From the first announcement that Laura Dern would be joining the Star Wars universe, her character immediately became a fan favourite. It's Laura Dern. In space. What could be better? Then we saw her purple hair and learned that she was a hero of the Resistance.
The Last Jedi's Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo is one of the most complex characters in the Star Wars universe. She's a leader who's there to make the tough decisions—she's not there to be loved. She's not someone who respects the flashy showboating of Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron. Holdo is also mysterious, not just because she keeps her plans close to the chest, but because of her minimal backstory and the celestial way in which Dern plays her.
It turns out, Dern had long conversations with The Last Jedi writer and director Rian Johnson about where Holdo came from—and according to a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the character could use the Force.
“In their minds, and in their understanding of the origin story, we know that she was a true rebel in the Resistance, and in our culture we might have called her a hippie,” Dern tells EW. “But she was longing for peace, and a revolutionary in that way, and wanted to be trained by and led by Leia, who taught her everything she knew. She wanted to come up in the ranks to support Leia’s mission, but also had this otherworldly side that does involve the Force.”
Of course, that's not a stretch. Plenty of characters in the Star Wars universe have shown Force sensitivity even if they do not actually wield lightsabers or practice the Jedi ways. Leia, for example, has a strong connection with the Force.
As Dern tells EW, this explains why Holdo was willing to sacrifice herself with the controversial lightspeed maneuver at the end of The Last Jedi.
“Yeah, her primary goal was to protect the light, to protect the Force, and to keep the revolutionaries alive,” Dern tells EW. “And I think the film speaks so beautifully to that with this last image of the next generation of the Resistance, you know?”
And you thought Laura Dern couldn't get any cooler.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
