Fans have had quite a reaction to Kylo Ren‘s (Adam Driver) shirtless scene in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. While the moment was certainly unexpected, director Rian Johnson hinted that it wasn’t awkward behind-the-scenes.
Johnson was recently asked about the moment – which happens during Kylo’s“Force Skype call” with Rey (Daisy Ridley) – in an interview with People. And as he explained, Driver actually wasn’t shy about filming the revealing moment.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“No, no, he’s good. He’s great.” Johnson revealed. “He knew he looked good.”
While that moment has its own narrative significance within the film, Johnson said that it was also partially inspired by Driver’s training regimen for The Last Jedi.
“Adam looks so damn good because he’d been training hardcore for the past six months for those fight scenes.” Johnson explained. “I’m like, ‘Eh. He looks so good. We should put him up there.’”
Admittedly, fans still have plenty of questions surrounding The Last Jedi. But Johnson has gradually begun to explain why the shirtless scene was in the film, and what it indicates for both Kylo and Rey.
“It’s all about those Force connection scenes.” Johnson added. “The keyword being intimacy. And the idea that this was a way to just, why not step that up? The idea that, what’s even more uncomfortable having a conversation face to face with a person you don’t want to, is if they’re half-naked during it, while you’re having to do it. And so it was just another way of kind of disrobing Kylo literally and figuratively a little bit more, and pushing that sense of these conversations becoming increasingly more intimate.”
At the end of the day, these scenes between Rey and Kylo helped bring to life one of Johnson’s goals with the film – having both characters be relatable to audiences.
“I think Rey and Kylo are almost like a dual protagonist,” Johnson explained last month. “You identify with Rey, but also you identify with Kylo in a way that you never did with Vader. I know I do. Because if these movies are about adolescence, Kylo is that anger of adolescence and that rejection of the parents, and wanting to screw over your dad; and that’s something that all of us, to some degree, can identify with. And the idea of there being a bad guy who you identify with as much as you do the protagonist in some way, that’s really interesting.”
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in theaters now.
