The Mandalorian Director Details Werner Herzog’s Love For Baby Yoda

The Mandalorian has continued to add new elements and surprises to the Star Wars universe, as its titular gunslinger goes on an adventure throughout the galaxy. One of the most talked-about elements has easily been “Baby Yoda”, the pint-sized creature that has captured the hearts of so many fans. The series’ most recent episode essentially flipped the script on Baby Yoda’s role in the series, and the relationship that the creature had with The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal). According to the episode’s director, Deborah Chow, Baby Yoda’s involvement led to some adorable behind-the-scenes moments. Spoilers for this week’s episode of The Mandalorian, “The Sin”, below! Only look if you want to know!

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Chow was asked about directing Werner Herzog, who plays the mysterious “The Client” in the series. As Chow revealed, directing Herzog and the Baby Yoda puppet resulted in a bizarre and endearing moment, when the prolific German director and actor began to treat the puppet as if it was a real creature.

“Normally, you just approach them as actors, but Werner is special,” Chow revealed. “One of the weirdest moments I had on set, in my life, was trying to direct Werner with the baby. How did I end up with Werner Herzog and Baby Yoda? That was amazing. Werner had absolutely fallen in love with the puppet. He, at some point, had literally forgotten that it wasn’t a real being and was talking to the child as though it was a real, existing creature.”

That’s right — Herzog, whose filmography includes a documentary about a man being mauled by a bear, began to treat Baby Yoda like a real creature.

“It’s heartbreakingly beautiful,” Werner Herzog, who portrays The Client on the series, said in an interview earlier this month. “And I saw two technicians operating it remotely. One was for the eyes and the mouth, the other was for other facial expressions, it’s a phenomenal technical achievement, and beyond the technological achievement it’s heartbreaking.”

As Chow went on to explain, the Baby Yoda puppet caused similarly-enthralled reactions amongst other members of the show’s crew.

“I hoped [Baby Yoda would be a phenomenon], but you just never know,” Chow continued. “You get so close to it that you’re not sure you have any perspective on anything. With the baby, every time it came on set, the whole crew would respond to it. Even the grip department, every production assistant is coming to the monitors, trying to see it. We definitely knew there’s something special going on with this — we just hoped the rest of the world would feel the same way.”

What do you think of Werner Herzog’s reaction to Baby Yoda? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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