An Inside Look At What It's Like To Work With JJ Abrams
J.J. Abrams has inspired tears and thoughts of kidnappings in the people he's worked with, but not for the reason you think.
With the resume that J.J. Abrams has, you can believe he's worked with tons of people over the years. While Abrams may have had some things said about him from fans and critics about his work, the people he works with hardly have a bad thing to say about him. With how successful he is, jumping from project to project, and working with tons of people, you'd think he'd come across at least a couple of people who don't like him or how he operates. Turns out that's not really the case.
In fact, most of the people he works with actually express their happiness with working with him. Daisy Ridley, who played Rey in Abrams' sequel trilogy to Star Wars, actually cried when she learned that Abrams was coming back to direct Rise of Skywalker. Ridley told Rolling Stone, "Everyone was saying it was going to be Rian and everything, so I was genuinely quite surprised. And was like 'Oh my God!' and I started crying immediately with three people in the office. And they were like, 'What the f**k just happened?'"
"So I emailed J.J. saying, 'Oh my God I am crying.' And he goes, 'Oh my God, me too.' And then we had a conversation a few days later and we stay in touch. But we stayed in touch the whole time anyway."
Abrams inspired tears of a different kind in Ridley at the beginning of the trilogy though, after Abrams criticized her acting as being "wooden" on her very first day filming on set. "I was petrified. I thought I was gonna have a panic attack on the first day," Ridley told Glamour. "Because JJ…he probably doesn’t remember telling me that my performance was wooden. This was the first day! And I honestly wanted to die. I thought I was gonna cry, I couldn’t breathe."
Ridley was thankfully able to buck up the courage to continue on, but ever since she's gotten close to Abrams, and clearly those tears were turned good when she learned she'd be working with him again. Working with Abrams again and even collaborating was great for Ridley. In fact, during the writing of the script for Rise of Skywalker, Abrams talked with Ridley about Rey's storyline and when she said no to something Abrams suggested, he listened to her.
"I will say the great thing about JJ is I've felt authority like that from the get go," Ridley told Cinema Blend. "Even me never having done anything remotely like that before. He always listened to what I had to say, even if for the most part it's wrong." Speaking to Chris Rock at the Tribeca Film Festival, Abrams went through the key aspects a director should have and said that collaborating is important but has its limits. "You want someone who can collaborate but [is] not a pushover."
Abrams also has a friendship with Ridley's co-star John Boyega, who played Finn. After Boyega's recent protest speeches which made the actor think he wouldn't be hired again in Hollywood, Abrams was the first person to respond to Boyega by saying, "You KNOW that as long as I’m allowed to keep working, I’ll always be begging to work with you. Deep respect and love, my friend," Abrams tweeted.
During Rise of Skywalker, Abrams also got to working with Keri Russell again, after the pair had worked together on Felicity, and Russell was elated to be reunited with the director. "It is just so much more fun to work with someone that you like so much," Russell told Deadline. "I mean, we see each other and then we talk nonstop and fill in all the details of the past years, and you know, it’s just nice when you have that kind of fun and history with someone. It makes it all that much more enjoyable. When J.J. calls so unexpectedly, cool things happen."
Among other Star Wars cast members, Domhnall Gleeson, who played General Hux, was also happy to hear that Abrams was reinstated as director of Rise of Skywalker. "And then with J.J., he's a great director," Gleeson told IGN. "I think that he did a brilliant job on the first one and it makes absolute sense why after they parted company with Colin that was the place they looked and I think it's very exciting for the fans of the film that he's back."
Outside of Star Wars, Star Trek's Chris Pine was actually thinking about kidnapping Abrams to direct the third Trek film at one point, he loved Abrams so much. Pine spoke to USA Today, and explained how far his love for Abrams truly went. "The only way I’ll be disappointed is if he doesn’t direct our third movie. I think if that turns out to be the case we’ll have to kidnap him and hold him hostage until he agrees to do a third."
Pine went on to say, "From my standpoint, J.J. is a science-fiction genius. To have him over in the Star Wars camp is going to be a great thing. I’m sure it’s going to be a great film."
From Abrams's point of view, his motto, and probably the reason why he gets along with the people he works with, is, "treat others the way you want to be treated." Abrams also says, "A deal breaker is people who aren’t kind. I know this sounds so stupid and so obvious. Star Wars is the example because there was so much stress all around that we not f*** it up. In the first department meeting, we had this conversation that for me the most important thing is that we respect each other... And I know that sounds so stupid, but there’ll be times when it’ll get all crazy and you want to know that you’re surrounded by people who are there for each other. When I heard that there are people who are difficult, I’ve almost always said no [to hiring them]."
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