The AV Interview with Daniel Roebuck
Preface
AndersonVision previously talked to Daniel Roebuck about his directing efforts on Getting Grace. Now, we’re back at it again. Coming off a recent outing with Mr. Rob Zombie, Roebuck is now one of the stars of EA/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
The Interview
AV is numbered, Mr. Roebuck is in Bold.
- I was delaying the interview until after I beat Fallen Order, but the game is massive. So, I ask this today…what will it take to get Greez to Baby Yoda levels of Internet fame?
Thank you so much for asking. The answer is quite simple. If you and your fellow writers will write about Greez lovingly for the next 40 years, we might be able to pull it off. I don’t anticipate being alive then, but perhaps my children will have children and they will be able to say, “That little green guy with four arms that you love so much, that’s my grandfather!”
- Our readers wanted me to ask how you got involved with 3 from Hell. Huge Rob Zombie fanbase among our readers.
It turns out that Mr. Zombie (that is what he prefers I call him) and I have so much in common, not the least of which is our mutual love for his wife Sheri. That’s mostly a joke. What we really do love in all seriousness, is classic horror movies, and in fact we both love them so much that we collected a great deal of memorabilia celebrating them. That was our immediate connection, two monster kids who found each other in the depths of the Hollywood cesspool. Since meeting, he has been very gracious to me, by putting me in almost every film, although I do sometimes get cut out. However, as a director, I completely understand the process, and I’m never offended by his making the movie better, with or without me in it.
- I believe we last spoke when you were promoting Getting Grace. When are you directing another movie? I loved Getting Grace.
Thank you so much for that gracious comment about Getting Grace. I beam about the movie like any parent would, when people tell them they have nice kids. The next film is The Hail Mary. If all goes well, we hope to shoot that film in the summer of 2020. The Hail Mary is about a very funny nun who discovers a man in need of redemption, so she cons him into creating a football team for her all-boy Catholic school. I’m extremely excited about that being the first movie we launch through our new Non-For-Profit, A CHANNEL OF PEACE. If your readers would like to learn more about that, please ask them to visit achannelofpeace.org.
- Are you going to be back on 9-1-1?
At this point, I’m not aware of any plans. It was a complete surprise when they brought Norman and his wife back for that second episode. Even being there briefly was a real treat for me. You may or may not know that I’ve literally known Jennifer Love Hewitt for nearly 25 years. We first met when she was a young lady on the film House Arrest and have worked together a number of times since. Just by the way, I am a huge fan of hers and would like to say that she is one of the classiest people I’ve ever met in Hollywood. The other cast of 9-1-1 is such an exceptional ensemble and working with them on that first episode was so much fun.
- Back to Star Wars. Having Fallen Order take place in between the Prequel and Classic Trilogy leaves a narrow window for storytelling. Do you think Greez makes it to the modern Trilogy era?
Well I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t. We don’t know how long Laterons live, but if they have the longevity of Yoda, that would be great. I think what I really love about being in Fallen Order is that it does place me directly into the Skywalker storyline, thanks to the appearance of Darth Vader within the context of our story. So maybe these characters can all live forward into the story, which would be a great gift for a character actor like me who grew up loving Star Wars.
- Greez vs. the Monkey Guy that Jon Favreau voiced in Solo…who wins in a fight?
With all due respect to Mr. Favreau (with whom I hope to work with one day) I think Greez would clean his banana-eating clock.
- For those that play the game, this will make sense. Why does Cal get the co-pilot seat from the start? Is Greez that laid back to give up the co-pilot seat to any stranger?
Greez understood immediately that Cal was the star of the story. More importantly, the guy playing Greez, knew immediately not to pose such questions, as they would only annoy the multiple directors of the game and might alter the possibility of his coming back. It’s an excellent question. I wish I had a better answer.
- Has EA, LucasFilm, Mickey Mouse, etc given you any indication that we might be getting a Fallen Order sequel?
From your mouth to God’s ears, and all of those others in between. Here’s what I do believe. I think that it is a real solid storyline and the characters are extremely interesting, and the cast has been an exceptional ensemble to work with. It seems that movies like Solo might have a better chance of misfiring because they’re trying to duplicate the sacred cows of the story, whereas our story brings viable and entertaining new life to the saga. So, I would be honored to play Greez in anything they can come up with.
