I was invited by Disney to attend the #HanSoloEvent. Although all of my expenses are paid, all opinions are my own.

Emilia Clarke who plays “Qi’ra” in SOLO took some time to chat with us about her role in the movie. She was such a delight to talk to in our quick time together. I am SO excited to share her interview with you. One of my favorite parts of her interview was her personal mantra that she claims in difficult times, “keep on, keepin’ on.” Check out more from her interview below.

Emilia Clarke Interview at the #HanSoloEvent

Emilia Clarke shared that although she wasn’t born when the Star Wars movies first came out, her brother was a huge fan and when she was little they would dress up as Star Wars characters for Halloween but she didn’t know what was going on. Emilia said that her brother screamed louder than her when she got the part in Star Wars. However, when episode 7 cane out, she went to watch the movie with her brother and suddenly realized what everyone must’ve felt in 1977 when it first came out. It showed her the enormity and how a movie should be made and is the next level. As soon as that happened, she said that felt that she needed to be a part of that, this is how everyone should make a movie.

As you know, Emilia plays “Qi’ra” in SOLO and does a fantastic job. She shared that she feels like there are some similarities in Qi’ra and herself. “I think that Qi’ra is definitely a survivor, she does what she needs to do to keep being around. I think it is fun because what you get to see with her is you see her and Han from the beginning as kids so you get to see a youthful life when nothing was too serious. Then, you see her later on in life where she’s lived a huge amount in a short time that we don’t see her. I had to grow up very quickly.” Emilia said that “this was my first job and it was literally Baptism by Fire so I hustled and grew up really quick.”

Emilia tried not to think about the fact that she was playing the woman who came before Princess Leia. She said “it’s scary enough like standing under the Star Wars banner.” She kept reminding herself that she was before her so she doesn’t need to spend too much time worrying about it.

Emilia said, “I don’t know what my next 10 years are going to look like so I can step away from that and let Alden take that heat.”

Emilia is a young actor herself and hopes that young girls see that “strength is within us as women and that being strong is just part of being a woman as opposed to it being a choice. We all are strong.”

Game of Thrones, Terminator, Star Wars – all of these are movies that Emilia has been in and has been at the top of her game. She said that it is tricky to say what character she found to be the most talented as they’re all different and amazing. She said that “Star Wars is really challenging because you’re dealing with so much history and ensuring that you’re not going to disappoint the Star Wars fans. This is a big thing to carry to make sure you’re doing it right.” However, she’s filming the last season of Game of Thrones right now and that’s got its own.

Emilia has not only done Star Wars and other movies, but she’s also done some Broadway and she said that “it is really important to do both stage and screen as an actor because when you do the stage it’s like going back to drama school.  Emilia’s Dad was in the theater as a sound designer and she grew up being able to go back stage and there’s magic in the theater being part of an ensemble that is unlike anything you could ever get when you’re filming on screen.” Emilia shares that “you’re with the ensemble and you’re working together to make something different every night and it feels like the most beautiful thing ever. However, it’s really exhausting and it sure doesn’t pay the rent.” In comparison to screen where you’re in your trailer doing your thing. She states that it is important to mix that up if you have the ability to.

When you see SOLO, you will love their costumes. My favorites were Emilia’s outfits as they were so different throughout the movie. Emilia shares that “it’s funny because in the beginning, there were kids on the run and she remembers when she first put on that outfit and said yes, this is good, I’m going to go ahead in this.

Then, later on it needed to have an impact because of where we see Qi’ra. At this point, there’s a property about her so I wanted to give the impression that later on she had clothes that were bought for her to appear a certain way and I think that kind of plays into her character in terms of what she chooses to show and what she doesn’t.

Emilia said that she’s always wanted to be a Lego and she said that it is amazing to be part of the Star Wars Merchandise.

Working with Ron Howard was amazing. She said that she told one of the writers, “you’re joking, I don’t believe you. You can’t actually really expect me to believe that Ron Howard has chosen to come direct this movie” when he told her the news. It was a dream come true for her and he couldn’t have been better. She said he held them all in the most beautiful way and allowed them to be heard in a movie of this scale.

Emilia is just starting in the Star Wars world and so she is learning about her fans and the fan base of Star Wars. She said that Game of Thrones fans are incredible and loyal and wonderful but she does think that a lot of them also like Star Wars so she’s ready to see how they react when SOLO comes out.

Finally, we wanted to know what Marvel Universe character Emilia wanted to be. She said, “Hulk” and tell young Mark to watch out! She said she feels like he has the most fun out of everyone!

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY HITS THEATERS MAY 25TH

ABOUT SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in SOLO: A STAR WARSSTORY, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo befriends his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and meets the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Paul Bettany.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

LUCASFILM

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