‘Rogue One’ Actor Admits Shooting ‘Enormously Different’ Versions Of Film

One of Rogue One‘s main actors Ben Mendelsohn has revealed that director Gareth Edwards shot enormously different versions of the Star Wars spin-off, suggesting that the reshoot rumors regarding the blockbuster were closer to truth than fiction.

Ben Mendelsohn, who portrayed Orson Krennic, the director of advanced weapons research for the Imperial Military in Rogue One, opened up to Collider about the variety of ways that he shot his scenes, teasing that an enormously different version of the film exists. The Australian actor explained,

“We did have multiple, multiple ways of going at any given scenario, we had multiple readings of it. So should they ever decide to, there would be a wealth of ways of approaching these different things. And I know from having seen sort of the crucial kind of scenes throughout it, I know there’s vastly different readings of at least four of those scenes.”

When Collider then added, “So in essence there’s basically a completely different version of the movie that could be played on like an alternate cut of the entire film,” Ben Mendelsohn responded, “Absolutely, with enormous differences within I would’ve said 20 or 30 of the scenes. There really would be. There would be enormously different renderings.”

Ben Mendelsohn also discussed how the character of Orson Krennic evolved during production, admitting that he and Gareth Edwards would generate ideas regarding the villain just before they were about to shoot, while Mendelsohn would then perform numerous different takes on each scene.

Ben Mendelsohn explained,

“I think that Krennic developed sort of along as we went, he had different ideas. And he settled yet on exactly –He was still thinking of a couple of variations in a lot of things at that stage. If you want to talk about alternative takes on things, there’s been quite a few different renderings of this within Gareth’s mind, and I dare say some of it’s been captured on film. So there are different renderings.”

Earlier this summer there were varied reports about the re-shoots for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. While additional days of shooting are often required on blockbusters months after principal photography is done (Marvel Studios often re-assemble their films in this fashion), the Star Wars reshoot were rumored to be rather drastic and completely changed the final act.

But in the build-up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Gareth Edwards downplayed how severe the reshoots on the film were, insisting that they had always been planned. In fact, while talking to Vulture about the additional photography, Gareth Edwards noted that the linear trajectory of filmmaking, which normally goes from pre-production to production to post-production, has now changed dramatically. After being asked about Tony Gilroy’s assistance on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Gareth Edwards explained,

“Tony is a great writer and he had done a few days’ work on Godzilla. We had always planned to do these pickup shoots, and in this day and age when everything has gone digital, you don’t have to be so literal about preproduction, production, and postproduction—the whole thing blurs together… The scope of the movie just got bigger, and so there was this divide-and-conquer mentality that went on. I think the results are really good and that’s all that matters, is the movie.”

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has been faring rather well since it was released. Not only has it been met with sterling reviews, so much so that it currently has a score of 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but on Thursday afternoon it was revealed, via Variety, that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has now passed the $650 million mark at the box office, too.

[Featured Image by Lucasfilm]