This Is the WayA bounty hunter. A child. Stormtroopers and Jawas and TIE fighters and Twi'leks and droids. Season 2 of 'The Mandalorian' is now streaming on Disney Plus.
Everyone and their mother is obsessed with "Baby Yoda" right now, but think how the cast and crew who saw the little heart-melting puppet before anyone else must have felt. Their reactions to the adorable green guy ranged from paternal love to screams to outright weeping. The wee one apparently seemed so real that it threw them for a loop; some even spoke to and snuggled him. See what those in the know had to say about their first interactions with the show's breakout star.
No one expected Werner Herzog, a legendary German director who generally expresses more nihilism than sentimentalism, to have such an effusive reaction to the lil’ green guy.
Upon laying eyes upon the angelic Baby Yoda puppet in action, however, Hertzog - who plays the villainous "Client" in the series - declared the wee one to be “heartbreakingly beautiful.” He then elaborated that he was unsure why the puppet touched him to such a degree, but that, “It looked absolutely convincing,” and, “It made you cry when you saw it.”
Having directed the action-packed episode "Sanctuary," Howard got up and close with the internet darling, and her excitement over the most adorable puppet in the world could not be contained.
“I think I screamed,” she said in an interview. “It was a physical reaction - I’m holding my face right now, I’m squeezing it, because the baby is so cute. It’s that kind of visceral reaction - you get that burst [of feeling] when you see those eyes and those ears and those cute little hands.”
Actor Adam Pally told Entertainment Weekly what it was like to punch Baby Yoda, explaining that after his first take with the creature, Jon Favreau said, "'I just want to let you know that this is the hero Yoda and it costs, like, $5 million. So while I want you to hit it, I just want you to know that.'"
Pally recalled being so nervous that he missed a few takes. "[T]he truth is that Baby Yoda is a bit of a diva," Pally said. "He's constantly vaping."
Gina Carano, erstwhile MMA fighter, plays a former trooper for the Rebellion in the hit series. The actor had the pleasure of working in several scenes with the darling green puppet and fully admits that Baby Yoda steals every scene.
“When you’re acting with it, you’re just like, 'Oh, my gosh, it’s insanely cute,'” she stated. “These puppeteers gave it its own personality; it’s a little actor. [Showrunner] Jon [Favreau] once belly-laughed and was like, 'No matter what, this little guy is going to steal the scene in every scene that he’s in. Just know that you’re all going to be number two to this.’ That’s our little star of the show - 100 percent,” she continued. “There’s no stealing a scene from Baby Yoda.”
Omid Abtahi, who performs in several scenes with Baby Yoda, was reminded of his son. “I held him. I put him on my shoulder. I’m the father of a four-year-old..., and he (Baby Yoda) was '1A' to my son being '1.'”
He then said of the little guy, “This thing was real, like there was no acting required. What you see, the reactions we have, are just pure and authentic. He’s such a scene-stealer.”
The great Carl Weathers, who plays a bounty hunter boss, reminded viewers that they don’t yet know who “Baby Yoda” is, what his deal is, or if he is actually the Yoda we know and love.
He said you just have to watch the show to find out, but he did give away that, “He has his own name, and he is very interesting and very knowledgeable and very cute. I never use that word, but he is a cute little guy.”
