The unique personalities of the droids in the Star Wars universe have always made them some of the best characters. Solo’s L3-37 improved every scene she was in, thanks to the voice work of Phoebe Waller-Bridge — who also helped bring the physical character to life on set, as this behind-the-scenes look at the movie’s visual effects reveals.
You would have assumed that like many of the over-the-top characters in the most recent run of Star Wars movies, L3-37 would have been only added to each scene as a digital character in post-production. But while the final version of L3-37 onscreen was made of pixels, Waller-Bridge wore a custom droid costume on set (as well as a green leotard), allowing her to define not only the character’s voice, but her movements and mannerisms too. It also made it easier for the other actors to interact with the droid.
As the before and after shots in Hybride’s breakdown of its visual effects work on Solo: A Star Wars Story reveal, they managed to match Waller-Bridge’s on-set performance of L3-37 perfectly with the polished digital duplicate, resulting in one of the most interesting characters the franchise has seen in a while.
[h/t Art of VFX]