In celebration of the Blu-ray release of Raya and the Last Dragon, Kelly Marie Tran joined us for an episode of Collider Ladies Night to discuss her experience working on the Disney Animation film and also to take a look back on her journey in the industry thus far and how she got to where she is now. And, of course, a significant part of that journey is her involvement in the Star Wars film franchise.
Tran had a significant role in Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi playing Rose Tico, a mechanic for the Resistance. After surviving the Battle of D’Qar, Rose teams up with Finn (John Boyega) to try to figure out a way to disable the First Order’s hyperspace tracking device so that what’s left of the Resistance can get away. It was a huge part of the plot of the film overall and also significantly contributed to Finn’s growth, putting into focus exactly who and what he’s fighting for.
After all that, one might expect Rose to have a fairly large role in the next film, The Rise of Skywalker - I most certainly did. But when that installment hit theaters in December 2019, the character didn’t even get two minutes of screen time. During the Star Wars portion of our Ladies Night chat, I opted to ask Tran about her expectations for the character going forward right after she finished filming The Last Jedi and how they compared to what we wound up getting in Rise.
While she didn’t get into story specifics, Tran did offer up an important lesson learned about forgoing expectations in favor of being in the moment. Here’s how she put it:
“It’s hard. I think as an actor you don’t really have control over what is happening in a narrative, if that makes sense. And I think as an actor and as an individual, I always try to take my expectations out of the situation because I also want to, as much as possible, try and be present in the experience. I am really, really proud of the way that I’ve been able to show up for myself during this whole journey because, again, if we’re going through my journey and my career, I went from sketch comedy and doing improv and indie theater to then doing Star Wars and then from there doing [Raya]. It’s nonsensical. It’s miraculous, nonsensical, magical stuff that, for me, I just want people to know and believe that you might go through certain times in your life that are hard and difficult, but coming out on the other side of that and having your support group and being with people who believe in you, there’s nothing like it in the entire world. And I think for me, moving from the Star Wars experiences to then going to Raya has been absolutely miraculous. Raya for me is about celebrating the parts of myself that as a child I was taught that I should hide and what a poetic healing experience that has been.”
If you’re looking for more from Tran, stay tuned because we’ll have her full Collider Ladies Night conversation for you soon covering her early sketch comedy days, even more on Star Wars, how she broke into the voice acting end of the industry and so much more!