Kelly Marie Tran Details the Challenge of Shooting General Leia's Scenes in The Rise of Skywalker

With the unused footage of the late Carrie Fisher from The Force Awakens, General Leia Organa was brought onscreen for the last time in The Rise of Skywalker. Shooting her scenes wasn't exactly easy for the cast, especially for Kelly Marie Tran whose character was mostly with Leia in the majority of the film.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Tran was asked if Leia's scenes were given more attention for the film. "Yeah, the one thing that was difficult was that you were acting with footage that was prerecorded," she explained. Tran said, they would sometimes look in between takes and check how the actor delivered the line and then they "try to imagine and react to that."

She also noted that it was a "very different experience for her," and that filming scenes with Leia "took more time." "We probably did a lot more takes for scenes with her than without her," she added.

"It's one thing to sit there, look at that footage and try to react to it, but a lot of the big group scenes felt like they were puzzle pieces if that makes sense," Tran said. According to the actress, it took more time to film because they were "trying to use specific moments that they already had." Tran thinks there were more reshoots for those scenes because they had to make sure that their performances "matched up."

Tran also recalled filming for a scene on the planet of Exogol where she was running across the platform. She revealed that they shot that scene many times despite only it being only a second in the movie. "I remember having bruises on my knees the next day because we kept running, and then we would fall onto our knees and do some more shooting stuff," she said. However, she thinks that the scene wasn't in the film as well.

Unfortunately, Tran's Rose Tico didn't have many scenes that made it in the final cut, she had less than two minutes of screentime in The Rise of Skywalker. According to Chris Terrio, this was the result of the "difficulty of using Carrie [Fisher]'s footage" in the way they wanted to. Also, certain scenes they have already written for the two characters did not meet the "standards of photo-realism."

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now showing in theaters.

Also Read: John Boyega Shades Kylo Ren and Rey's Relationship in The Rise of Skywalker