L3-37 Actress Didn't Know What a Droid Was When Auditioning for 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'

Many actors would do whatever it took to join the Star Wars universe, thanks to years of being a fan of the franchise, while other performers might not have the slightest clue about the galaxy far, far away. Solo: A Star Wars Story actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge was so unfamiliar with the science fiction saga that, when auditioning for her role of L3-37, she had a hard time comprehending what a droid was.

"I was going to the audition and I thought, 'This character is amazing, she's a revolutionary, she's really cool,' and the dialogue was amazing, and it said, just in one of the stage directions, 'droid.' So i was like, 'Droid...droid...what's a droid?'" Waller-Bridge confirmed with The Graham Norton Show. "And then I Googled a droid and then, nothing much really came up with the pictures, it wasn't explicitly a robot. I was in the taxi on the way to the audition and I was like, 'Sh-t, I really should know what a droid is,' and I was asking my taxi driver, he was like, 'I don't know what a droid is.' And he called his family, like, 'What's a droid?'"

Waller-Bridge's frustrations weren't necessarily that she didn't recognize C-3PO and R2-D2, but didn't know how a "droid" would be defined, forcing her to make some desperate decisions.

"And the more panicky I got and I got to the audition and I was like, I'm just gonna play it like a human because the chances are, it's a human. Because most of the times when you audition, it's a human," the actress pointed out. "So I went in, as a human, and I did the audition, and the guys were like, 'Oh, that's really great, thank you. Could you try it a bit more droid-y?' [I replied,] 'What sort of droid-y vibe do you want?' And, luckily, one of the directors went like this, honestly, I saw his hand, he was like, 'A bit more like [imitates robotic movement],' and I was like, 'That's a f-cking robot!'"

This one slight mannerism immediately clicked with Waller-Bridge, resulting in an impressive, if ultimately unnecessary, robotic audition.

"And then I was full-on, like, I know what they want now," she added. "They decided they didn't need it to be droid-y at all, in the end. I think it might have worked in my favor that way."

Audiences can witness Waller-Bridge's droid when Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25th.

Are you looking forward to L3-37 in Solo? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

[H/T YouTube, The Graham Norton Show]