Disney Gallery: The senile eroticismMandalorianhas taught fans about the directing, acting, concept, and technology of The Mandalorian, but the primary takeaway from currently aired episodes of the 8-part behind-the-scenes look of the space western is that actor Carl Weathers is completely delightful.
Weathers is a veteran actor best known for his iconic role as Apollo Creed in the early Rocky movies; he plays gangster Greef Carga in The Mandalorian. In the "Cast" episode of Disney Gallery, director Jon Favreau revealed that Greef Carga was meant to die early in The Mandalorian Season 1 and Weathers would return to play an entirely different, alien character later in the season, but after meeting Weathers in person he dismissed the idea completely.
"He was gonna be un full prosthetics as a different alien race," Favreau said in his cast roundtable, "and we switched it up."
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Dave Filoni, director and producer of Disney+'s The Mandalorian(and many other Star Wars animated shows), added that seeing and hearing Weathers made them change their mind. "He came in and talked and we were like 'how are we gonna cover his face up with prosthetics?'"
When Favreau came to Weathers saying his alien character was swapped because they didn't want to hide his face, Weathers cooly replied, "I figured as much."
Gina Carano, the former MMA fighter whose first starring TV role is Cara Dune The Mandalorian, mentioned that Weathers is also a mentor on set for less experienced actors. "I remember one time I couldn't get something right and I was kind of upset with myself," she said in the "Cast: episode, "and [Weathers] was reading the paper and was like 'happens to all of us.' I was like, all right. I'm over it now. Thanks Carl! Just a precious, precious human."
In Episode 4 "Technology," Weathers got to talk about his experience filming The Mandalorian and how its approach to its alien worlds made his job more fun. The episode revealed that instead of using greenscreen for backgrounds, the Mando team created a planetarium-like dome of projector screens that visually recreated the environments the characters moved around in. For example, in the finale's climactic scene where Greef, Cara, Mando, and The Child are rowing down a volcanic river tunnel, the screens created the 3D experience of being in an actual tunnel.
"There was nothing like being in the lava tunnel," Weathers said, "actually, it's so disorienting because usually as an actor you're standing there and you're pretending. But here we are and you look at the wall and literally the wall is moving as you would be moving on the boat, you look down the tunnel and the tunnel is growing...and the lava is flowing. You felt like you were moving."
When Carano pointed out that the movement of the screens almost activated her motion sickness, Weathers admitted he had a bigger problem.
"I just didn't want to fall overboard in the lava," he joked. Or did he?
Disney+'s Disney Gallery: The Mandalorianis full of interesting behind-the-scenes moments like these, but almost all of the great ones revolve around Weathers being the hilarious, OG badass he's been his whole career. Just keep him out of the lava river next season, OK?
Topics Disney+ Star Wars