Meet Rose: Newest 'Star Wars' Star Kelly Marie Tran Introduces Us to Her 'Last Jedi' Character
While the world continues to digest The Last Jedi trailer released at Star Wars Celebration last week, there was plenty of other news about the upcoming sequel that came out of the fan convention, including the revelation of the newest hero of the Resistance.
“Her name is Rose. Rose is part of the Resistance, she works in maintenance,” Kelly Marie Tran, the relative newcomer plucked to play the pivotal role, explained to Yahoo Movies (watch above). “She’s this person who is an unlikely hero. She gets pulled into this adventure.”
Director Rian Johnson filled in a few more details during the Last Jedi panel. “She embodies this notion that anyone out there, anyone among us can step up and turn into a hero. It’s really where the character of Rose comes from. She’s not a soldier, she’s not looking to be a hero, and she gets pulled in a really big way into an adventure in this movie with Finn.”
Tran, whose biggest previous credit was a handful of appearances on the Amazon family series Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, said she was predictably nervous joining the Episode VIII ensemble, but credited fellow Resistance fighters Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), and Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron) for “welcoming me and making me feel at home. They were so generous.”
Her co-stars returned the love, with Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, saying, “If she were any more adorable, she’d be a Disney cartoon.” Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy also complimented the actress, telling Yahoo Movies that Tran “is very self-possessed, she’s extremely comfortable at such a young age stepping into this.”
Tran seemed genuinely relieved that she could finally come clean about her role in the film. Not even her parents knew about it, she says. Instead, she told them she was working on an “independent film in Canada” and at one point sent them Canadian maple syrup from the British set to help sell the ruse.
And even though Rose didn’t appear in the trailer, Tran wasn’t disappointed. “No, you know why? I’m excited to have her come out… I really want her to be seen, seen in the movie,” she told us. “I want it to be this organic kind of thing.”
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