The Mandalorian, Disney+’s most popular installment in the Star Wars world, tells the story of Din Djarin, better known as the Mandalorian (played by Pedro Pascal), who works to protect the young Grogu who is of the same species as Yoda. Emily Swallow plays The Armorer in the show.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview founder Erik Meers, Swallow discussed what it was like being in The Armorer’s costume.

“Well surprisingly, my prep for shooting for this character is easier than anything that I do when I’m just a normal human being where you see my face because it takes about two hours to do hair and makeup for regular roles, and it takes me about 10 minutes to get into my armor, so it’s cake,” she laughed. “I love it, don’t have to worry about those super early morning calls, it does sort of feel like a ritual, putting it all on, I mean, as putting on armor is.”

She continued, “I suppose, however, the feeling of being inside it does not feel as empowering as it looks because it’s it’s rather awkward and you can’t see anything and my movement is a bit constricted by it, so I really do have to rely on the knowledge that it looks incredible because it’s such a beautiful, beautiful costume and I feel like they have captured the essence of who this woman is and the strength that she has and the sort of the majesty that she has in an incredible way, so I just keep that going in my head whenever I’m sitting there going, ‘I hope I don’t – I hope I don’t look really stupid because I feel really awkward.'”

Swallow also revealed her favorite behind-the-scenes moments from the show.

“Sorry to gush but everyone who works on the show is not only incredibly talented and so wonderfully creative but just so generous and so collaborative and it feels like everybody brings a little bit of that little kid who loved Star Wars and still loved Star Wars,” she said. “But I think that I have the most fun probably sort of undercutting a lot of the seriousness that The Armorer has.”

She further explained, “I have a great time. For instance, there have been some scenes that I have with Grogu and the camera will be on him and it’s his coverage and it’s really fun to pipe in there with some – because you know the kid doesn’t talk – so it’s great fun to pipe in there was some lines for him or to get him to sing some songs, make fun of them, or similarly when we’ve got some Mando sitting there and we can kind of say whatever we want sometimes because we’re not going to mess anything up with our mouths moving, so everything is so serious between Din Djarin and The Armorer so sometimes Brendan [Wayne], who is one of the Mandos, he and I will just get going on a riff on some ridiculous – you know the stupider the better – some ridiculous song or comedic bit and those are the moments that I really love.”

Leave a comment

Read more about: