Giving BB-8 a Voice
There are plenty of new characters to love in The Force Awakens. Maybe you were a Rey fan, because you loved watching her learn to use the Force. Or perhaps you were a Finn supporter, since he stood tall against the First Order. However, for most fans, it was the amazing new droid BB-8 that stole the show.
It wasn’t just because he looked unique (an orange and white ball that rolled throughout the universe), it was due to BB-8’s personality. When he became sad after he thought Poe Dameron died, or shot a ‘flamey’ thumbs up, BB-8’s interactions were tremendous and added such value to the character.
Now, we’re finally learning how BB-8’s voice came to be. It comes from Ben Schwartz (aka Jean Ralphio from Parks and Rec.), who sat down during a recent Reddit AMA and broke down exactly how everyone’s favorite droid learned to talk. Check out the video above!
“He (Abrams) said ‘hey I have this new droid BB-8 and I want him to have personality, everyone likes R2-D2, but I want to put him in situations where he can feel warmth and he can be funny he can do all these big things.'”
So Schwartz was off, creating actual dialog for each scene BB-8 was in. There was one major issue, though: everything sounded too… human. We’ve had enough C-3PO in this Universe, something different was expected.
Welcome the sound editors who synthesized Schwartz’s dialog and turned it into Bleeps and Bloops; this began the evolution of the voice we’ve now come to love. In fact, most of the dialog Schwartz created for BB-8 made it into the final cut.
“To go and give J.J. a big hug afterwards because I was fortunate to be around when he was doing all the movie and it was such a big… it crossed two billion dollars yesterday! It’s bananas. Very proud of him and the movie is so lovely. It just feels like Star Wars… which is exciting.”
It’s fantastic to see how thrilled someone is just to be a part of the Star Wars franchise. Schwartz was such a big part in bringing BB-8 to life. Seeing how happy he is with his work gives us you a better understanding on how important this film was to those involved.
We still haven’t heard much from the other part of BB-8’s voice, Bill Hader. I’m sure when the movie gets released on DVD, there will surely be special features covering his involvement. It will be another great chapter in learning how everyone’s new favorite droid came to be.
You can practice your BB-8-speak while wearing/sporting something BB-8-related from our massive selection of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Merchandise!