The 2016 movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has a scene in which Diego Luna, playing the lead male protagonist Cassian Andor, breaks character on film. It is a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, and somehow it survived getting snipped in the editing room and made it into the movie.
In the movie's first half, Cassian and Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) travel to Jedha to meet with extremist insurgent Saw Gerrera, who has intercepted a defecting Imperial pilot with a very important message. The pilot, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), carries a hologram from Jyn's father, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), who has managed to incorporate a weakness in the design of the Death Star he has been helping the Empire to build.
But when Cassian and Jyn arrive at Jedha City, they find themselves in a crossfire between Saw's insurgents and the Empire. They are helped out of a tight situation by Cassian's reprogrammed droid, K-2SO, played hilariously by Alan Tudyk.
While trying to sneak away, the three get caught by stormtroopers, and K-2SO pretends to be an Imperial counterpart. He claims he's taking Cassian and Jyn as prisoners. To play his part more believably, he slaps Cassian right across his face (something he apologizes later for) and drops a one-liner that makes Luna break into a smile.
Luna tries to hide his expression behind his hands, pretending to nurse the bruise from the slap, but you can still see it on screen for a fraction of a second.
During an interview with iMDB Pro at the recently concluded Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Tokyo, Japan, Tudyk opened up on the scene.
"When I slap Diego, I was just saying whatever I wanted to because I could, because I was a droid," Tudyk said. "When I slapped him, I said, 'And there's a fresh one if you mouth off again.' I can't believe that made it into the movie; and on top of that, he covers up where I slapped him, but you see him smile and it's in the film... He's breaking on film. I never thought I'd see that in a Star Wars movie - someone breaking on camera."
He has talked about improvising this scene before. In a 2017 Q&A on Star Wars Twitter, Tudyk said that it was his favorite line of K-2SO from the movie. Luna also spoke on the scene at the event, jokingly calling himself "unprofessional" and showing surprise at it not being edited out.
Another memorable line of the fan-favorite droid that Tudyk improvised was his assurance to Jyn before they all set off for the final mission of stealing the Death Star plans from Scarif. As the Rogue One squad prepares to leave, K-2SO very heartwarmingly says, "I'll be there for you, Jyn." Then he adds, "Cassian said I had to."
Tudyk will reprise his role in Andor season 2, and we will finally find out how he met Cassian before we see them as partners in crime in Rogue One. The first three episodes are already out, and the early reviews for the season are glowing.