Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Actor Adam Driver Loves the Film’s Ambiguity

Kylo Ren is one of the main attractions heading into Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Adam Driver is absolutely thrilled with how the film decided to tackle his character and told CinemaBlend all about how the directors opted not to spoonfeed every answer to the audience. That sort of ambivalence can be a risk, just ask anyone who really didn’t like those moments in The Last Jedi. But, Driver sounds very similar to Daisy Ridley and John Boyega when speaking about the concluding film in this sequel trilogy. The path forward may be uncertain, but the ending seemed to be good enough for these young stars. Driver has been a major highlight of all of these films in the current trilogy and The Rise of Skywalker has him primed for more of the same.

“I don’t want to shortchange it by saying what they are because I always feel that that’s more exciting for an audience to attach meaning,” Driver began. “And in a sense it doesn’t really matter what my opinion is. It’s for an audience to project their own meaning towards. And luckily we had a script that honors ambiguity.”

“They, I should say – Chris and J.J. – wrote something that is not always spelled out in the dialogue, which I love,” he elaborated. “It’s not characters saying exactly what they’re feeling. it’s a Testament to, or keeps in the tradition of the original movies. They’re filled with so much ambiguity and moments that I guess literally don’t make sense, but there’s an emotional truth about them that makes an audience project meaning.”

Some of that meaning has come from the effective Darth Vader cosplay that Kylo dons in the trilogy. Being confronted by a genuine legacy Sith character in this iteration might present some deeper meanings behind the villain’s presentation.

“We’ve been talking with people before about masks, and that’s such a huge iconography of Star Wars that we took for granted that we had to reimagine,” Driver shared with Collider. “So what is it about someone who hides himself? Or presents the person to the world that underneath is something completely different? And I think for the first … maybe there’s a moment in this one that’s surprising. That’s so vague.”

Directed by JJ Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and Carrie Fisher.