‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens': Kylo Ren's Stunt Man Talks Lightsaber Duels, Actual Sets

Adam Driver’s stunt man in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” recently shared some production details where he talked about the actual sets movie director J.J. Abrams created for the film and also on what viewers can expect to see from the lightsaber duels. He also teased the importance of the design of the cross-guard lightsaber.

Hungarian Toth Gyula recently talked about his experience working on the set of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as Adam Driver’s stunt double for his role as the villain Kylo Ren. In an interview with a local film site Index.hu (English translations from Starwars7news.com), the 26-year old was asked whether the film will have the spectacular, jumping lightsaber duels that fans saw in the trilogy, or if it will feature the “old man’s” samurai technology once perfected by Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker.

“I can tell that it is not by chance that the title is The Force Awakens, the lightsabers will have a major role,” he said. Gyula didn’t reveal any further details but instead asked fans to see for themselves when the movie comes out in cinemas.

Toth Gyula also recalled his reaction when he first saw Kylo Ren’s cross-guard lightsaber in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” He said he initially found the design “strange.”

“I was just looking at it: What is THIS? I came for a Star Wars production, not a medieval movie or something. During the filming, however, when i could take the real one, it was damn good,” he revealed.

Adam Driver’s stunt double also teased the importance of the cross-guard lightsaber. There’s supposedly a reason why the weapon was designed as such. But again Gyula declined to reveal more details for fear of getting penalised.

However, he did confirm previous reports about the actual sets that J.J. Abrams built solely for the film. “I do not want to exaggerate, but I think 70 percent of the scenery was actually built and could be touched,” he said. Abrams reportedly had little use of the green background when shooting scenes since he was being practical with the sets using mostly the tools of the old trilogy and rarely of the modern technology.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, J.J. Abrams cited one scene in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” where a classic, old-school seesaw puppet” was used instead of CGI to represent a Jawa-like creature that pops out of the sand. The puppet was reportedly buried in the sand and was just pushed on one side for it to pop out.

Toth Gyula said in the same Hungarian interview that having the practical sets in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" instead of the CGI made him feel comfortable acting out his scenes as Kylo Ren. It reportedly also made it easier for the other actors to act with the actual sets compared to playing in front of a green background.

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