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Meet L3-37: ‘Star Wars’ droid with an attitude

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s new Solo robot is downright rebellious and lets loose some mechanical lip.

- Brian Truitt

Star Wars droids have run the gamut from pompous and snarky to excitable and kind. The newest one, though, is downright rebellious. ❚ In Solo: A Star Wars Story (out this weekend), L3-37 — a motion-capture performanc­e by British actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge — is partner and co-pilot to Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover). And she’s not above giving some mechanical lip.

Leaving the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, Lando asks, “Do you need anything from the back?” and L3 quips, “Equal rights.” That improvised line by Waller-Bridge encapsulat­es her robot’s style: Along the way to helping young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich), L3 tries to talk a droid out of a death match with a fellow machine and has no patience for droid slavery.

“She has a social conscience, which is really great to play,” says Waller-Bridge, 32. “There’s a fire in her belly and something she cares about.”

Compared with Star Wars droids like C-3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8, L3’s “just that much more sentient and she knows her mind and is very outspoken,” director Ron Howard says.

The timing of “droid rights” being espoused in the galaxy far, far away during the Time’s Up era is not lost on Waller-Bridge.

“That’s what’s so genius about ( Star Wars) films. They speak about and create situations that are so relevant and so poignant today,” she says. “In this safe, fictitious world, you can take from it what you want: It can be wonderful entertainm­ent,

but at the same time there’s always a really important message to fight for your causes.”

While other actors playing droids were “sweltering” in their costumes, “I was really lucky that I didn’t have a helmet that covered my whole head,” says Waller-Bridge, who wore a green performanc­e-capture suit with heavy robot arms and legs. “L3’s joints and her legs and arms are in a different place than mine are, so there’s a strange galumphing rhythm to it that came out naturally.”

She recalls asking if she should hit the gym or do any training after having her first walk-around in the suit. “I was like, ‘ Do you want me to get strong so I can walk better?’ and they were like: ‘No, no. Whatever this weird thing is that you’re doing is good.’ ”

That physicalit­y informed WallerBrid­ge’s performanc­e. “The vision for her from the beginning was that she was more flexible, and she had created her- self to be able to cross her legs and slouch in a chair and have a shrug about her,” she says.

But working opposite Glover helped, too, in harnessing the “mutual energy” between Lando and L3. “His voice is very velvety and his movements are very cool and smooth, and I just wanted there to be naturally something a bit more rough around the edges and gruff about her to show their difference­s,” says Waller-Bridge, creator of Amazon’s Fleabag (in which she also stars) and BBC America’s Killing Eve.

The London native would do motion-capture again “in a flash” and “felt liberated having my face covered by green cloth,” she says. “We’re just so self-conscious. However much we try not to be, on some level, especially as a woman and an actress, you have so much pressure when it comes your hair and the bags under your eyes and your skin.

“It was just so freeing not to have to worry about that. I was more fearless. So I think I’m going to take that green feeling to my next role.”

 ?? JONATHAN OLLEY ?? Played via performanc­e-capture by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, L3-37 is a droid very much into equal rights in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
JONATHAN OLLEY Played via performanc­e-capture by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, L3-37 is a droid very much into equal rights in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
 ?? CHARLEY GALLAY/GETTY IMAGES FOR DISNEY ?? Phoebe Waller-Bridge, left, with “Solo” co-star Emilia Clarke and director Ron Howard, says because of the way her role was shot, “I was more fearless.”
CHARLEY GALLAY/GETTY IMAGES FOR DISNEY Phoebe Waller-Bridge, left, with “Solo” co-star Emilia Clarke and director Ron Howard, says because of the way her role was shot, “I was more fearless.”
 ?? JONATHAN OLLEY ??
JONATHAN OLLEY
 ?? LUCASFILM ?? L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is partner and co-pilot to Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
LUCASFILM L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is partner and co-pilot to Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”

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