Shortly afterStar Wars: The Force Awakenswas released, fans were surprised to find out that comedians Bill Hader and Ben Shwartz helped bring thesmall ball droidto life by providing its voice. Today, we get to look at how that process came to shake out. The clip is from a new featurette that is included on the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray, which is in stories now. The clip debuted on the officialStar Wars Twitter.
“BB-8speaks in “Sounds of the Resistance,” from Star Wars #TheForceAwakens Collector’s Edition.”
Both Ben Schwartz and Bill Hader served as ‘voice consultants’ onStar Wars: The Force Awakens, though it appears that they came in at different times to work on BB-8’s unique communication skills, instead of making it a collaborative process.Thedroidspeaks in a series of beeps, boops and otherrobot noisesfamiliar to the Star Wars universe. And this is where the challenge lies in bringing the droid to life.
This clip is from the Sounds of Resistance documentary that is included on the Blu-ray. And it shows how Ben Schwartz was actually the first one invited in to help provide a sound for BB-8. He spoke his words in English from a script, which were later dubbed by sound effects. This helped the animators and sound design team with their baseline on the droid.
Bill Hader came in latter to provide actual sound effects for BB-8 using his voice. This was meshed with Ben Schwartz’s work, and helped complete BB-8’s personality. In the clip, it becomes more clear how the team was able to create a new scene stealer who is now beloved byStar Wars fansaround the world.
The new Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-Ray collector’s edition is chock full of special features and even delivers quite a few new deleted scenes that weren’t included in the original Blu-ray release. The overall set offers a deep dive into the blockbuster sequel, providing new insight. Including the fact that a lot of BB-8’s final scenes were done in reshoots. This Blu-ray is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
