What’s it like when your co-star is an animatronic puppet? Pedro Pascal, star of the hit Disney Plus show The Mandalorian, recently gave some insight into how that works.
Pascal appeared on the popular YouTube show Hot Ones, and in between crying from hot sauce overload, he dished out some interesting tidbits about working with the beloved Grogu, or as many refer to him: Baby Yoda.
“What blew your mind the most about the mechanics of Grogu’s performance?” asked host Sean Evans. “You know, where you have one technician who’s doing eyes and mouth, and another technician simultaneously doing the facial expressions.”
“There’s two of them,” Pascal said. “And one, there’s a remote.” Pascal explained that while he holds Grogu, his ears and face will move because he’s being controlled by someone, but he’ll feel like Grogu is alive because of how real everything looks.
“Then, for a good closeup, he’s connected to the Pentagon. It’s like these wires and that’s how you get the really detailed eyebrow movements and eyeballs move around and he’s a very cooperative and fulfilling scene partner and acting partner. It’s pretty crazy.”
Even the goodbyes felt real, he said, because of how well they made the Grogu puppet. Pascal said he was given praise for his use of emotion during those scenes, but “this puppet is making me cry.” He then does a pretty good impression of the puppet.
“I’m like, damn,” he said. He also says the puppet is kind of a scene stealer, like when he finally removes his helmet, “Let me have the scene bro,” he said about Grogu’s acting abilities.
The whole episode is worth a watch, if only to see Pedro cry again. He’s really good at crying.
