An interview with Domhnall Gleeson: The Last Jedi

I was a guest of Disney & LucasFilm at the the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Global Press Event last week. All opinions are my own. This Domhnall Gleeson Star Wars Interview is part of my coverage of the #TheLastJediEvent. Interview photos are provided by Louise Bishop at MomStart.com

Our interview with Dohmnall was full of laughter. Which you may consider surprising since he is so evil and corrupt as General Hux in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Also, side note, he's not Cate Blanchett.

Chatting with the charming Domhnall Gleeson about General Hux and his Star Wars experience...

While the rest of the cast of Star Wars : The Last Jedi previewed the film, Domhall Gleeson stayed at home. He said he would rather see it with like two thousand people who don’t know what’s going to happen.

Just the feeling in the room... At The Force Awakens, that premier was insane. I was there with my dad and my friend Lawrence. Like what the hell is going on. Like, whoops and cheering and big gasps and everything. I didn’t want to miss out on that being my first experience with the film, so I’m waiting till whatever day it is next week.

He doesn't know if he's allowed to say if Han Solo is his favorite.

I went to one of the premier things last time round, Harrison Ford was there and they were giving out these plastic ones to the fans, and I picked a green one ‘cause I’m Irish. We were at the thing and just Harrison Ford’s like the coolest man in the world. I wastalking to my agent and I was kind of waving the thing around, and I saw Harrison Ford was looking over at me, and I was like... I got my photo with him.

When I was a kid, I was like an Indiana Jones kid. More than Star Wars even. So that was like my childhood... Harrison Ford in a different movie. I’d never seen the original trilogy, any of them in the cinema.

Then my big experience was when I was deciding whether I could be in the Force Awakens, JJ gave me a file of the original Star Wars, and I watched it on a big screen. That was like, amazing. And then they all became my favorites. How diplomatic is that? They’re all my favorites. But I do love Han Solo.

How Domhnall found his villain side for General Hux

You can’t take you character notes from other characters. I think you want to base it on something that’s real.

He's finding battling for his place with Kylo Ren, which is very dysfunctional, and of course favor with Snoke. But it's not something that's evident from the beginning but rather something that develops.

Taking a step back from him and thinking objectively, you want Hux to suffer... I think there’s a desperation about him, which is very unbecoming. There’s a need at all times to make sure that everybody knows that he’s important; that they should do what he says, that he deserves his position in things.

Does Domhnall side with the light or dark side?

We all have our dark moments, you know, everybody has those, and those moments when you remind yourself that you should be a person than what your instinct to do...that there are other people. Hopefully I’m not that bad about remembering that the good of the people is more important than the good of your own thing.

Most pieces of great art reflect something about the times you live in, no matter when you live... There’s never a lack of evil in- or not evil. Never a lack of bad intention in the world. And people only out for their own interest and the interest of the few. That’s been around forever and will always be around. That’s not going to disappear. I think you can just compare it to any time, but obviously what brilliance of Star Wars is that when you watch it you can be entertained by the dark side, whereas in real life, that isn’t entertaining, that’s terrifying. Different.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi..General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) ..Photo: David James..©2017 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Even Domhnall has his geek out moments.

So the days when you don’t know somebody’s gonna be in, and you’re talking to Rian about something and then Mark Hamill just strolls up in his Luke Skywalker gear, you’re like what the f-...

Those moments, when you’re not expecting them, and he’s there on a Star Wars set and you’re like, what are you doing in the evil place? Why are you hanging out here, and oh heis just here to see Rian. Those things are kind of amazing. Those where you pinch yourself.

Don't worry Domhnall, we geeked out too.