Cat attacks, reasons to hate Blackpool and a “baby Dedra” flashback episode : a few highlights from the Diego Luna & Denise Gough panel at Starfury Invasion
Just realised I didn’t crosspost here … so, some notes from the first of the Starfury panels, with huge thanks again for the Keero gang’s input! So great to meet you guys :) 
1. They discussed never having had a scene together and pondered what a scene between Cassian and Dedra might be. Denise speculated on the two characters meeting once they are elderly and then remembered and said “I’d be really old. You’d be dead”. She then teased Diego about his age and he said something like “This is our first panel together. This will also be our *last* panel together”
2. Diego mentioned how they thought they were going to get to travel to exotic filming locations but instead ended up in places like Blackpool which was “hell” (he said this with such passionate hate, it was very funny) because it was so cold. “A local cafe said I had eaten there and photoshopped my head onto a random body and my head isn’t even the right size”. Also mentioned how the Kenari flashback scenes were filmed in park behind Pinewood with people walking their dogs just out of shot.
3. A great question about the compression of the seasons - was there anything that couldn’t be shown that you would have liked? Denise: there was meant to be a ‘baby Dedra’ flashback episode to the kinderblock. “Dedra with her hair in a bun from age 3”. Diego focused on how the quality would have suffered because the bar would have dropped and praised the decision to compress in general. Season 2 was written before S1 was released so the writing wasn’t about what was popular in S1. So the writing had integrity.
4. The strong women in the series and working with those actresses: Diego said he was used to it from his background growing up in theatre. Denise also expressed appreciation of all the female characters and then focused on the way reaction to Dedra was at first appreciative of her ‘girlboss’ appearance.. until we get to when she tortures Bix and we realise “She’s a fascist among fascists”. She also said how she had always wanted to do a production of Macbeth but “with the roles swapping every night” just to make the point. Another question speculated on Dedra being a psychopath. Instead, Denise focused on being fascinated by how people are drawn to fascism: Dedra’s been brainwashed. She loved the prison ending and the idea of drawn out punishment - killing her would be “way too easy”.
5. They were asked if there was anything they would change about s1. Both focused on the difference between theatre and the screen - in the former it’s useful to review your own performance but in film you really can’t. Sometimes errors are fixed in the edit: Diego recalled really screwing up a scene in Y Tu Mama Tambien but watching it later and saying to the director - “but it’s great?!”. He was then told that they had used the video from take 4 but the audio from take 17. Denise recalled fumbling her line about the “multi-sector data blend” really badly after being told by the Lt Felzonis actor how much he admired her as a performer. They eventually fixed it in the edit. But the next day she woke up and had it perfect. Diego said that you really shouldn’t do this - “you have to let it go or you wake up at 3am screaming “Holy shit!!”” Denise ended up studying the scripts ‘like they were Shakespeare’ to get into the rhythm of the language.
6. The hardest scene to film emotionally for Diego was Maarva’s funeral because “Cassian is cut off from his community” and therefore unable to properly say goodbye. Denise said it was harder to watch the series afterwards, now, considering how the world has changed since it was written and filmed. Both spoke about the enormous impact of Nemik’s manifesto, in universe and out.
7. I asked about their characters’ endings, their fates, and what they were thinking in those moments. Denise said that Dedra would quickly adapt to life in the prison “unfortunately” and Diego teased that she’d “like the tube” for the food - because it was orderly and neat and Denise added that “Dedra doesn’t really eat..” She also emphasised that she sadly believed nowadays that some people simply can’t change. Dedra would have no regrets. She’d have a good sleep “and then be fine, unfortunately”. For Diego, I quoted Dan Gilroy speculating that Cassian believes in the Force by the time of his death and he said he agreed with this: that he and Jyn were finding the strength to do this by ‘becoming one with it’ and also emphasised the importance of that little nod at the Force healer.
8. Diego was asked about Cassian’s relationship with Wilmon, noting the way that he’s the only character who Cassian cradles the head of during embraces - was this in the script, directed or an acting choice? Diego mentioned how his off-screen relationship with Muhannad Bhaier was developing alongside that of the characters - so it felt like a natural extension of that.
8. Denise was not at all happy that Dedra and Syril would be in a relationship but as with her doubts about commiting to a Star Wars project at all (before accepting the job for s1 she was sent the first three episodes and knew then that she was in safe hands - even though Dedra isn’t even in those)… once she read the scripts she was on board. “Kyle is one of the greatest actors I have ever looked into the eyeballs of” - she mentioned how great it was to act with all the strange stares and odd inflections of lines like “It’s good to see you happy”. She added that Syril sees something ‘reptilian’ in Dedra in their final scene and that if he could have killed her there and then he would have “thrown her off that balcony”. She added that “the big love story of Syril’s life is actually Cassian” because of his obsession - Dedra was only ever really about that too.
9. In connection to that, Dedra confirmed that Syril is absolutely not trying to save Dedra when he makes that dive at Cassian in 2.08 - he doesn’t know or care that Cassian is aiming at her. Diego hilariously recalled a time when he was attacked by a cat (complete with gestures demonstrating how it just kept attaching itself to his back where he couldn’t get rid of it) and that the director went with this idea for the fight scene with Syril: Cassian the trained soldier vs someone who is fuelled by pure hate.
10. Diego’s favourite line is “I have friends everywhere”. He said that he liked so many, but that sometimes the shortest ones were the most powerful “because they are so innocuous in many ways but they have such power”.
Apologies for the poor photo quality – they were at some distance, but I loved the energy of the cat attack acting in the last two.
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