See Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a crowd, director J.J. Abrams says of his movie
‘The thing that is so fun about Star Wars is the communal experience of being with hundreds of people and getting to scream and laugh and cheer and cry’
J.J. Abrams can't really settle on a favourite moment from his saga of directing, co-writing and co-producing Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but this one isn't bad. “Being here now means we're actually finished with the movie, which is a relief,” Abrams said with Jedi calm.
Perched in a small living room set-up inside the cavernous Los Angeles Convention Centre, this is the final stretch of Abrams' journey to this galaxy far, far away and back again, which started nearly three years ago.
Lucasfilm's creative executive Pablo Hidalgo helped you answer questions about the Star Wars universe during the making of the film. Did you ever stump him?
He was not only unstumpable but he was immediate. I would send him an email at almost any hour asking some arcane question and I'd hit send and I'd hear “ding” and he'd already have responded with an answer. What you realise, by the way, in working on these movies is that even things that are canon, that are beloved and absolute to fans, are very much fluid and in flux. For example, the Millennium Falcon itself, the cockpit changed dramatically from the first to the second movie. It's much bigger in The Empire Strikes Back. Even things that are even the most fundamental and beloved are changing before our eyes and we don't even notice it.
Was there anything you were surprised the powers that be let you do?
I was most surprised that the studio never said no. That's incredible to me.