General Pryde - Richard E. Grant thread

I don't have much to say, but I just wanted to say... I LOVED RICHARD GRANT'S ACTING!
Holy mother of god it was right up there with Peter Cushing's Tarkin.

I could watch Grant play Pryde for days on end and never tire of it.
If there were a mini-series of Pryde, I'd be sitting on the couch scarfing down popcorn in delight!

I can't wait for TROS to come out on disc for several reasons, and one of them is the ability to just rewatch Grant's scenes!

I think it gets overlooked a lot, but man...I just loved every single scene he was in.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

I don't like to belittle hard working professionals or make light of their decisions, especially when all reports from the cast and crew are that everyone worked their arses off to exhaustion daily.

Instead, I think it makes sense to just be alright with creative differences and preferences.
I don't think anyone was being lazy or anything on this film - this film took a tremendous amount of work to accomplish.

If there was any single point worth blaming, it would be that Disney didn't readjust the timeline when they rebooted the preproduction, which put the production at three months behind right off from the start, and they hadn't a script to work with yet.

That's a really hard spot to be in. However, I don't even put that to fault because that's the business. That kind of stuff happens, and personally I like it when Star Wars is behind the 8 ball. Things get a bit sloppy around the edges, sure, but the best of what Star Wars has to offer as a creative art form comes out when it's hard up against the wall in my opinion.

Now, this isn't a story example, but for one thing, if Disney had pushed it back, then Brandon wouldn't have invented a new process and approach to editing that I think will completely change editing and production as a whole going forward over the years. She went pure mobile so that she could be within 10 feet of Abrams on set and was editing on-the-fly with Grube, and neither Grube or Brandon had "their scenes" - all scenes were up for grabs and regardless who touched what last, either could grab it and work on it next, and both were doing that from the beginning, and both were around and available for Abrams to approach.
This lead to amazing break through processes and flexibility in the production that otherwise just weren't normally possible.
For one thing, it radically dropped the number of reshoots because if they were working on something and saw that it could use a reshoot, well...the production was right in front of them and they could just grab the actor(s) when there was a chance, toss up a green screen, shoot the add-in, and immediately toss it to the editing bin and put it to use.

Further, if the actors were working on a scene and needed a reference, no one had to send off for it and wait for it to come back, or tough it out and just hope that the emotional continuity in their mind was matching what was captured before. This time around, they could just walk over to Brandon or Grube and ask to see the shot, scene, or sequence, and get their self-reference. Same for Abrams. He could just go back any time and look at something.
Further, because Abrams was toggling between editing discussions with Brandon and Grube between takes on set, his mind was regularly kept fresh of what had been shot in comparison to what was being shot, and that allowed him to generate more engaged ideas on set with how things would tie in with what was shot before.
Basically, it made it like the jump from analogue "daily's" to digital daily's, but one more big step forward. A rather huge step.
And according to the editors, it made a huge difference in their editing, and improved it a ton to be able to be right there in the thick of the production on set.

This is something that they just wouldn't have done if they hadn't started late and had so much to do in such a small timeline.

And that's just a fringe item that doesn't have anything to do with the story.

The story was massive. It was attempting to wrap up 8 films in one film, and it was attempting to do the Star Wars thing of carouseling through every theme and major narrative beat that had ever happened in every Star Wars film in one film.
Cramming 8 Star Wars films into one Star Wars film is a very challenging task.

There are always things that could have been different, and it's incredibly easy to do that from an armchair perspective, but it's a whole different world when you're the one sitting in the room, just you and Abrams and every white board in the studio is empty, waiting for you to figure out what to do with a ton of monetary and artistic investment at some of the highest stakes to date for the saga.

That no one had severe health issues as a result of stress is a remarkable note regarding Abrams' charismatic ability to engage the crew and keep the atmosphere positive, enthusiastic, and friendly. Something that Lucas himself wasn't exactly that great at accomplishing, as much as we all adore his work.

So, yes, there could have been different ways things could have been done. There always are.
I could draft a long list of things that could be changed in Star Wars, but there they are. These wonderfully brilliant works of art that took every bit of energy and life of everyone working on them when they were made, and show every sign of that being the case in every film.

Regarding Hux.
Hux, along with pretty much any repeating character in Star Wars, falls victim to the same problem...there's no right way to go about writing these characters.
Regardless of what you do, you'll bother someone with how you wrote the character.
Some people love Hux just as he is. Others wanted him different.

That's par for the course for Star Wars as far as I'm concerned. There's a dozen different general directions being pulled and wished for by fans for almost every character that appears on the screen.

I could see Hux going differently, and it would have been interesting. I don't hate how he ended up being used in the film.
And relevant to this thread, since pretty much everything I've written up until this line isn't relevant to this thread, if Hux had been different and made to be in the position of Pryde instead of Pryde, then I wouldn't have gotten Pryde and I really enjoyed Pryde.

I enjoyed both of them. I can watch Gleeson and Grant chew scenes for days. Gleeson's so good, it doesn't matter to me what Hux is doing. He could be reading a dictionary and it would be fascinating. lol
And I thought Gleeson played Hux just spot on in every way of the character that was being delivered. And if Gleeson ever had any problems with his character's direction, you wouldn't know it. The man has been a charm the entire time, and repeatedly has expressed an enjoyment of playing his role and admiration and love for Abrams - he was openly enthused talking about Abrams' return.


But really....what I wrote this thread about wasn't to spark a debate over whether Hux should have been Pryde, or whether Pryde stole Hux's thunder, or if Pryde was some evidence of poor writing in some fashion, or a sort of literary recklessness.

I created it to just say that Grant has some solid chops and his statement that he really tried to capture the essence of Peter Cushing's style for Tarkin in his portrayal of Pryde only makes his acting that much better, because daaaaa - m - n ... nailed it.

He is also enjoyable. I may not get excited about Rogue One all that much, but Mendelsohn was enjoyable to watch. There's lots of good acting in R1 as well.
I don't really see it as an "either or" kind of thing.

I just felt like Grant wasn't getting any love, and good lord, he really chewed his role up so well that I felt like pointing it out.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

He had one scene cut.
It was with Hux. They originally were involved in the beginning with Kylo cutting people down.

It just didn't flow right and made Kylo's arc and role in that weaker, so it got cut and Kylo got the slowmo epic entrance.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

Probably that.
All of his scenes were studio shot except for the one that got cut.
With how intercut his scenes were I could see that impression coming off.

Cheers,
Jayson