Pedro Pascal and Ewan McGregor got together to talk about Grogu… and other things too

Two Star Wars mega-stars recently came together for an exciting interview like no other. As part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Ewan McGregor and Pedro Pascal met for a one-of-a-kind conversation with one another.

The two got together via video chat, where they both discussed some of their latest projects. That included the Netflix series Halston for McGregor and The Mandalorian for Pascal. But what really, really matters is their conversation about the cutest little alien in the galaxy: Grogu.

Pascal was quite impressed, even, when McGregor corrected himself and called the Child “Grogu” after previously calling him “Baby Yoda” only moments before. And the Obi-Wan actor asked the Mandalorian himself what it was like to keep the whole Grogu storyline a secret before the series came out. Pascal revealed to McGregor:

"That may literally be the very first secret that I’ve ever kept. Don’t share anything personal with me! But there’s so much seriousness around leaked information, and I find it all just a bit too much. I tell my family everything, and I didn’t with Grogu. I didn’t even know what his name was going to be until the second season, but I could just tell that it was going to have such an impact. When I saw the image of this thing, and started reading the scripts and everything, I didn’t want to compromise that in any way. It was easy to not talk about it because it was like, “Nah, I want this to work.”"

Star Wars puppet vs. CGI debate

The conversation then took an interesting turn as the actors began to talk about the benefits of working with puppets instead of CGI creations (which Grogu was on the verge of being). Pascal explained in the interview that having the Grogu puppet actually helped him during the final, emotional scene of The Mandalorian season 2 finale. He said:

"To not have had the puppet for that, and also the knowledge of its reception from the world and how everyone felt about its creation, its relationship to the history of Star Wars — it was one of the more strange acting experiences that I’ve ever had."

McGregor seemed to agree with that sentiment, revealing how much he enjoyed working with the actual Yoda puppet during Episode I. Of course, Yoda was controversially converted to a CGI character by Episode II, and McGregor certainly felt the difference during scenes:

"The first film I did, I was lucky to do my scenes with the Yoda puppet. And it was extraordinary because I acted with him. I couldn’t believe I was acting with Yoda… Then they replaced him for our second film and our third film with the digital version of him, and it’s not nearly as endearing. Also, we know Yoda as a puppet. We know him from the original movies as a puppet. So when it was suddenly computer-generated, it didn’t feel like Yoda to me anymore."

Ewan McGregor and Pedro Pascal talk Disney+ series

So, what of their newer projects? Well, at the time of that interview, Pedro Pascal revealed that they hadn’t started filming for The Mandalorian season 3 yet, so they quickly dashed away from that topic.

And the one thing McGregor could tease about the Obi-Wan Kenobi series is that he got to act among… stormtroopers! The actor recalled that, oddly enough, he never got to work alongside any stormtroopers when he was filming his Star Wars films. But that makes sense, given the fact that stormtroopers didn’t even exist around the era of the prequels. That, of course, offers up a whole new wave of speculation about what Obi-Wan might be doing around stormtroopers… and how close he’ll be getting to his old pal Anakin (aka Darth Vader) now that the Empire is up and running during his series.

A fond love of Star Wars

During the conversation, it was clear that both actors shared, above anything else, a fond love of Star Wars and being a part of it. McGregor, for instance, shared of The Mandalorian: “It pulled me back into the Star Wars world, The Mandalorian series, in a way I didn’t expect. It blew me away how much I loved it.”

Pascal, in the interview, had reflected on how he grew up being a Star Wars fan and how that’s shaped his experience thus far. He revealed how he grew up watching movies with his family, and how movies like Star Wars were a part of his childhood experience.

“When I met with [the Mandalorian team] and stepped into a writers’ room that was wall-to-wall story illustrations of the first season, it was really surreal to see such familiar imagery and kind of realize that those were pulled right out of your imagination,” Pascal shared.

Overall, the two had quite an extensive conversation that’s well worth the watch. And Variety has released the 30-minute conversation, which you can watch in the YouTube video below.

For more, keep up with the Star Wars Actors category on Dork Side of the Force.