed by her candor in the press event and she did not disappoint in our interview either.

While Gwendoline did not spill too much (as all of the actors were sworn to secrecy on many aspects of the movie), she did explain that in this film you see Captain Phasma in a bad place, as this is where she was left at the end of the last movie. Gwendoline Christie explained that in this film you will see much more Phasma and that she is “resilient and has a need to fulfill her destiny; an overriding sense of revenge and a violence that comes from deep inside her.”

One of things that is intriguing for Gwendoline Christie was the cbreaking of societal norms that Captain Phasma portrays and shows. In society “women are not supposed to have violence from within.”

We asked Gwendoline Christie about her costume and she explained how much she loved it. While the costume was rigid and uncompromising, it allowed her to have her “senses shut down and exist entirely practically.”

With the character of Captain Phasma, Gwendoline Christie shared that “in every role that you take there is something that you need to do. With Captain Phasma she has a degree of strength that Rian Johnson and I worked on a lot.”

With all of the fighting that Captain Phasma does, she had to have a great trainer and Gwendoline Christie explained that CC Smith was the stunt director that she worked with on Star Wars – The Last Jedi. She was so excited to work with him again as she first worked with him on Game of Thrones. CC Smith had to work with Gwendoline as Phasma to execute the physicality of her character because she is a woman with a different strength and conviction than Gwendoline. Gwendoline Christie shared that CC Smith has allowed her to make training a part of her life and while she may not always enjoy it, it has pushed her to do things she never thought she could and it gave her “the courage to accomplish more.”

Gwendoline Christie explored Phasma deeply as she continued to play her in this movie. She stated that she knows she is a person, but she had to understand why she behaves the way that she does. In doing this she found that she is fearful and this fear takes Phasma over and leads to loss of empathy.

In Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past.

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