The plots in Star Wars movies are very serious affairs, but there is a lot more camaraderie taking place behind the scenes when the cameras stop rolling. Especially on the latest film with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which served as the final film in the ongoing saga as well as the last in the sequel trilogy where actors such as Daisy Ridley first got their big break. So when it comes to these sorts of occasions, it helps to bring some levity to the production — and that’s what second unit director Victoria Mahoney tried to do.
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Mahoney turned a lot of heads when Abrams brought her on board to help direct Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. But it’s what she brought behind the scenes that helped make the production go smoothly. While speaking with the Hollywood Reporter about the movie, Majoney revealed an intriguing story that we hope makes it into some of the special features when the film hits home video markets.
“I always play music between large scale setups and will forever revel in the day that I caught Daisy Ridley, as Dark Rey, dancing between takes to Prince,” Mahoney explained. “Second unit had quite a few, notorious moments of Stormtroopers and Rebels moving in lockstep, across from each other. But nothing tops what Dawn Gilliam, J.J.’s longtime script supervisor, created. She calls it ‘Funky Friday’ where she blasts a preselected song across the sound system at day’s end, every Friday. Whenever second unit wrapped early, we’d run over to main unit and participate.”
She added, “Perhaps one of the coolest, most surreal moments happened on a summer evening during a scene involving Naomi Ackie (Jannah) and Mr. Billy Dee Williams (Lando). We were all dancing and singing at the top of our lungs to Sister Sledge when J.J. and I caught sight of each other and howled in the euphoria of Mr. Williams, ever so smoothly, bopping and grooving along. It’s impossible to adequately describe the adrenaline of a dance-off with creatures, crew, cast and Lando Calrissian.”
It’s interesting to hear so much about all the fun behind had behind the scenes, especially because of how dramatic the actual movie ended up being. Perhaps we’ll learn some more stories about how lively the production was after the film has been in theaters for a couple months.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now playing in theaters.
