Rogue One: Ben Mendelsohn praises VFX advancements that led to Moff Tarkin's return (exclusive)

Ben Mendelsohn has praised the work of ILM and ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ director Gareth Edwards for making his scenes with Moff Tarkin – a digital creation – as easy as possible on set. The iconic ‘Star Wars’ character, played by Peter Cushing in the 1977 original, was resurrected for the spin-off film with help on set from ‘Holby City’ actor Guy Henry who stood in for, and performed as, the Hammer star opposite Mendelsohn’s Orson Krennic.

“The strength of evolution [in VFX] in being able to introduce characters that have a CGI element to them is the development away from just someone holding a tennis ball on a stick,” Mendelsohn told us in an exclusive new interview above, “to now having an actor with motion capture stuff doing their interpolation of the character that is then captured.”

“That is the way it’s done now and quite rightly so. I think we’ve learned a lot in the way that that happens. And having someone to react from. Most of acting is reacting. The better part of it is being able to hear what the other person says and coming back at them, so having another actor there is paramount.”

You can see how Moff Tarkin was brought to life by ILM in the video below…

Mendelsohn and his co-star Mads Mikkelsen, who plays Death Star architect Galen Erso in ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ (on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Download from 10 April) also revealed that they used to practice being Force choked by Vader from an early age.

“We all did that,” Mikkelsen told us, “that’s part of the legacy of the whole thing, definitely.”

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ is available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD from 10 April 2017.

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