May 13, 2025 • 45 mins
The lore. The legacy. The green robe cameo.
Get ready for a deeper cut into the "Star Wars" galaxy—and the creative mind that’s helped shape it for decades.
If you thought Part 1 was epic—strap in. In the second half of our conversation with Pablo Hidalgo, Director of Franchise and Story at Lucasfilm, we go beyond “Star Wars” lore and into the heart of what makes a lifelong creative tick.
Pablo is one of the key architects behind the modern “Star Wars” galaxy. From vetting books, comics, and scripts to preserving continuity across decades of storytelling, his role keeps the galaxy far, far away on course.
In Part 2, Pablo opens up about his time embedded on the set of “Revenge of the Sith”, including how he landed a cameo in the opera scene (green robe and all). He also shares what it means to be a “story steward,” how trust was earned behind the scenes, and why passion—not planning—was the secret to his success.
Whether you're a fan of behind-the-scenes magic, filmmaking wisdom, or creative careers that don’t follow a straight line, this episode delivers.
And if you missed Part 1… trust us, you’ll want to go back.
🎧 Hit play and let’s make the jump to hyperspace—because the Force is strong with this one.
🎯 What You’ll Hear:
- Pablo’s on-set stories from "Revenge of the Sith"
- His surprise cameo and how it happened
- How story stewardship works at Lucasfilm
- The trust dynamics behind keeping canon
- Why purpose, not planning, shaped his creative journey
💬 Tell Us:
Which "Star Wars" moment still gives you chills? Tag @NRJMediaGroup or DM us ✨
💬 We’d love to hear how Energis Podcast has sparked your journey! Share your story with us ✨
🌐 Thank you for listening! Stay inspired. Stay bold. Stay Energis’d. Visit us at www.nrjmediagroup.com to learn more and connect with our growing community.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Norma (00:04):
Energis Podcast is brought to you by NRJ Media
Group.
Hey friends, if you caught partone of our conversation with
Pablo Hidalgo, the director offranchise and story from
(00:27):
Lucasfilm, welcome back.
And if you didn't, hit pauseand go listen.
Trust us, it's worth the roundtrip to a galaxy far, far away.
Rich (00:37):
And you know, Norma, it really is that first episode
dropped on May the 4th, whichwas perfect timing for our "Star
Wars Day debut, dropped on Maythe 4th, which was perfect
timing for our Star Wars Daydebut, and well and I mean well
the response we have had fromfans has been absolutely out of
this world.
Norma (00:54):
So here we are with part two, and while part one was
packed with origin stories andbehind the scenes lore, this one
gets personal.
Rich (01:04):
Really personal.
Norma (01:05):
Oh yes, Pablo opens up about mentors and behind the
scenes lore.
This one gets personal, reallypersonal.
Oh yes, Pablo opens up aboutmentors, finding his path and
what it means to turn yourpassion into a lifelong career.
Rich (01:14):
And it has been.
Hasn't it A lifelong career forhim?
And, honestly, this episode isfull of wisdom.
Whether you're a creator, a fanor someone just trying to
figure out your own story, therereally is something here for
you.
Norma (01:27):
And also spoiler alert.
Rich (01:31):
Enough of your spoiler alerts.
Norma (01:32):
No, we have to Okay this one.
Let me have this one.
All right, Okay, go, Okay,thank you.
We talk about how Star Warsdidn't just influence Pablo's
life.
I mean Pablo here, it is hislife.
The man faxed faxed edits tothe official Star Wars
encyclopedia.
Before email was a thing.
Rich (01:53):
I know, and how many times did he fax?
Listen, you'll hear all aboutthat, plus how being a super fan
led to a dream job and why he'sreally still geeks out over
sound designers like Ben Burt.
This episode, it's got heart,it's got legacy and, yes and yes
, it has got lightsabers.
(02:14):
allAll right, grab your blue milk
and maybe wookie cookie okay,let's fire up the hyperdrive.
This is Pablo Hidalgo, part two,part two.
(02:42):
So when the Star Wars books arewritten, is it safe to assume
they obviously have to followthe same canon as everything
else, because obviously booksare written that don't
necessarily get made into a TVseries or a film, but they sit
within that universe.
It must be quite hard to keepan eye on all of that, because
there are plenty of books outthere, aren't there?
There are, yeah, comics.
Pablo Hidalgo (03:02):
Yep, aren't there .
There are, yeah.
So that's part of what I do nowis, on the franchise side of
things is I'm involved incarefully looking at what gets
published and hoping, doing thebest we can, that it doesn't
contradict something.
That's it's one thing to notcontradict something that's
already come out, but the mainthing I do is not contradict
something that's in the works.
(03:22):
So we'll often have to giveveiled notes of don't do that.
I can't tell you why, but don'tdo that because there's
something that's coming outwithin the next five years
you're going to want to steeraway from.
But a lot of that we've learned.
We've learned a lot of tricksand trades of how to get what's
ultimately a satisfying printstory out being books or comics
(03:42):
while preserving the landscapeof all the other storytelling
that happens to be happening.
It's very much like parkmanagement.
It's like okay, you want to tellthe story, but stick to these
trails, Don't go over here,because that's very precious
territory.
And there's things that wecould do Very early on and
(04:03):
people learned this in a way.
There's things that we could dolike very early on and people
learned this in a way like avoidsuperlatives.
Avoid making sweepingstatements like that was the
largest space station he'd everseen.
The second.
You say that someone's going tocome up with a bigger space
station in the story that youhad not.
That's a really good point.
So, especially when it comes tocharacters that have a
continuity and existence outsideof a book, it's like we have to
(04:23):
manage what it is theyexperience in a way that you
could believe it's the samecharacter existing on screen as
it is on page.
We found much more success increating original characters
that live on the page and thenfilmmakers get inspired and like
, oh, can we take that character?
And so it's a lot easier tograduate from the page onto
screen, because everyone wantsthat to happen?
Rich (04:44):
Amazing, because the other question was so when you
started you went to Sydney todocument the.
.
.
i It was Episode Three, wasn't?
Pablo Hidalgo (04:54):
it yeah, Revenge of the Sith.
Rich (04:55):
Revenge of the Sith, and you then had a small walk-on
part.
Pablo Hidalgo (04:56):
I did.
Yeah, how was that?
That must have been amazing.
So that whole experience was abig experiment and it all worked
out really, really good look athis face uh, first of all, it's
like yeah, you described it asset diarist and that's what the
term I use, because the termblogging wasn't known.
But I was essentially blogging,yeah, from the set of Episode
Three.
That was our big pitch.
It was the last, it was what weunderstood to be the last star
(05:18):
wars movie that's ever going tobe made.
And we had this, this fan club,this group online that we
thought, thought, well, how dowe give them an inside seat into
what may be the last time weever do this?
So the proposal and GeorgeLucas and Rick McCallum, the
producer, signed off on it waswe're going to send an embedded
Lucasfilm guy it was me to writewhat's going on on set every
(05:41):
day as a journal, and he's alsotaking a webcam with him that's
gonna broadcast an image live topeople that are watching from
home.
They said, yeah, we'll do it,and there are a number of checks
and balances in place.
For instance, the webcam wasn'tlike a live 24 frame per second
(06:02):
thing.
It only took a still imageevery like 10 to 30 seconds or
whatever, and it was a bit of atime delay.
It was more of a securitycamera than it was a webcam, but
whatever no sound.
It was enough.
People loved it and then Iwould write every day and, to
their credit, they did not haveto.
I did not get pre-screenedmaterial, like they just trusted
me.
So it was that process where Iearned the trust of George, and
(06:26):
that's like I had the mostFaceTime with George at the time
, because I'm on his movie set.
Norma (06:30):
You're on the set.
Pablo Hidalgo (06:31):
And he was like very sanguine about it.
He's like you know, I get it, Iget it.
You know, like I would neverthink the webcam planning was
all done very strategically,like I'm only going to be
pointing in this corner of theset, George, you're not going to
see any action, but you'll seethe behind-the-scenes crew, and
it was the first day of usstreaming.
George says, well, they don'twant to see that, they want to
see this, and he picked up thecamera and he pointed it
(06:53):
directly to a monitor thatshowed Hayden Christensen as
Anakin Skywalker in costume.
And I was like all right, youdid that.
Rich (07:00):
I didn't do that.
Yeah, he touched the camera,you did that.
Norma (07:02):
That was George.
He's the Director.
He gets to do that.
Pablo Hidalgo (07:04):
He's comfortable.
It's such a weird propositionbut he's fine with it.
And so over the months ofproduction I basically got
really well known to theproduction team because they
understood what this fly on thewall thing was and, to be honest
, they were very welcoming of itbecause they understood not
only they not only understoodthat this could be the last Star
(07:25):
Wars movie, but that there wasa community of people that were
interested in them and alsothey're in this world where they
can't talk about what it isthey do until it's public.
And we were basically openingthe doors and shining spots that
was the first yeah, right, ever, yeah, in this kind of way,
right.
So they were very grateful.
It's like wow, and I could tellmy family I'm working on this
movie, you know, because you dida profile on me or whatever.
(07:46):
So by the time we got to pickupsand shooting little bits and
bobs to add to, you know, thelarge composite that is episode
three, there was a scene thattakes place in an opera house
and they were shootingbackground elements against
green screen that would be usedto populate the virtual set in
that scene.
Screen that would be used topopulate the virtual set in that
(08:07):
scene.
And Gillian Libert, who at thetime she worked in the costume
department and was also both inproduction and on post, I think
she, in addition to the ILMstage crew, like earmarked me as
like hey, do you want to have apart in this?
I'm like yeah.
So they dressed me as one ofthese background extras at the
Coruscant Opera.
And again, you never know.
You never know because you'renot involved with any of the
(08:28):
leads, you're just an elementthat gets plopped into the film.
So there's no guarantee thatyou're not going to be covered
by some CG character or you'regoing to be three pixels tall in
the background.
Norma (08:39):
Or that you'll even make the cut right.
Pablo Hidalgo (08:41):
This was great, great experience, love it.
And then when I see the movie,I'm actually quite visible.
Norma (08:47):
So you are.
There's nothing else blockingme Do you know what time in the
movie?
Because now I want to go homeand watch it.
Pablo Hidalgo (08:53):
So basically, it's the opera scene.
When Anakin comes running intothe opera box and has a seat
with Palpatine, it's rightbefore they had that big
discussion about the legend ofDarth.
Norma (09:03):
Plagueis.
So it's before the discussion.
Pablo Hidalgo (09:04):
Yeah, so it's just as Anakin's sitting down
and it's a wide shot where yousee the balcony and he's sitting
down and the balcony isobviously on the upper level.
There's a lower concourse wherepeople are milling and back and
forth and I'm a character who'swalking from screen left to
screen right, wearing this greendress, basically.
Norma (09:23):
Do we see your face?
Yes, okay, yeah, okay, allright, I'm going to freeze the
frame.
I'm going to check it out.
Pablo Hidalgo (09:28):
From a fan perspective.
Again, no expectations, yes,but again this opportunity came
in and also being on the setlike the energy.
Rich (09:35):
Yeah.
Norma (09:35):
Because it's one thing when you see it done and you're,
you know, looking at edits or d, but being on the set and
seeing the magnitude of peoplethat work on it, on the set and
off the set, it's a constantreminder of why, when the
credits roll, it's a village ofpeople that work on a film.
Pablo Hidalgo (09:54):
Oh, absolutely, and I can recognize it's.
My favorite thing now is I canrecognize when a film is shot in
Australia.
As the credits come up, I'mlike, oh, I know that person.
I know that person.
I know that person because Iwas there for so long.
How long were you living there?
Four months, oh, so again,another incredible experience,
like in my mid-20s.
I had no, yeah, I had no, likeI was, I was single, I had no
(10:16):
attachments to anything, it'slike.
So I basically moved out of myapartment, put everything in
storage and like rent free inSydney for four months.
Rich (10:29):
You know, partying down there as a movie was being made.
It was incredible, so that wasreleased.
What 2005?
2005, yeah, 2005.
Pablo Hidalgo (10:32):
So this would have been May 2003 to September
of 2003 that I was there,amazing.
For that bulk of principalphotography, and then I
continued following them as theydid pickups in the UK and stage
work in at ILM so must havebeen amazing, okay.
Rich (10:48):
So there's then roughly what 10 years between that film
and when Disney yeah yeah, yeah,when episode 7 came out.
Pablo Hidalgo (10:55):
So it was 2012 is when the, the, the sale
happened.
Yes, yeah, that was reallyinteresting to watch, because
this is hindsight, uh, thatpeople kind of forget about.
But again, I had lived throughand witnessed on the fan side
the first decline of Star Wars,the 83-84, right.
I guess what people weren'treally that cognizant of was
(11:16):
something similar wasessentially happening around
2011, 2012, where it's.
You know, the world ofentertainment has changed such
that, without constant sort ofinfusion of energy, these things
become these dusty catalogthings that live on the shelf.
And I was okay with thatpotential future.
(11:38):
I thought like, oh, I guessStar Wars is this thing that
just gets re-released from nowon, going forward every now and
then.
We obviously we found a degreeof success by having Clone Wars
on TV, but even that wasstarting to wane to some degree,
because the expectation of mostanimated shows is maybe Two,
three years, because youraudience ages out of your show.
(12:00):
It does, and unless you'rebringing in the audience.
It was an animated show, yeah itwas an animated show, so that
was a tough proposal.
Unless you're a comedy like theSimpsons and you can run for 30
years, most adventure shows aremaybe two to three years.
So it was remarkable that CloneWars lasted as long as it did,
but even that was starting towane a little bit.
So in early 2011, we startedseeing a lot of internal
(12:24):
proposals as to what is thefuture of the company, because
we knew that George hadretirement in his eyes, because
he'd been talking about retiringsince the first Star Wars movie
, but now it just become moreand more real.
It's like, wow, is he reallygonna do it?
So what's the future of thecompany gonna look like?
And there are all sorts of likebusiness folks that were
brought in and showingpresentations and all that
Couple that with like the futureof the company going to look
like.
And there are all sorts of likebusiness folks that were
brought in showing presentationsand all that Couple that with
like the future of the industrywas really like was constantly
(12:48):
being asked about.
You know, it's like what's withthe Internet and streaming
what's happening, right?
So there were no real concreteanswers as to what the future
was going to be.
And for the first time in a longtime, I found myself wondering
like, well, what's next, whathappens?
And for the first time in along time, I found myself
wondering like, well, what'snext, what happens?
I don't know.
I don't know.
A lot of us did not.
Well, I'll just speakpersonally.
I don't want to speak foranyone else.
Could not really conjecture afuture of Star Wars into the
capacity that we had got used toit.
(13:10):
I remember what it was in 87,88, when it was just these small
little boutique things and Iwas like is that the future?
Maybe it is, and maybe thenwe'll just get used to.
That's what that is.
And then a couple of thingshappened.
I remember early 2012, springof 2012,.
Major changes in uppermanagement in terms of who was
(13:31):
running Lucasfilm.
You know, we found out KathleenKennedy was now our yeah, and
it's like what?
And internally we kind of knewit's like you don't bring
someone with those kinds ofproduction chops unless the
future suggests that you'regoing back into production,
right.
And then, all throughout thesummer of 2012, I myself would
(13:56):
get all sorts of weird requestsfrom George's office saying what
can you tell us about thischaracter?
What can you tell us aboutwhat's been said here?
What can you tell us about the?
Norma (14:05):
history of this.
Ah ha, you were getting thefirst little drips.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:08):
And I'm like wait a minute.
Why are they asking this?
Something's going on.
Norma (14:12):
I'll answer the question, but if you answer mine, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:14):
So it suddenly became clear like there's
activity that I did notanticipate.
Well, first of all, two thingshappened In the summer of 2012,.
My boss at the time, MilesPerkins, who was in PR at ILM.
Norma (14:28):
I remember Miles, hi, Miles.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:31):
He and I know he lobbed this at me because he
wanted to see what it would dohe just threw it at me.
He's like so, with very littlepreamble, it's like we're making
Seven, Eight and Nine.
Norma (14:42):
No, he did not, he did.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:44):
And I'm like and I said something, can you swear
on your podcast Maybe?
Norma (14:48):
not, yeah, we can, oh, yeah, we can Feel free, Go for
it.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:54):
And I said I basically said what the F.
.
.
Pearls.
I'm sorry Pearls, just neverknow, know, I never know.
Don't want to assume, but I waslike what?
So then I just had to sit down,I'm like what and so yeah, so
basically the cards are on thetable.
It's like the reason KathleenKennedy is in charge and the
reason so many people aremilling about asking these
interesting questions is becauseStar Wars is coming back.
Norma (15:16):
Your heart must have been racing.
Pablo Hidalgo (15:17):
And now here's the wild thing I was then after
knowing this information StarWars Celebration happened in
Orlando.
Oh, and I was one of the stagehosts.
Oh, wow.
Rich (15:28):
That must have been amazing, so.
Pablo Hidalgo (15:29):
I was one of the few people in the world who knew
what was coming and could notsay a thing about it.
How were you like?
Did you like I have the bestpoker face in this business?
That's it, because my wifedidn't know.
My wife works at this companyas well, Right right and she did
not know.
Norma (15:42):
Love her, by the way, she did not know until the fall.
You had to keep it from her,yeah.
Pablo Hidalgo (15:47):
Because this did not get announced until October.
So what I did not know thatsummer was that Disney was on
the table as well.
Norma (15:55):
Yes, yes, yes.
Pablo Hidalgo (15:56):
So at the time, the assumption was that George
would produce these in somecapacity, but he had different
plans.
That was playing very close tothe vest, so it wasn't until
September that at the time,Howard Rothman our longstanding
VP of Licensing at the time, hebrought a bunch of us around a
table and basically told us thatDisney was buying us, and I was
(16:17):
one of the people tasked withhelping communicate that
information publicly, likewriting a press release putting
it all together for StarWarscom.
Norma (16:26):
Right.
Pablo Hidalgo (16:27):
And again like they're trusting you with this
information because that's likeinside information.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
It's not like I do not havestock, but like I could have
done something extremely illegalwith that information if I had
stock, but I'm not a stock guy.
I don't know what any of thatmeans, so anyway.
So I had that information andthen we just basically had to
(16:48):
craft a communication plan.
How are we going to introducethis to the world.
Norma (16:52):
What was going through your head?
Pablo Hidalgo (16:53):
It was wild.
Again, it's like what I hadlearned was, I guess, from my
own experiences, I'm not goingto be planning a lot, I'm just
going to roll the biggest.
I guess my one lesson I canimpart on so many people is one
of my biggest strengths is justrolling, Just rolling with
changes, rolling with unexpectedchanges.
So I just rolled with it and itjust was like look, let's just
(17:16):
take this one task at a time.
Norma (17:18):
And this first task is helping to communicate to the
world what this is going to be.
Pablo Hidalgo (17:21):
Every word there is so important because that
would affect everybody, rightand we were all set to announce
and then, I think, hurricaneSandy closed things down on the
stock exchange on the East Coastfor a while, so we had to wait
an additional week, and that wasanother thing.
I was walking around the hallsof New York Comic Con with this
information and I felt like Iwas walking around with a
(17:44):
nuclear football, I know exactlywhat's wrong with Pablo?
He's so off today If ever therewere people who were ready to
pounce on news.
That's that crowd.
So I remember being at New YorkComic Con and I had to take a
phone call related to thissubject and I'm like I can't
take this call here.
And thankfully I knew people atthe Comic Con.
My wife knew people at theComic.
Norma (18:03):
Con.
Pablo Hidalgo (18:03):
She's like, yeah, is there a private office we
could go to?
And they pointed me to aprivate office.
I go in there and the onlypeople in there are some
Japanese businessmen.
I'm like, man, I hope you guysdon't speak English.
And even if that was, when wefound out, the announcement was
being delayed by a week orsomething because of the weather
.
But anyway, it all goes out inthe world and then it starts
(18:26):
becoming real and you realize,oh, this is real.
And then the JJ Abrams elementof it fell into place and it's
like, oh, wow, okay, this is allbecoming this weird new reality
and there's new people comingon board and you just kind of
take on faith because you knowthat everyone is trying to do
what's best for the story thatthey're gonna tell and
ultimately for Star Wars and towhatever degree that it is that
(18:46):
you would help them do that andoffer that as value.
It's like, yeah, that's, that'swhat, mike, that's what I'm
being tasked for.
So very early on I wasintroduced to JJ as someone who
knows a lot about Star Wars andif that's beneficial to you, get
in touch.
And sure enough, I became thisguy that he would constantly
float things or just ask themost interesting but incomplete
(19:08):
questions, because he's clearlybaking on something, but he's
not ready to reveal all hiscards yet.
But it's like, okay, why do you?
want to know that All right, I'mjust going to tell you what
that is.
So that was great.
So that all throughout theproduction and as we all know,
there were multiple things wentinto production around that time
.
Star Wars Rebels was our firstanimated project and I was, very
fortunate to you know, a prettybig role in the development of
(19:30):
that.
As far as like being includedand having a seat at the table
and being able to offer my pastexperience, I'm still very proud
of that show and being able tocontribute the way I did.
But I'll tell you.
Rich (19:41):
What's lovely is that?
So you're now involved in thenew films.
Then you've got the TV seriesas well.
So, all of the TV series thatfollow, which have got their own
following.
It's the way it's opened up.
I can only talk personally, buthaving Disney behind it seems
to have opened up differentavenues for for star wars
because there were, thereweren't series before were they,
yeah, that only came aboutafter um was it rise of
(20:02):
skywalker?
Pablo Hidalgo (20:02):
the mandalorian predated rise of sky okay just a
little like as far as liveaction shows.
That was, that was it and, andit just came out like a month
before the movie came out.
Yeah, we hit the ground runningthere.
But what's interesting is, likein my mind, a lot of people
build a lot of, I would say,false barriers between film,
television.
Rich (20:19):
It's all becoming very permeated now yeah.
Pablo Hidalgo (20:22):
I think that's old school thinking.
Most people now grow upwatching content I hate using
that word watching stories onwhatever format that's delivered
to them, and it doesn't matterhow it originated Stories are
stories, yeah.
So in our mind it's like well,that's a big screen story,
that's a small screen story.
Norma (20:41):
That's a small screen story.
Exactly that's archaic, yeah.
Rich (20:43):
But it is because of how they're shot as well.
They look exactly the same as afilm, and I heard someone say
this the other day.
I've forgotten who it was now.
They were saying would youwatch a 10-hour film?
Pablo Hidalgo (21:02):
I said no, star Wars to me is a setting, so
these stories are doors to enterthis setting and it really
doesn't matter to me what theintent of its distribution was.
I get the business need todissect these things and
categorize them, but to me it'slike I welcome Star Wars as a TV
show and I don't think it losesa lot because, yes, you get
(21:24):
that cultural hit and that bigscreen moment, but that is so
fleeting.
The majority of my life hasbeen treating Star Wars like
I've watched it on VHS way morethan I would have ever watched
it on screen.
Right, like that is Star Warsto me.
It leaps beyond the confines ofwhatever medium it was released
(21:46):
in.
It becomes now part of thistableau, part of this tapestry.
So I don't fret too much aboutlike, oh, we see Star Wars on
the big screen again.
I get the business reason tofret about that.
But the storytelling reason,the revisiting that universe,
that is less important to me.
So those TV reason, therevisiting that universe, that
is less important to me.
So those TV shows, thestreaming shows, are just as
Star Wars to me as anything.
Norma (22:07):
You know, Pablo, the thing that's also beautiful are
the fans, and you've had theprivilege of being with them.
When I say privilege, did Ericquote that?
No, no, no, I'm one of them.
Well, yeah, we'm one of them,Well, yeah, well, be one of them
.
But when you look at the fandombecause this is true fandom
around the world, can you talk alittle bit about your
(22:29):
experiences, whether it be goingto conferences or being on set,
how culturally fans havechanged and what your experience
has been when you've beeninteracting with them?
Pablo Hidalgo (22:42):
It's been like.
It's ultimately this universallanguage.
It's something that then youcould.
It opens doors and it divides.
It gets rid of divisions thatyou may have Once you understand
oh, you're into this, I'm intothis too.
Oh, you're into this this way.
Well, I'm into it that way.
Right, I find it much more of aunifying thing than it is a
divisive thing, although I knowlike the conversation often
(23:03):
tends to focus on the divisivenatures of fandom, not just Star
Wars, but around the world.
Right, like different things,like oh, these Marvel fans don't
like DC fans.
Oh, I see Old school Star Trekfans don't like new school Star
Trek fans, so it's franchiseagainst franchise, franchise
within franchise or evenexpressions versus different
expressions, but that, to me,strikes me as incredibly
artificial and it tends to onlyreflect the medium in which that
(23:27):
conversation happens to betaking place.
The Internet is the worst forthis kind of thing because,
especially now with social media, you'll end up getting these
sort of cloistered experienceswhere, like I, only like this,
you only like that and this is abarrier between us, right.
Displaced experiences where,like I, only like this, you only
like that and this is a barrierbetween us, right?
But the second you go to aconvention and people have to
basically breathe the same airand live in the same space.
(23:47):
All that goes away.
It does, because you're able torecognize oh, there's a person
here and I see the commonalitywe have.
I see that you were sparked bythe same stuff, even if it's not
the exact same stuff, it's thesame energy, and that's why I do
think like convention andin-person experiences tends to
be much more a real fanexperience or like a realistic
(24:09):
interaction than if you onlylimit yourself to the online
world, right?
You also think like the onlineworld has changed radically in
the past 10 years.
I did start off on StarWarscomin the online space, but it was
such a different animal than itis now.
Now people are making theirlivelihood by being influencers
and if that's what you do, great.
But it's like that was not whatit was back in the day.
(24:32):
It's like you'd be hard pressedto find a Star Wars influencer
in the pre-social media way andin a weird way, like Steve
Sansweet, I could say, was aStar Wars influencer, but it was
a different.
It's a completely differentthing Because in a weird way
like it wasn't about Steve beingthe influencer, it was just
like Steve was a gateway to StarWars, exactly.
So all this to say is I thinkfandoms in the world are
(24:55):
shifting and changing as we getto know what this communication
landscape is.
But it doesn't change too muchonce you're in person and if
you're sharing a space, ifyou're in a theater with someone
or you just happen to seesomeone wearing a Star Wars
shirt or you're at the parks orsomething.
And do we disagree?
Of course we do, but fandom hasalways disagreed, because
that's what drives fandom.
(25:15):
It's like I will disagree onwhat the best Star Wars movie is
yeah exactly.
I'm telling you what my favoriteis.
You're telling me what yourfavorite is.
It's personal, but I think it'sgood that the audience is
opening up, because then theconversation gets more
interesting.
It's like oh, that movie's yourfavorite, it's not mine, why?
And then I understand moreabout you because you're coming
at it from a differentperspective than I am.
Rich (25:41):
I think, what makes it different with Star Wars, though
it's one story, so if you watchsay you take Star Trek as an
example, their films are quitedifferent, even the reboot.
There was no common thread toeach of the three films that
they did, whereas with Star Warsyou have a beginning, you have
a middle and you haven't quitereached the end yet.
Because isn't there anotherfilm with ray coming out?
there's a lot of stuff cookingright now okay, all right, so
(26:05):
we're not at the end.
So, yes, we're transitioningfrom the middle to whatever
comes after that.
So it's it's.
It's got this continuity there,so people's view on a film is
only based on it's the samestory.
Pablo Hidalgo (26:15):
It's just that you know yes and no, but I'll
challenge you because I thinkyou and I are probably of the
same age group and we approachit the same way.
Rich (26:22):
I love you.
I'm actually older than you,but thank you very much.
Pablo Hidalgo (26:25):
But we were introduced to Star Wars with the
same group of films.
I think you would be surprisedto meet people younger that may
not even engage in the three,what we consider the three holy
films 4, 5 and 6, Star Wars,Empire and Jedi.
You'd be surprised at howyou'll meet new people who are
like complete fans, but they'veonly watched the animated shows.
Norma (26:45):
Okay, really.
Pablo Hidalgo (26:47):
Yeah, but I think that's good.
I think that's ultimately goodbecause it's all still
reflecting what it is we loveabout it, of course, of course,
but I think it's now gotten muchmore diverse, beyond being a
singular story.
I know that singular story isthe spine and it is where the
majority of people sit, but nowand now, the more that comes out
, the more time that passes,there are people who are
(27:09):
engaging in such a way.
There's people who love StarWars and to them it's a video
game first.
Norma (27:14):
Oh yeah, I could see that too.
Pablo Hidalgo (27:16):
That was for you.
Norma (27:17):
Oh, blasphemy.
You said that was for you.
I said blasphemy, oh blasphemy.
You said that was for you.
I didn't know you were a gamer.
Can I ask about Andor?
Rich (27:26):
Yes, you talk a lot with Tony Gilroy.
Yes.
You must have called you a lot.
Pablo Hidalgo (27:29):
Tony, I'm such a fanboy, but I have reined it in.
Yeah, because all I could dowas like when Tony Gilroy got
involved together on the tailend of Rogue One and then with
Andor, like Michael Clayton isone of my favorite movies of all
time.
Oh, it's a brilliant film.
Norma (27:45):
Oh it's a great.
Yeah, it is.
Pablo Hidalgo (27:47):
I have never talked to Tony about Michael
Clayton, because I know I wouldjust lose it.
Norma (27:51):
Oh, you would just lose it, I would just go off the deep
end.
Pablo Hidalgo (27:57):
I'm like keep it straight, keep it straight.
It's wild to me that I'm on hisspeed dial because and again,
tony's one of these writerswhere it's the detail.
When he writes real world, if acharacter has to go to a
restaurant, he will map out whatthat restaurant is and what
that character is going to orderor whatever.
That real world texture isimportant to him.
(28:17):
When you're in this fancifulworld of Star Wars, he needs to
approximate that, and so he'lloften ask for, like, what's a
thing that I can use here,what's a thing that I could use
here?
Or I'll put like the historicalcontext to him in real world
language, like, well, this islike this moment in history and
this is like this moment inhistory.
This character is analogous tothis revolutionary or whatever,
(28:38):
and so we'll have thisconversation and it's been this
great experience.
Because he understands and isreverent to the parts of the
world he doesn't know about, buthe also understands the part of
the world that he's carved out.
Oh, I like that.
So, in a very interesting way,he understands, for instance,
(28:58):
that Mon Mothma is a borrowedcharacter and that Mon Mothma
preexisted in Return of the Jedi.
But he will respect what isknown and then shape and add as
required for his story.
And then he also understandsthe characters that are 100
percent his creation, likeLuthen and Kleia and Cyril and
all that and just go to town byfilling those characters with
(29:21):
enough vitality and spark thatlike no one else but he could
have crafted these folks.
Andor has been such an amazingexperience and to me it
represents what I've always beensaying that Star Wars is a
setting so you could tell allsorts of different stories in
there, and in my mind it totallymakes sense that Andor could
live in the same place as anEwoks cartoon.
(29:43):
It's just that you happen to beshifting the focus through a
different storyteller, andthat's fine.
Like these worlds can coexist,because Star Wars itself is such
a huge basket to hold all typesof different storytellers.
Norma (29:54):
You know, I love the way you're describing this, because
now I'm going to see the canonin a completely different light,
not just by the stories, notjust by the toys.
I love that you said it's asetting.
Yeah, because it allows more.
You dip in and out and it'srepeatable.
When you go in, your mood couldshift, you could turn a
different way, you could seethings in a different way and
you walk out feeling differentlyas well.
(30:16):
I love that you're saying itthis way.
Pablo Hidalgo (30:18):
And I would argue , our world is like that.
Norma (30:20):
Exactly well.
It feels more real.
The.
Pablo Hidalgo (30:22):
Marx Brothers lived at the same time as some
of the worst things in history.
You're right, but that doesn'tmean they're discontinuous.
Rich (30:28):
I haven't watched all of the series.
I've watched Mandalorian, whichwas brilliant.
I watched the Acolyte.
I've got one more episode towatch, but I haven't watched all
of them.
Obi-wan was brilliant.
Norma (30:38):
Well, now I'm brilliant because Courage would have been
a little more of a watcher.
Rich (30:42):
I didn't watch Andor.
I didn't watch Boba Fett.
Oh you have to watch him.
I highly recommend all of them,obviously.
Pablo Hidalgo (30:48):
But Andor is very close to my heart because of
the type of storytelling that itdoes.
And again, to circle, thatthing that I keep coming about
of Star Wars is a setting.
It's like you could elevate anycharacter and give them a show,
because it's about where theyare and what they're doing.
When we first announced Andor,people were like why are you
(31:09):
making an Andor show?
We know what happens to thatcharacter.
And now it's the mostcompelling thing because, sure,
we know what happens to thatcharacter, it doesn't matter
what happens in between and whatthey experience and how it's
told.
Norma (31:19):
And how it's told, yeah, how it's told is everything.
Rich (31:23):
And is it true?
Pablo Hidalgo (31:23):
there is a oh you might not be able to answer
this.
We'll see.
Are you going?
Norma (31:25):
to get our guest in trouble.
You can always ask Okay, good,all right, ask your question
Obi-Wan.
Rich (31:30):
Is there another series of Obi-Wan coming out?
Pablo Hidalgo (31:36):
I will say what's been?
Okay, fine, but as far, as.
Norma (31:38):
Follow you, MacGregor.
He'll probably split with me.
Oh, that's good.
Pablo Hidalgo (31:41):
But as to what may or may not be in the plans,
as a rule I don't talk aboutstuff that's happening in the
future.
Rich (31:47):
No, that's fair enough, because who can?
Pablo Hidalgo (31:49):
predict such things.
I mean, as I've said, I've beenconstantly surprised and I roll
with it.
Norma (31:54):
Your life has been a perfect example of what happens.
You just go along, right alongyou hear everybody right along
the wave and magical things willcome to you.
Pablo Hidalgo (32:03):
We're doing this now.
Okay, sign me up.
Yeah, exactly, let me dosomething a little different.
Rich (32:07):
Let me ask you a question.
Okay, your career has been.
It's probably not even a career.
Norma (32:14):
It's life, let's just talk about it.
It's life, you're life, becausethat would invoke you work, and
I don't think you do.
I think you enjoy what you do.
Rich (32:23):
I'm enjoying listening to you.
So am I.
I want to come and work here.
I know what I was going to askyou is go back to your younger
self when you joined here, or tosomeone else looking to come
into this world.
What?
Advice would you give?
Pablo Hidalgo (32:38):
Listen, you know there are people who have been
here longer.
I'm not one of them, but stillwhen I learned it was just like,
well, how did you do that?
How did you do that?
Like being interested in realmsoutside your own particular
responsibilities and just beingable to manage that in a
responsible and approachable way.
There's a version of me thatwould have been a complete
(33:01):
nightmare to have West of West.
Well, no, but it's sort of like,hey, we're going to invite the
biggest fan we know to work withyou.
It's like you can imagine, likehow bad versions of that.
But that wasn't me, thankfully,you know.
So there's a way to comportyourself when you enter a world
that interests you and you'reexcited.
But I mean, that's just generalhuman nature.
(33:23):
But the other thing is I wasvery fortunate in that the job
itself as I was working onStarWarscom it required me to
reach outside to differentdepartments and get to know them
.
It's like, oh, I'm doing aprofile on a sound designer.
I better get to know what sounddesign is.
Or I'm going to invite you totell me what sound design is.
Actually, you guys are doingthis right now as podcasters.
You're asking people to tellthem and share your world, right
(33:46):
?
So if you're able to do that ina company in your career and get
to know what it is you do andyou knew this from your time at
Lucasfilm, norma it's like youwould have lunch with people
that you wouldn't work with on aday-to-day basis.
You would get to know them.
You'd get to share interestsand be interested in what else
it is that drives what they do.
So the more that you're able todo.
Not only does it make you abetter person, but within the
(34:10):
company, you may find yourselfsuddenly being able to help
people outside of yourdepartment by offering some
intrinsic piece of informationor wisdom, and that just makes
you more valued as a whole, youknow and you contribute more.
Norma (34:22):
When you do that, it's outside of just your scope of
your job.
You actually care and that wasone thing I said over and over
again that lucasfilm does agreat job in hiring like-minded
skilled artists.
Better passion, the passion,just like I mean you could.
You could see, I could feel itright Just sitting next to you.
It's like oh my God, I want tokeep talking to you, but, uh,
(34:44):
but unfortunately we're gettingclose on on on our time.
There's a couple of things thatwe'd like to ask our guests.
One is um.
We'd like our guests to give ashout-out if there's any
nonprofit or an organizationthat you'd like to spotlight,
that you work with or champion.
Pablo Hidalgo (35:04):
This is very Bay Area-based.
Norma (35:07):
We are filming in San Francisco.
Pablo Hidalgo (35:10):
But Muttville Muttville.
org is one of our favorites.
They're a senior dog rescue andwe've had several dogs from
Muttville and, as you know, aswe get older and our energy
level decreases, suddenly findyourself one day wanting an
older dog.
but it's also just like thebenefit of improving their life
and seeing them so lovely yeah,and it's like some people feel
(35:33):
like, well, isn't thatheartbreaking that you don't
have as much time with them?
But it's like that time thatyou do have with them is
incredible.
So we have a 14 year old dog athome that we got from muttville
a couple of years ago.
She's just an integral part ofour life and you realize that
you're offering the comfort andshelter, uh, to a dog at an age
that perhaps would be harder toget attention to.
Rich (35:53):
But muttville specializes in getting those dogs homes and
you know the love you get froman animal.
I mean, I have a dog at home,so I understand it is
unconditional, it's like a childand no matter how old that dog
is, the love, the loyalty iscomplete.
Norma (36:10):
When senior dogs are overlooked all the time.
I love that you said Muttville,I love Muttville.
Pablo Hidalgo (36:17):
And realistically .
Let's be honest, some of us arebeyond puppy raising age.
It's like I don't have the timeor the furniture to raise a
puppy so an older dog does comewith a lot of benefits.
So anyway, Muttville.
org.
Rich (36:32):
So the other thing we ask our guests to do is to dip their
hand into this pile of cardshere, pick one out.
Pablo Hidalgo (36:40):
From anywhere on the deck.
Rich (36:41):
Anywhere you're comfortable.
And there's a question on there, if you read it out and would
oblige us by answering, and thenNorma and I will answer as well
.
Pablo Hidalgo (36:48):
What skill do you need to acquire to achieve your
next goal?
Norma (36:53):
Ooh.
Pablo Hidalgo (36:54):
Well, that presupposes, I have goals.
Norma (36:57):
You're right, you just go with the flow and that's what
we've established.
You go with the flow.
I don't have goals.
Pablo Hidalgo (37:01):
But you know, honestly, there are things that
I definitely am working on.
A lot of it is interesting.
Norma (37:11):
I'm good at public speaking to a certain degree,
you're a phenomenal speaker, butthere's a number of— what do?
You mean, there's a?
Pablo Hidalgo (37:18):
but no, there's a number of tools and cheats.
Norma (37:21):
Oh, okay.
Pablo Hidalgo (37:23):
Which I'm trying to bridge and move beyond.
So I'm good at a stage kind ofpresence Right when I'm talking
one-on-one with someone.
I can't see the audiencebecause the lights are on.
Norma (37:33):
Yes, ah, you were talking about okay.
So in those settings you'recomfortable.
Pablo Hidalgo (37:37):
I am right, and I'm honestly more comfortable
being on stage because I'misolated from the group.
So what I am trying to work onis like well, okay, let's try to
be a little bit morepeople-oriented.
And again, there's certainskills I'm working on.
So, for instance, I'm going tobe hosting a thing down at
(37:59):
Burbank.
I won't get into specifics whatit is, but it's my first time
dealing with this particularaudience where I'm a host and
talking to them really kind ofin an ad lib performance-y kind
of way.
Norma (38:12):
So questions would just come out naturally.
Pablo Hidalgo (38:15):
Yeah, Kind of like what we're doing here then
yeah, but it's like in front ofa group of strangers.
Oh, you're going to be great atit, I'm sure, but at the same
time I do recognize theuncertainty is in a weird way a
benefit, because that's where alot of energy is derived.
Norma (38:30):
Oh, absolutely Absolutely , and the physicality, like how
you position people.
Pablo Hidalgo (38:34):
You're gonna be fine, so anyway, all right
that's, that's an immediate goal, because I have this thing
coming up and that's like youwant me to answer that next.
Rich (38:40):
Can I just re-read the questions what skill do you need
to acquire to achieve your nextgoal?
Skill goal, I would say toachieve my next goal.
Norma (38:56):
What skill?
Rich (38:57):
What skill would I need?
Patience.
Norma (39:02):
Oh, okay, yeah.
Rich (39:03):
I think knowing me would be patience.
You get used to doing thingsunder rapid fire.
You're used to moving quicklyand there are times in your life
when you need to slow down andlet events take place around you
as opposed to try and influencethem, and it's something I'm
learning is to take a step backfrom my next goals so that I am
(39:26):
more patient and understandingof where I need to be.
I would say is probably my.
Norma (39:34):
I like that.
Patience is important.
Rich (39:37):
It is very important, especially when you drive over
here.
Norma (39:43):
Mine would be letting go of the how, because I'm now I'm
morphing my career and wantingto do more creative projects.
My brain goes into the businessside and you know, having a plan
sketching everything out.
It has to be this way and therehas to be like steps Focusing
(40:05):
on.
Now I know I need to just dothings, just get in there and
let things unfold, rekindlerelationships with creative
people, be more in the creativecommunity and not get stuck on
the ticking the list of theto-do's.
And that's only because youknow it's a left brain, right
brain, right.
And when you reach a certainage, a certain level of you know
(40:27):
experience, you're taught thatwell, if you don't have these
milestones and you're notachieving but it's like I call
to that you know, just let go,just breathe in it and live in
it, because everything else, theway you're hardwired, will come
into play.
You'll start seeing the how.
But if you're in your head toomuch and I call it the
inconsequential chatter andyou're not doing anything,
(40:51):
you're actually limitingyourself and you're not seeing
the magic that could come of itjust being in it Totally.
Rich (40:56):
I think what you just said actually letting go I think
people hold on very, very tightand I think when you hold on too
tight, you actually miss what'sgoing on around you one of the
things I've recognized as I gotolder is just recognizing your
own cues.
Pablo Hidalgo (41:10):
Yeah, that's a good one, because, like, do I
procrastinate?
Yes, but I know that that'spart of my process and I know
where the limit is, where like,okay, I've gone far enough, now
I need to do something, you know, as opposed to scolding myself
during those moments of likeyou're not doing enough, you're
not beating yourself up, it'slike you know you need to stew,
(41:32):
you need to percolate, you needto your parallel processing
something in the back.
Your head is working, yep, evenif you're not working right now.
So being able to recognizeyourself, that about yourself,
is something super crucial asyou get older.
Norma (41:45):
Yes, yes, it is one last question comment, and I think
you were you.
You asked him the questionearlier, so he was already
answering it.
But we'd like to end ourpodcast with saying is there any
advice?
Your final words Share yourwisdom.
Rich (42:02):
Pablo with the universe.
Pablo Hidalgo (42:03):
Share it with us.
Norma (42:04):
We'd like to tell people our audience members.
Pablo Hidalgo (42:08):
I think it all folds together with some of the
stuff we've just talked aboutnow, which is plans are great
and beneficial, but listening toyour own cues is much more
important, because if you findyourself rejecting a plan,
there's a reason for that.
You know, this plan can be anartificial thing that creates
more pain than it need be.
(42:29):
Find yourself this is actuallya friend's piece of advice, but
I'm going to steal it.
When you distract yourself,what do you find yourself doing
instead?
And then ask yourself whyyou're doing that instead,
rather than the distraction youknow, it's like that distraction
is telling you something.
What are you doing instead?
And for me, it's like when Istop doing real work to do Star
(42:52):
Wars, it's like, well, guesswhat Star Wars is what I should
be working on, what Star Wars iswhat I should be working on?
So again, it's sort of like.
You know, recognize your owncues is super important.
Rich (43:04):
Pablo, it's been great.
Thank you so much.
Norma (43:08):
Pablo, can we have you back?
Yeah, I think so.
Rich (43:10):
Another 25 years yeah exactly, oh no we'll be creaking
in here.
Norma (43:19):
We'll be doing it together actually, hey study.
Rich (43:25):
Honestly, it's been a real pleasure.
It really has Thank you.
Norma (43:27):
Thank you so much.
Rich (43:28):
A real eye-opener as well.
Norma (43:29):
I know, and your journey, your incredible journey.
And I love the advice you gave,and I know our listeners are
going to be appreciating it, andI know our listeners are going
to be appreciating it, and Iknow we're Star Wars fans.
Your fans out there are goingto be so excited to hear what
you had to share today.
My pleasure.
Thank you for tuning in toEnergis Podcast, where ambition
(43:53):
meets achievement.
If today's stories energized,you share this episode with
someone who needs that spark.
Stay connected, subscribe toour newsletter at
nrjmediagroupcom and follow uson social media for more
powerful insights.
Until next time, stay inspired,stay bold and keep striving for
(44:14):
greatness.
Rich (44:17):
Energis Podcast is produced and hosted by Norma
Garcia and Rich Reid theincredible talent behind us.
We are highly engineered andedited by Rich Evers.
Our seriously curated directoris none other than David H
Tanaka.
Our talented music composer isSteve Devaney.
Our devotion to motion graphicdesigner is Mike Macklin.
(44:37):
Our very spirited technicaladvisor is Tracy Williams.
Our amazing marketing manager,Lauren Carter.
Our man of many words publicistis Josh Gershman.
And introducing our producer'sassistant, Blake Miele.
Energis Podcast is brought toyou by NRJ Media Group.
Energis Podcast is brought to you by NRJ Media
Group.
Hey friends, if you caught partone of our conversation with
Pablo Hidalgo, the director offranchise and story from
(00:27):
Lucasfilm, welcome back.
And if you didn't, hit pauseand go listen.
Trust us, it's worth the roundtrip to a galaxy far, far away.
Rich (00:37):
And you know, Norma, it really is that first episode
dropped on May the 4th, whichwas perfect timing for our "Star
Wars Day debut, dropped on Maythe 4th, which was perfect
timing for our Star Wars Daydebut, and well and I mean well
the response we have had fromfans has been absolutely out of
this world.
Norma (00:54):
So here we are with part two, and while part one was
packed with origin stories andbehind the scenes lore, this one
gets personal.
Rich (01:04):
Really personal.
Norma (01:05):
Oh yes, Pablo opens up about mentors and behind the
scenes lore.
This one gets personal, reallypersonal.
Oh yes, Pablo opens up aboutmentors, finding his path and
what it means to turn yourpassion into a lifelong career.
Rich (01:14):
And it has been.
Hasn't it A lifelong career forhim?
And, honestly, this episode isfull of wisdom.
Whether you're a creator, a fanor someone just trying to
figure out your own story, therereally is something here for
you.
Norma (01:27):
And also spoiler alert.
Rich (01:31):
Enough of your spoiler alerts.
Norma (01:32):
No, we have to Okay this one.
Let me have this one.
All right, Okay, go, Okay,thank you.
We talk about how Star Warsdidn't just influence Pablo's
life.
I mean Pablo here, it is hislife.
The man faxed faxed edits tothe official Star Wars
encyclopedia.
Before email was a thing.
Rich (01:53):
I know, and how many times did he fax?
Listen, you'll hear all aboutthat, plus how being a super fan
led to a dream job and why he'sreally still geeks out over
sound designers like Ben Burt.
This episode, it's got heart,it's got legacy and, yes and yes
, it has got lightsabers.
(02:14):
allAll right, grab your blue milk
and maybe wookie cookie okay,let's fire up the hyperdrive.
This is Pablo Hidalgo, part two,part two.
(02:42):
So when the Star Wars books arewritten, is it safe to assume
they obviously have to followthe same canon as everything
else, because obviously booksare written that don't
necessarily get made into a TVseries or a film, but they sit
within that universe.
It must be quite hard to keepan eye on all of that, because
there are plenty of books outthere, aren't there?
There are, yeah, comics.
Pablo Hidalgo (03:02):
Yep, aren't there .
There are, yeah.
So that's part of what I do nowis, on the franchise side of
things is I'm involved incarefully looking at what gets
published and hoping, doing thebest we can, that it doesn't
contradict something.
That's it's one thing to notcontradict something that's
already come out, but the mainthing I do is not contradict
something that's in the works.
(03:22):
So we'll often have to giveveiled notes of don't do that.
I can't tell you why, but don'tdo that because there's
something that's coming outwithin the next five years
you're going to want to steeraway from.
But a lot of that we've learned.
We've learned a lot of tricksand trades of how to get what's
ultimately a satisfying printstory out being books or comics
(03:42):
while preserving the landscapeof all the other storytelling
that happens to be happening.
It's very much like parkmanagement.
It's like okay, you want to tellthe story, but stick to these
trails, Don't go over here,because that's very precious
territory.
And there's things that wecould do Very early on and
(04:03):
people learned this in a way.
There's things that we could dolike very early on and people
learned this in a way like avoidsuperlatives.
Avoid making sweepingstatements like that was the
largest space station he'd everseen.
The second.
You say that someone's going tocome up with a bigger space
station in the story that youhad not.
That's a really good point.
So, especially when it comes tocharacters that have a
continuity and existence outsideof a book, it's like we have to
(04:23):
manage what it is theyexperience in a way that you
could believe it's the samecharacter existing on screen as
it is on page.
We found much more success increating original characters
that live on the page and thenfilmmakers get inspired and like
, oh, can we take that character?
And so it's a lot easier tograduate from the page onto
screen, because everyone wantsthat to happen?
Rich (04:44):
Amazing, because the other question was so when you
started you went to Sydney todocument the.
.
.
i It was Episode Three, wasn't?
Pablo Hidalgo (04:54):
it yeah, Revenge of the Sith.
Rich (04:55):
Revenge of the Sith, and you then had a small walk-on
part.
Pablo Hidalgo (04:56):
I did.
Yeah, how was that?
That must have been amazing.
So that whole experience was abig experiment and it all worked
out really, really good look athis face uh, first of all, it's
like yeah, you described it asset diarist and that's what the
term I use, because the termblogging wasn't known.
But I was essentially blogging,yeah, from the set of Episode
Three.
That was our big pitch.
It was the last, it was what weunderstood to be the last star
(05:18):
wars movie that's ever going tobe made.
And we had this, this fan club,this group online that we
thought, thought, well, how dowe give them an inside seat into
what may be the last time weever do this?
So the proposal and GeorgeLucas and Rick McCallum, the
producer, signed off on it waswe're going to send an embedded
Lucasfilm guy it was me to writewhat's going on on set every
(05:41):
day as a journal, and he's alsotaking a webcam with him that's
gonna broadcast an image live topeople that are watching from
home.
They said, yeah, we'll do it,and there are a number of checks
and balances in place.
For instance, the webcam wasn'tlike a live 24 frame per second
(06:02):
thing.
It only took a still imageevery like 10 to 30 seconds or
whatever, and it was a bit of atime delay.
It was more of a securitycamera than it was a webcam, but
whatever no sound.
It was enough.
People loved it and then Iwould write every day and, to
their credit, they did not haveto.
I did not get pre-screenedmaterial, like they just trusted
me.
So it was that process where Iearned the trust of George, and
(06:26):
that's like I had the mostFaceTime with George at the time
, because I'm on his movie set.
Norma (06:30):
You're on the set.
Pablo Hidalgo (06:31):
And he was like very sanguine about it.
He's like you know, I get it, Iget it.
You know, like I would neverthink the webcam planning was
all done very strategically,like I'm only going to be
pointing in this corner of theset, George, you're not going to
see any action, but you'll seethe behind-the-scenes crew, and
it was the first day of usstreaming.
George says, well, they don'twant to see that, they want to
see this, and he picked up thecamera and he pointed it
(06:53):
directly to a monitor thatshowed Hayden Christensen as
Anakin Skywalker in costume.
And I was like all right, youdid that.
Rich (07:00):
I didn't do that.
Yeah, he touched the camera,you did that.
Norma (07:02):
That was George.
He's the Director.
He gets to do that.
Pablo Hidalgo (07:04):
He's comfortable.
It's such a weird propositionbut he's fine with it.
And so over the months ofproduction I basically got
really well known to theproduction team because they
understood what this fly on thewall thing was and, to be honest
, they were very welcoming of itbecause they understood not
only they not only understoodthat this could be the last Star
(07:25):
Wars movie, but that there wasa community of people that were
interested in them and alsothey're in this world where they
can't talk about what it isthey do until it's public.
And we were basically openingthe doors and shining spots that
was the first yeah, right, ever, yeah, in this kind of way,
right.
So they were very grateful.
It's like wow, and I could tellmy family I'm working on this
movie, you know, because you dida profile on me or whatever.
(07:46):
So by the time we got to pickupsand shooting little bits and
bobs to add to, you know, thelarge composite that is episode
three, there was a scene thattakes place in an opera house
and they were shootingbackground elements against
green screen that would be usedto populate the virtual set in
that scene.
Screen that would be used topopulate the virtual set in that
(08:07):
scene.
And Gillian Libert, who at thetime she worked in the costume
department and was also both inproduction and on post, I think
she, in addition to the ILMstage crew, like earmarked me as
like hey, do you want to have apart in this?
I'm like yeah.
So they dressed me as one ofthese background extras at the
Coruscant Opera.
And again, you never know.
You never know because you'renot involved with any of the
(08:28):
leads, you're just an elementthat gets plopped into the film.
So there's no guarantee thatyou're not going to be covered
by some CG character or you'regoing to be three pixels tall in
the background.
Norma (08:39):
Or that you'll even make the cut right.
Pablo Hidalgo (08:41):
This was great, great experience, love it.
And then when I see the movie,I'm actually quite visible.
Norma (08:47):
So you are.
There's nothing else blockingme Do you know what time in the
movie?
Because now I want to go homeand watch it.
Pablo Hidalgo (08:53):
So basically, it's the opera scene.
When Anakin comes running intothe opera box and has a seat
with Palpatine, it's rightbefore they had that big
discussion about the legend ofDarth.
Norma (09:03):
Plagueis.
So it's before the discussion.
Pablo Hidalgo (09:04):
Yeah, so it's just as Anakin's sitting down
and it's a wide shot where yousee the balcony and he's sitting
down and the balcony isobviously on the upper level.
There's a lower concourse wherepeople are milling and back and
forth and I'm a character who'swalking from screen left to
screen right, wearing this greendress, basically.
Norma (09:23):
Do we see your face?
Yes, okay, yeah, okay, allright, I'm going to freeze the
frame.
I'm going to check it out.
Pablo Hidalgo (09:28):
From a fan perspective.
Again, no expectations, yes,but again this opportunity came
in and also being on the setlike the energy.
Rich (09:35):
Yeah.
Norma (09:35):
Because it's one thing when you see it done and you're,
you know, looking at edits or d, but being on the set and
seeing the magnitude of peoplethat work on it, on the set and
off the set, it's a constantreminder of why, when the
credits roll, it's a village ofpeople that work on a film.
Pablo Hidalgo (09:54):
Oh, absolutely, and I can recognize it's.
My favorite thing now is I canrecognize when a film is shot in
Australia.
As the credits come up, I'mlike, oh, I know that person.
I know that person.
I know that person because Iwas there for so long.
How long were you living there?
Four months, oh, so again,another incredible experience,
like in my mid-20s.
I had no, yeah, I had no, likeI was, I was single, I had no
(10:16):
attachments to anything, it'slike.
So I basically moved out of myapartment, put everything in
storage and like rent free inSydney for four months.
Rich (10:29):
You know, partying down there as a movie was being made.
It was incredible, so that wasreleased.
What 2005?
2005, yeah, 2005.
Pablo Hidalgo (10:32):
So this would have been May 2003 to September
of 2003 that I was there,amazing.
For that bulk of principalphotography, and then I
continued following them as theydid pickups in the UK and stage
work in at ILM so must havebeen amazing, okay.
Rich (10:48):
So there's then roughly what 10 years between that film
and when Disney yeah yeah, yeah,when episode 7 came out.
Pablo Hidalgo (10:55):
So it was 2012 is when the, the, the sale
happened.
Yes, yeah, that was reallyinteresting to watch, because
this is hindsight, uh, thatpeople kind of forget about.
But again, I had lived throughand witnessed on the fan side
the first decline of Star Wars,the 83-84, right.
I guess what people weren'treally that cognizant of was
(11:16):
something similar wasessentially happening around
2011, 2012, where it's.
You know, the world ofentertainment has changed such
that, without constant sort ofinfusion of energy, these things
become these dusty catalogthings that live on the shelf.
And I was okay with thatpotential future.
(11:38):
I thought like, oh, I guessStar Wars is this thing that
just gets re-released from nowon, going forward every now and
then.
We obviously we found a degreeof success by having Clone Wars
on TV, but even that wasstarting to wane to some degree,
because the expectation of mostanimated shows is maybe Two,
three years, because youraudience ages out of your show.
(12:00):
It does, and unless you'rebringing in the audience.
It was an animated show, yeah itwas an animated show, so that
was a tough proposal.
Unless you're a comedy like theSimpsons and you can run for 30
years, most adventure shows aremaybe two to three years.
So it was remarkable that CloneWars lasted as long as it did,
but even that was starting towane a little bit.
So in early 2011, we startedseeing a lot of internal
(12:24):
proposals as to what is thefuture of the company, because
we knew that George hadretirement in his eyes, because
he'd been talking about retiringsince the first Star Wars movie
, but now it just become moreand more real.
It's like, wow, is he reallygonna do it?
So what's the future of thecompany gonna look like?
And there are all sorts of likebusiness folks that were
brought in and showingpresentations and all that
Couple that with like the futureof the company going to look
like.
And there are all sorts of likebusiness folks that were
brought in showing presentationsand all that Couple that with
like the future of the industrywas really like was constantly
(12:48):
being asked about.
You know, it's like what's withthe Internet and streaming
what's happening, right?
So there were no real concreteanswers as to what the future
was going to be.
And for the first time in a longtime, I found myself wondering
like, well, what's next, whathappens?
And for the first time in along time, I found myself
wondering like, well, what'snext, what happens?
I don't know.
I don't know.
A lot of us did not.
Well, I'll just speakpersonally.
I don't want to speak foranyone else.
Could not really conjecture afuture of Star Wars into the
capacity that we had got used toit.
(13:10):
I remember what it was in 87,88, when it was just these small
little boutique things and Iwas like is that the future?
Maybe it is, and maybe thenwe'll just get used to.
That's what that is.
And then a couple of thingshappened.
I remember early 2012, springof 2012,.
Major changes in uppermanagement in terms of who was
(13:31):
running Lucasfilm.
You know, we found out KathleenKennedy was now our yeah, and
it's like what?
And internally we kind of knewit's like you don't bring
someone with those kinds ofproduction chops unless the
future suggests that you'regoing back into production,
right.
And then, all throughout thesummer of 2012, I myself would
(13:56):
get all sorts of weird requestsfrom George's office saying what
can you tell us about thischaracter?
What can you tell us aboutwhat's been said here?
What can you tell us about the?
Norma (14:05):
history of this.
Ah ha, you were getting thefirst little drips.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:08):
And I'm like wait a minute.
Why are they asking this?
Something's going on.
Norma (14:12):
I'll answer the question, but if you answer mine, yeah,
yeah, yeah.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:14):
So it suddenly became clear like there's
activity that I did notanticipate.
Well, first of all, two thingshappened In the summer of 2012,.
My boss at the time, MilesPerkins, who was in PR at ILM.
Norma (14:28):
I remember Miles, hi, Miles.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:31):
He and I know he lobbed this at me because he
wanted to see what it would dohe just threw it at me.
He's like so, with very littlepreamble, it's like we're making
Seven, Eight and Nine.
Norma (14:42):
No, he did not, he did.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:44):
And I'm like and I said something, can you swear
on your podcast Maybe?
Norma (14:48):
not, yeah, we can, oh, yeah, we can Feel free, Go for
it.
Pablo Hidalgo (14:54):
And I said I basically said what the F.
.
.
Pearls.
I'm sorry Pearls, just neverknow, know, I never know.
Don't want to assume, but I waslike what?
So then I just had to sit down,I'm like what and so yeah, so
basically the cards are on thetable.
It's like the reason KathleenKennedy is in charge and the
reason so many people aremilling about asking these
interesting questions is becauseStar Wars is coming back.
Norma (15:16):
Your heart must have been racing.
Pablo Hidalgo (15:17):
And now here's the wild thing I was then after
knowing this information StarWars Celebration happened in
Orlando.
Oh, and I was one of the stagehosts.
Oh, wow.
Rich (15:28):
That must have been amazing, so.
Pablo Hidalgo (15:29):
I was one of the few people in the world who knew
what was coming and could notsay a thing about it.
How were you like?
Did you like I have the bestpoker face in this business?
That's it, because my wifedidn't know.
My wife works at this companyas well, Right right and she did
not know.
Norma (15:42):
Love her, by the way, she did not know until the fall.
You had to keep it from her,yeah.
Pablo Hidalgo (15:47):
Because this did not get announced until October.
So what I did not know thatsummer was that Disney was on
the table as well.
Norma (15:55):
Yes, yes, yes.
Pablo Hidalgo (15:56):
So at the time, the assumption was that George
would produce these in somecapacity, but he had different
plans.
That was playing very close tothe vest, so it wasn't until
September that at the time,Howard Rothman our longstanding
VP of Licensing at the time, hebrought a bunch of us around a
table and basically told us thatDisney was buying us, and I was
(16:17):
one of the people tasked withhelping communicate that
information publicly, likewriting a press release putting
it all together for StarWarscom.
Norma (16:26):
Right.
Pablo Hidalgo (16:27):
And again like they're trusting you with this
information because that's likeinside information.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
It's not like I do not havestock, but like I could have
done something extremely illegalwith that information if I had
stock, but I'm not a stock guy.
I don't know what any of thatmeans, so anyway.
So I had that information andthen we just basically had to
(16:48):
craft a communication plan.
How are we going to introducethis to the world.
Norma (16:52):
What was going through your head?
Pablo Hidalgo (16:53):
It was wild.
Again, it's like what I hadlearned was, I guess, from my
own experiences, I'm not goingto be planning a lot, I'm just
going to roll the biggest.
I guess my one lesson I canimpart on so many people is one
of my biggest strengths is justrolling, Just rolling with
changes, rolling with unexpectedchanges.
So I just rolled with it and itjust was like look, let's just
(17:16):
take this one task at a time.
Norma (17:18):
And this first task is helping to communicate to the
world what this is going to be.
Pablo Hidalgo (17:21):
Every word there is so important because that
would affect everybody, rightand we were all set to announce
and then, I think, hurricaneSandy closed things down on the
stock exchange on the East Coastfor a while, so we had to wait
an additional week, and that wasanother thing.
I was walking around the hallsof New York Comic Con with this
information and I felt like Iwas walking around with a
(17:44):
nuclear football, I know exactlywhat's wrong with Pablo?
He's so off today If ever therewere people who were ready to
pounce on news.
That's that crowd.
So I remember being at New YorkComic Con and I had to take a
phone call related to thissubject and I'm like I can't
take this call here.
And thankfully I knew people atthe Comic Con.
My wife knew people at theComic.
Norma (18:03):
Con.
Pablo Hidalgo (18:03):
She's like, yeah, is there a private office we
could go to?
And they pointed me to aprivate office.
I go in there and the onlypeople in there are some
Japanese businessmen.
I'm like, man, I hope you guysdon't speak English.
And even if that was, when wefound out, the announcement was
being delayed by a week orsomething because of the weather
.
But anyway, it all goes out inthe world and then it starts
(18:26):
becoming real and you realize,oh, this is real.
And then the JJ Abrams elementof it fell into place and it's
like, oh, wow, okay, this is allbecoming this weird new reality
and there's new people comingon board and you just kind of
take on faith because you knowthat everyone is trying to do
what's best for the story thatthey're gonna tell and
ultimately for Star Wars and towhatever degree that it is that
(18:46):
you would help them do that andoffer that as value.
It's like, yeah, that's, that'swhat, mike, that's what I'm
being tasked for.
So very early on I wasintroduced to JJ as someone who
knows a lot about Star Wars andif that's beneficial to you, get
in touch.
And sure enough, I became thisguy that he would constantly
float things or just ask themost interesting but incomplete
(19:08):
questions, because he's clearlybaking on something, but he's
not ready to reveal all hiscards yet.
But it's like, okay, why do you?
want to know that All right, I'mjust going to tell you what
that is.
So that was great.
So that all throughout theproduction and as we all know,
there were multiple things wentinto production around that time
.
Star Wars Rebels was our firstanimated project and I was, very
fortunate to you know, a prettybig role in the development of
(19:30):
that.
As far as like being includedand having a seat at the table
and being able to offer my pastexperience, I'm still very proud
of that show and being able tocontribute the way I did.
But I'll tell you.
Rich (19:41):
What's lovely is that?
So you're now involved in thenew films.
Then you've got the TV seriesas well.
So, all of the TV series thatfollow, which have got their own
following.
It's the way it's opened up.
I can only talk personally, buthaving Disney behind it seems
to have opened up differentavenues for for star wars
because there were, thereweren't series before were they,
yeah, that only came aboutafter um was it rise of
(20:02):
skywalker?
Pablo Hidalgo (20:02):
the mandalorian predated rise of sky okay just a
little like as far as liveaction shows.
That was, that was it and, andit just came out like a month
before the movie came out.
Yeah, we hit the ground runningthere.
But what's interesting is, likein my mind, a lot of people
build a lot of, I would say,false barriers between film,
television.
Rich (20:19):
It's all becoming very permeated now yeah.
Pablo Hidalgo (20:22):
I think that's old school thinking.
Most people now grow upwatching content I hate using
that word watching stories onwhatever format that's delivered
to them, and it doesn't matterhow it originated Stories are
stories, yeah.
So in our mind it's like well,that's a big screen story,
that's a small screen story.
Norma (20:41):
That's a small screen story.
Exactly that's archaic, yeah.
Rich (20:43):
But it is because of how they're shot as well.
They look exactly the same as afilm, and I heard someone say
this the other day.
I've forgotten who it was now.
They were saying would youwatch a 10-hour film?
Pablo Hidalgo (21:02):
I said no, star Wars to me is a setting, so
these stories are doors to enterthis setting and it really
doesn't matter to me what theintent of its distribution was.
I get the business need todissect these things and
categorize them, but to me it'slike I welcome Star Wars as a TV
show and I don't think it losesa lot because, yes, you get
(21:24):
that cultural hit and that bigscreen moment, but that is so
fleeting.
The majority of my life hasbeen treating Star Wars like
I've watched it on VHS way morethan I would have ever watched
it on screen.
Right, like that is Star Warsto me.
It leaps beyond the confines ofwhatever medium it was released
(21:46):
in.
It becomes now part of thistableau, part of this tapestry.
So I don't fret too much aboutlike, oh, we see Star Wars on
the big screen again.
I get the business reason tofret about that.
But the storytelling reason,the revisiting that universe,
that is less important to me.
So those TV reason, therevisiting that universe, that
is less important to me.
So those TV shows, thestreaming shows, are just as
Star Wars to me as anything.
Norma (22:07):
You know, Pablo, the thing that's also beautiful are
the fans, and you've had theprivilege of being with them.
When I say privilege, did Ericquote that?
No, no, no, I'm one of them.
Well, yeah, we'm one of them,Well, yeah, well, be one of them
.
But when you look at the fandombecause this is true fandom
around the world, can you talk alittle bit about your
(22:29):
experiences, whether it be goingto conferences or being on set,
how culturally fans havechanged and what your experience
has been when you've beeninteracting with them?
Pablo Hidalgo (22:42):
It's been like.
It's ultimately this universallanguage.
It's something that then youcould.
It opens doors and it divides.
It gets rid of divisions thatyou may have Once you understand
oh, you're into this, I'm intothis too.
Oh, you're into this this way.
Well, I'm into it that way.
Right, I find it much more of aunifying thing than it is a
divisive thing, although I knowlike the conversation often
(23:03):
tends to focus on the divisivenatures of fandom, not just Star
Wars, but around the world.
Right, like different things,like oh, these Marvel fans don't
like DC fans.
Oh, I see Old school Star Trekfans don't like new school Star
Trek fans, so it's franchiseagainst franchise, franchise
within franchise or evenexpressions versus different
expressions, but that, to me,strikes me as incredibly
artificial and it tends to onlyreflect the medium in which that
(23:27):
conversation happens to betaking place.
The Internet is the worst forthis kind of thing because,
especially now with social media, you'll end up getting these
sort of cloistered experienceswhere, like I, only like this,
you only like that and this is abarrier between us, right.
Displaced experiences where,like I, only like this, you only
like that and this is a barrierbetween us, right?
But the second you go to aconvention and people have to
basically breathe the same airand live in the same space.
(23:47):
All that goes away.
It does, because you're able torecognize oh, there's a person
here and I see the commonalitywe have.
I see that you were sparked bythe same stuff, even if it's not
the exact same stuff, it's thesame energy, and that's why I do
think like convention andin-person experiences tends to
be much more a real fanexperience or like a realistic
(24:09):
interaction than if you onlylimit yourself to the online
world, right?
You also think like the onlineworld has changed radically in
the past 10 years.
I did start off on StarWarscomin the online space, but it was
such a different animal than itis now.
Now people are making theirlivelihood by being influencers
and if that's what you do, great.
But it's like that was not whatit was back in the day.
(24:32):
It's like you'd be hard pressedto find a Star Wars influencer
in the pre-social media way andin a weird way, like Steve
Sansweet, I could say, was aStar Wars influencer, but it was
a different.
It's a completely differentthing Because in a weird way
like it wasn't about Steve beingthe influencer, it was just
like Steve was a gateway to StarWars, exactly.
So all this to say is I thinkfandoms in the world are
(24:55):
shifting and changing as we getto know what this communication
landscape is.
But it doesn't change too muchonce you're in person and if
you're sharing a space, ifyou're in a theater with someone
or you just happen to seesomeone wearing a Star Wars
shirt or you're at the parks orsomething.
And do we disagree?
Of course we do, but fandom hasalways disagreed, because
that's what drives fandom.
(25:15):
It's like I will disagree onwhat the best Star Wars movie is
yeah exactly.
I'm telling you what my favoriteis.
You're telling me what yourfavorite is.
It's personal, but I think it'sgood that the audience is
opening up, because then theconversation gets more
interesting.
It's like oh, that movie's yourfavorite, it's not mine, why?
And then I understand moreabout you because you're coming
at it from a differentperspective than I am.
Rich (25:41):
I think, what makes it different with Star Wars, though
it's one story, so if you watchsay you take Star Trek as an
example, their films are quitedifferent, even the reboot.
There was no common thread toeach of the three films that
they did, whereas with Star Warsyou have a beginning, you have
a middle and you haven't quitereached the end yet.
Because isn't there anotherfilm with ray coming out?
there's a lot of stuff cookingright now okay, all right, so
(26:05):
we're not at the end.
So, yes, we're transitioningfrom the middle to whatever
comes after that.
So it's it's.
It's got this continuity there,so people's view on a film is
only based on it's the samestory.
Pablo Hidalgo (26:15):
It's just that you know yes and no, but I'll
challenge you because I thinkyou and I are probably of the
same age group and we approachit the same way.
Rich (26:22):
I love you.
I'm actually older than you,but thank you very much.
Pablo Hidalgo (26:25):
But we were introduced to Star Wars with the
same group of films.
I think you would be surprisedto meet people younger that may
not even engage in the three,what we consider the three holy
films 4, 5 and 6, Star Wars,Empire and Jedi.
You'd be surprised at howyou'll meet new people who are
like complete fans, but they'veonly watched the animated shows.
Norma (26:45):
Okay, really.
Pablo Hidalgo (26:47):
Yeah, but I think that's good.
I think that's ultimately goodbecause it's all still
reflecting what it is we loveabout it, of course, of course,
but I think it's now gotten muchmore diverse, beyond being a
singular story.
I know that singular story isthe spine and it is where the
majority of people sit, but nowand now, the more that comes out
, the more time that passes,there are people who are
(27:09):
engaging in such a way.
There's people who love StarWars and to them it's a video
game first.
Norma (27:14):
Oh yeah, I could see that too.
Pablo Hidalgo (27:16):
That was for you.
Norma (27:17):
Oh, blasphemy.
You said that was for you.
I said blasphemy, oh blasphemy.
You said that was for you.
I didn't know you were a gamer.
Can I ask about Andor?
Rich (27:26):
Yes, you talk a lot with Tony Gilroy.
Yes.
You must have called you a lot.
Pablo Hidalgo (27:29):
Tony, I'm such a fanboy, but I have reined it in.
Yeah, because all I could dowas like when Tony Gilroy got
involved together on the tailend of Rogue One and then with
Andor, like Michael Clayton isone of my favorite movies of all
time.
Oh, it's a brilliant film.
Norma (27:45):
Oh it's a great.
Yeah, it is.
Pablo Hidalgo (27:47):
I have never talked to Tony about Michael
Clayton, because I know I wouldjust lose it.
Norma (27:51):
Oh, you would just lose it, I would just go off the deep
end.
Pablo Hidalgo (27:57):
I'm like keep it straight, keep it straight.
It's wild to me that I'm on hisspeed dial because and again,
tony's one of these writerswhere it's the detail.
When he writes real world, if acharacter has to go to a
restaurant, he will map out whatthat restaurant is and what
that character is going to orderor whatever.
That real world texture isimportant to him.
(28:17):
When you're in this fancifulworld of Star Wars, he needs to
approximate that, and so he'lloften ask for, like, what's a
thing that I can use here,what's a thing that I could use
here?
Or I'll put like the historicalcontext to him in real world
language, like, well, this islike this moment in history and
this is like this moment inhistory.
This character is analogous tothis revolutionary or whatever,
(28:38):
and so we'll have thisconversation and it's been this
great experience.
Because he understands and isreverent to the parts of the
world he doesn't know about, buthe also understands the part of
the world that he's carved out.
Oh, I like that.
So, in a very interesting way,he understands, for instance,
(28:58):
that Mon Mothma is a borrowedcharacter and that Mon Mothma
preexisted in Return of the Jedi.
But he will respect what isknown and then shape and add as
required for his story.
And then he also understandsthe characters that are 100
percent his creation, likeLuthen and Kleia and Cyril and
all that and just go to town byfilling those characters with
(29:21):
enough vitality and spark thatlike no one else but he could
have crafted these folks.
Andor has been such an amazingexperience and to me it
represents what I've always beensaying that Star Wars is a
setting so you could tell allsorts of different stories in
there, and in my mind it totallymakes sense that Andor could
live in the same place as anEwoks cartoon.
(29:43):
It's just that you happen to beshifting the focus through a
different storyteller, andthat's fine.
Like these worlds can coexist,because Star Wars itself is such
a huge basket to hold all typesof different storytellers.
Norma (29:54):
You know, I love the way you're describing this, because
now I'm going to see the canonin a completely different light,
not just by the stories, notjust by the toys.
I love that you said it's asetting.
Yeah, because it allows more.
You dip in and out and it'srepeatable.
When you go in, your mood couldshift, you could turn a
different way, you could seethings in a different way and
you walk out feeling differentlyas well.
(30:16):
I love that you're saying itthis way.
Pablo Hidalgo (30:18):
And I would argue , our world is like that.
Norma (30:20):
Exactly well.
It feels more real.
The.
Pablo Hidalgo (30:22):
Marx Brothers lived at the same time as some
of the worst things in history.
You're right, but that doesn'tmean they're discontinuous.
Rich (30:28):
I haven't watched all of the series.
I've watched Mandalorian, whichwas brilliant.
I watched the Acolyte.
I've got one more episode towatch, but I haven't watched all
of them.
Obi-wan was brilliant.
Norma (30:38):
Well, now I'm brilliant because Courage would have been
a little more of a watcher.
Rich (30:42):
I didn't watch Andor.
I didn't watch Boba Fett.
Oh you have to watch him.
I highly recommend all of them,obviously.
Pablo Hidalgo (30:48):
But Andor is very close to my heart because of
the type of storytelling that itdoes.
And again, to circle, thatthing that I keep coming about
of Star Wars is a setting.
It's like you could elevate anycharacter and give them a show,
because it's about where theyare and what they're doing.
When we first announced Andor,people were like why are you
(31:09):
making an Andor show?
We know what happens to thatcharacter.
And now it's the mostcompelling thing because, sure,
we know what happens to thatcharacter, it doesn't matter
what happens in between and whatthey experience and how it's
told.
Norma (31:19):
And how it's told, yeah, how it's told is everything.
Rich (31:23):
And is it true?
Pablo Hidalgo (31:23):
there is a oh you might not be able to answer
this.
We'll see.
Are you going?
Norma (31:25):
to get our guest in trouble.
You can always ask Okay, good,all right, ask your question
Obi-Wan.
Rich (31:30):
Is there another series of Obi-Wan coming out?
Pablo Hidalgo (31:36):
I will say what's been?
Okay, fine, but as far, as.
Norma (31:38):
Follow you, MacGregor.
He'll probably split with me.
Oh, that's good.
Pablo Hidalgo (31:41):
But as to what may or may not be in the plans,
as a rule I don't talk aboutstuff that's happening in the
future.
Rich (31:47):
No, that's fair enough, because who can?
Pablo Hidalgo (31:49):
predict such things.
I mean, as I've said, I've beenconstantly surprised and I roll
with it.
Norma (31:54):
Your life has been a perfect example of what happens.
You just go along, right alongyou hear everybody right along
the wave and magical things willcome to you.
Pablo Hidalgo (32:03):
We're doing this now.
Okay, sign me up.
Yeah, exactly, let me dosomething a little different.
Rich (32:07):
Let me ask you a question.
Okay, your career has been.
It's probably not even a career.
Norma (32:14):
It's life, let's just talk about it.
It's life, you're life, becausethat would invoke you work, and
I don't think you do.
I think you enjoy what you do.
Rich (32:23):
I'm enjoying listening to you.
So am I.
I want to come and work here.
I know what I was going to askyou is go back to your younger
self when you joined here, or tosomeone else looking to come
into this world.
What?
Advice would you give?
Pablo Hidalgo (32:38):
Listen, you know there are people who have been
here longer.
I'm not one of them, but stillwhen I learned it was just like,
well, how did you do that?
How did you do that?
Like being interested in realmsoutside your own particular
responsibilities and just beingable to manage that in a
responsible and approachable way.
There's a version of me thatwould have been a complete
(33:01):
nightmare to have West of West.
Well, no, but it's sort of like,hey, we're going to invite the
biggest fan we know to work withyou.
It's like you can imagine, likehow bad versions of that.
But that wasn't me, thankfully,you know.
So there's a way to comportyourself when you enter a world
that interests you and you'reexcited.
But I mean, that's just generalhuman nature.
(33:23):
But the other thing is I wasvery fortunate in that the job
itself as I was working onStarWarscom it required me to
reach outside to differentdepartments and get to know them
.
It's like, oh, I'm doing aprofile on a sound designer.
I better get to know what sounddesign is.
Or I'm going to invite you totell me what sound design is.
Actually, you guys are doingthis right now as podcasters.
You're asking people to tellthem and share your world, right
(33:46):
?
So if you're able to do that ina company in your career and get
to know what it is you do andyou knew this from your time at
Lucasfilm, norma it's like youwould have lunch with people
that you wouldn't work with on aday-to-day basis.
You would get to know them.
You'd get to share interestsand be interested in what else
it is that drives what they do.
So the more that you're able todo.
Not only does it make you abetter person, but within the
(34:10):
company, you may find yourselfsuddenly being able to help
people outside of yourdepartment by offering some
intrinsic piece of informationor wisdom, and that just makes
you more valued as a whole, youknow and you contribute more.
Norma (34:22):
When you do that, it's outside of just your scope of
your job.
You actually care and that wasone thing I said over and over
again that lucasfilm does agreat job in hiring like-minded
skilled artists.
Better passion, the passion,just like I mean you could.
You could see, I could feel itright Just sitting next to you.
It's like oh my God, I want tokeep talking to you, but, uh,
(34:44):
but unfortunately we're gettingclose on on on our time.
There's a couple of things thatwe'd like to ask our guests.
One is um.
We'd like our guests to give ashout-out if there's any
nonprofit or an organizationthat you'd like to spotlight,
that you work with or champion.
Pablo Hidalgo (35:04):
This is very Bay Area-based.
Norma (35:07):
We are filming in San Francisco.
Pablo Hidalgo (35:10):
But Muttville Muttville.
org is one of our favorites.
They're a senior dog rescue andwe've had several dogs from
Muttville and, as you know, aswe get older and our energy
level decreases, suddenly findyourself one day wanting an
older dog.
but it's also just like thebenefit of improving their life
and seeing them so lovely yeah,and it's like some people feel
(35:33):
like, well, isn't thatheartbreaking that you don't
have as much time with them?
But it's like that time thatyou do have with them is
incredible.
So we have a 14 year old dog athome that we got from muttville
a couple of years ago.
She's just an integral part ofour life and you realize that
you're offering the comfort andshelter, uh, to a dog at an age
that perhaps would be harder toget attention to.
Rich (35:53):
But muttville specializes in getting those dogs homes and
you know the love you get froman animal.
I mean, I have a dog at home,so I understand it is
unconditional, it's like a childand no matter how old that dog
is, the love, the loyalty iscomplete.
Norma (36:10):
When senior dogs are overlooked all the time.
I love that you said Muttville,I love Muttville.
Pablo Hidalgo (36:17):
And realistically .
Let's be honest, some of us arebeyond puppy raising age.
It's like I don't have the timeor the furniture to raise a
puppy so an older dog does comewith a lot of benefits.
So anyway, Muttville.
org.
Rich (36:32):
So the other thing we ask our guests to do is to dip their
hand into this pile of cardshere, pick one out.
Pablo Hidalgo (36:40):
From anywhere on the deck.
Rich (36:41):
Anywhere you're comfortable.
And there's a question on there, if you read it out and would
oblige us by answering, and thenNorma and I will answer as well
.
Pablo Hidalgo (36:48):
What skill do you need to acquire to achieve your
next goal?
Norma (36:53):
Ooh.
Pablo Hidalgo (36:54):
Well, that presupposes, I have goals.
Norma (36:57):
You're right, you just go with the flow and that's what
we've established.
You go with the flow.
I don't have goals.
Pablo Hidalgo (37:01):
But you know, honestly, there are things that
I definitely am working on.
A lot of it is interesting.
Norma (37:11):
I'm good at public speaking to a certain degree,
you're a phenomenal speaker, butthere's a number of— what do?
You mean, there's a?
Pablo Hidalgo (37:18):
but no, there's a number of tools and cheats.
Norma (37:21):
Oh, okay.
Pablo Hidalgo (37:23):
Which I'm trying to bridge and move beyond.
So I'm good at a stage kind ofpresence Right when I'm talking
one-on-one with someone.
I can't see the audiencebecause the lights are on.
Norma (37:33):
Yes, ah, you were talking about okay.
So in those settings you'recomfortable.
Pablo Hidalgo (37:37):
I am right, and I'm honestly more comfortable
being on stage because I'misolated from the group.
So what I am trying to work onis like well, okay, let's try to
be a little bit morepeople-oriented.
And again, there's certainskills I'm working on.
So, for instance, I'm going tobe hosting a thing down at
(37:59):
Burbank.
I won't get into specifics whatit is, but it's my first time
dealing with this particularaudience where I'm a host and
talking to them really kind ofin an ad lib performance-y kind
of way.
Norma (38:12):
So questions would just come out naturally.
Pablo Hidalgo (38:15):
Yeah, Kind of like what we're doing here then
yeah, but it's like in front ofa group of strangers.
Oh, you're going to be great atit, I'm sure, but at the same
time I do recognize theuncertainty is in a weird way a
benefit, because that's where alot of energy is derived.
Norma (38:30):
Oh, absolutely Absolutely , and the physicality, like how
you position people.
Pablo Hidalgo (38:34):
You're gonna be fine, so anyway, all right
that's, that's an immediate goal, because I have this thing
coming up and that's like youwant me to answer that next.
Rich (38:40):
Can I just re-read the questions what skill do you need
to acquire to achieve your nextgoal?
Skill goal, I would say toachieve my next goal.
Norma (38:56):
What skill?
Rich (38:57):
What skill would I need?
Patience.
Norma (39:02):
Oh, okay, yeah.
Rich (39:03):
I think knowing me would be patience.
You get used to doing thingsunder rapid fire.
You're used to moving quicklyand there are times in your life
when you need to slow down andlet events take place around you
as opposed to try and influencethem, and it's something I'm
learning is to take a step backfrom my next goals so that I am
(39:26):
more patient and understandingof where I need to be.
I would say is probably my.
Norma (39:34):
I like that.
Patience is important.
Rich (39:37):
It is very important, especially when you drive over
here.
Norma (39:43):
Mine would be letting go of the how, because I'm now I'm
morphing my career and wantingto do more creative projects.
My brain goes into the businessside and you know, having a plan
sketching everything out.
It has to be this way and therehas to be like steps Focusing
(40:05):
on.
Now I know I need to just dothings, just get in there and
let things unfold, rekindlerelationships with creative
people, be more in the creativecommunity and not get stuck on
the ticking the list of theto-do's.
And that's only because youknow it's a left brain, right
brain, right.
And when you reach a certainage, a certain level of you know
(40:27):
experience, you're taught thatwell, if you don't have these
milestones and you're notachieving but it's like I call
to that you know, just let go,just breathe in it and live in
it, because everything else, theway you're hardwired, will come
into play.
You'll start seeing the how.
But if you're in your head toomuch and I call it the
inconsequential chatter andyou're not doing anything,
(40:51):
you're actually limitingyourself and you're not seeing
the magic that could come of itjust being in it Totally.
Rich (40:56):
I think what you just said actually letting go I think
people hold on very, very tightand I think when you hold on too
tight, you actually miss what'sgoing on around you one of the
things I've recognized as I gotolder is just recognizing your
own cues.
Pablo Hidalgo (41:10):
Yeah, that's a good one, because, like, do I
procrastinate?
Yes, but I know that that'spart of my process and I know
where the limit is, where like,okay, I've gone far enough, now
I need to do something, you know, as opposed to scolding myself
during those moments of likeyou're not doing enough, you're
not beating yourself up, it'slike you know you need to stew,
(41:32):
you need to percolate, you needto your parallel processing
something in the back.
Your head is working, yep, evenif you're not working right now.
So being able to recognizeyourself, that about yourself,
is something super crucial asyou get older.
Norma (41:45):
Yes, yes, it is one last question comment, and I think
you were you.
You asked him the questionearlier, so he was already
answering it.
But we'd like to end ourpodcast with saying is there any
advice?
Your final words Share yourwisdom.
Rich (42:02):
Pablo with the universe.
Pablo Hidalgo (42:03):
Share it with us.
Norma (42:04):
We'd like to tell people our audience members.
Pablo Hidalgo (42:08):
I think it all folds together with some of the
stuff we've just talked aboutnow, which is plans are great
and beneficial, but listening toyour own cues is much more
important, because if you findyourself rejecting a plan,
there's a reason for that.
You know, this plan can be anartificial thing that creates
more pain than it need be.
(42:29):
Find yourself this is actuallya friend's piece of advice, but
I'm going to steal it.
When you distract yourself,what do you find yourself doing
instead?
And then ask yourself whyyou're doing that instead,
rather than the distraction youknow, it's like that distraction
is telling you something.
What are you doing instead?
And for me, it's like when Istop doing real work to do Star
(42:52):
Wars, it's like, well, guesswhat Star Wars is what I should
be working on, what Star Wars iswhat I should be working on?
So again, it's sort of like.
You know, recognize your owncues is super important.
Rich (43:04):
Pablo, it's been great.
Thank you so much.
Norma (43:08):
Pablo, can we have you back?
Yeah, I think so.
Rich (43:10):
Another 25 years yeah exactly, oh no we'll be creaking
in here.
Norma (43:19):
We'll be doing it together actually, hey study.
Rich (43:25):
Honestly, it's been a real pleasure.
It really has Thank you.
Norma (43:27):
Thank you so much.
Rich (43:28):
A real eye-opener as well.
Norma (43:29):
I know, and your journey, your incredible journey.
And I love the advice you gave,and I know our listeners are
going to be appreciating it, andI know our listeners are going
to be appreciating it, and Iknow we're Star Wars fans.
Your fans out there are goingto be so excited to hear what
you had to share today.
My pleasure.
Thank you for tuning in toEnergis Podcast, where ambition
(43:53):
meets achievement.
If today's stories energized,you share this episode with
someone who needs that spark.
Stay connected, subscribe toour newsletter at
nrjmediagroupcom and follow uson social media for more
powerful insights.
Until next time, stay inspired,stay bold and keep striving for
(44:14):
greatness.
Rich (44:17):
Energis Podcast is produced and hosted by Norma
Garcia and Rich Reid theincredible talent behind us.
We are highly engineered andedited by Rich Evers.
Our seriously curated directoris none other than David H
Tanaka.
Our talented music composer isSteve Devaney.
Our devotion to motion graphicdesigner is Mike Macklin.
(44:37):
Our very spirited technicaladvisor is Tracy Williams.
Our amazing marketing manager,Lauren Carter.
Our man of many words publicistis Josh Gershman.
And introducing our producer'sassistant, Blake Miele.
Energis Podcast is brought toyou by NRJ Media Group.
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