Anna Daniels
Throughout his short yet hugely successful career, Driver has made a mark by playing extraordinarily complicated characters. His breakout performance was on HBO’s Girls, where he played the simultaneously terrible and sympathetic Adam Sackler, an on-again-off-again love interest to Hannah Horvath (creator Lena Dunham).
A Juillard-trained actor, Driver clearly likes to delve deeply into his characters, and despite its status as blockbuster fare — compared to Driver’s prestige projects like Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story and Spike Lee’s Oscar winner BlacKkKlansman — Star Wars is no exception. In fact, Driver has dropped hints about his character’s direction plenty of times as fans anxiously await the final film in Star Wars‘ sequel trilogy, and this certainly isn’t the first time that Driver has commented on his complex, layered villain.
In a recent profile in The New Yorker, Driver explained a little bit more about Kylo by discussing his parents, Han and Leia — going so far as to compare them to “religious zealots” who prioritize their personal missions and the lure of the Force above their own family. In a separate interview with Empire, he called Kylo a “religious fanatic” as well, suggesting that perhaps he got that quality from his parents: “When they [meaning characters like Kylo Ren] think of their actions as morally justified, it makes them dangerous and unpredictable. There’s no level they won’t go to to accomplish what they’re after. I never thought of the character as an evil person.”
Obviously, Driver is invested in Kylo Ren’s fate, which makes it all the more understandable that he wouldn’t want to hate a character he’s spent so many years crafting and playing. Ultimately, audiences still have to wait a few more weeks to see exactly which direction Kylo will take as the Skywalker saga reaches its long-awaited conclusion on December 20. If you need your Driver fix right now, his new film, Marriage Story (which co-stars Scarlett Johansson), is streaming on Netflix and in theaters now.
Written by: Looper
