The Mandalorian Star Pedro Pascal Reveals the Biggest Challenge of Shooting the Star Wars Series

No matter how exciting it might be to star in a Star Wars TV show, being part of the galaxy far, far away isn’t without some obstacles, with The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal recently admitting that the biggest challenge he faces on the show is finding a way to act while his entire face is obscured by his iconic helmet. Despite those limitations, having his face obscured does also offer some unique advantages, as various stunt doubles can participate in the more intense physical scenes, yet this requires all performers to collaborate to convey a unified physicality throughout the series.

“The biggest challenge in playing Mando in Season Two is still the obvious, in that, how to in subtle ways, be it through vocal intonation or physical stillness/posture, large movements, small movements, to dramatically convey a scene and keep the character compelling because he is economical anyway, much less being armored from the tips of his toes to the top of his head,” Pascal detailed with Entertainment Weekly. “It is a physical challenge that is met creatively in terms of how technically you can achieve that. It will always be particularly unique in that regard.”

Despite those challenges, the actor noted that not only his experience on the first season of the series, but also his career in live performances, allowed him to tap into those subtle nuances more easily.

“I’m not even sure if I would be able to do it if it weren’t for the amount of direct experience that I’ve had with being on stage to understand how to posture yourself,” the actor admitted. “How to physically frame yourself into something and to tell a story with a gesture, with a stance, or with very, very specific vocal intonation.”

As audiences witnessed in the behind-the-scenes series Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, Pascal and two stunt performers all worked together to embrace different elements of the character, resulting in Pascal wanting to get more involved in Season Two and take on the brunt of the acting under the helmet.

“If there were more than just a couple of pages of a one-on-one scene, I did feel uneasy about not, in some instances, being able to totally author that,” Pascal detailed to Variety earlier this year. “But it was so easy in such a sort of practical and unexciting way for it to be up to them. When you’re dealing with a franchise as large as this, you are such a passenger to however they’re going to carve it out. It’s just so specific. It’s Star Wars.”

Catch new episodes of The Mandalorian each Friday on Disney+.

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