‘Star Wars’: Domhnall Gleeson On General Hux’s Personality & The Challenge Of Playing A Bully

General Hux may continue on with his evil, arrogant ways in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but Domhnall Gleeson is as chipper as ever.

Domhnall Gleeson Star Wars

General Hux may continue on with his evil, arrogant ways in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but Domhnall Gleeson is as chipper as ever.

“Look at this f—— poster, dude, how amazing is that?” said Gleeson.

Gleeson, who returns to the franchise as one of The First Order’s villainous leaders, is excited to be back.  He admits that he felt a little trepidation coming back, but once he read the script he was sold. When he read it for the first time, Gleeson thought “oh man, this is going to be challenging in a very different way than the first one.” Despite the challenge, he described the whole experience as “huge fun.”

Rounding off a successful year that included an appearance in Mother! and the starring role in Goodbye Christopher Robin, Gleeson doesn’t think The Last Jedi is artistically beneath his other projects. Laughing at the “one for me one for them rule” that a lot of actors follow, he said “I do Star Wars because it’s f—— amazing to be in Star Wars and to play this character.”

When developing the character’s persona, Gleeson said he looked back at fascists from the 1930s for assistance.

“I just wanted him to feel uncomfortable like he was always scrapping and deeply insecure,” Gleeson said. “You know how some people are just not nice to be around, they’re just annoying? I thought that would be interesting if you could add that feeling to him.”

Describing his character as a “nightmare,” Gleeson compared him to a bully who “goes home and they bully their brother.” Hux’s rigid, black, leather outfit only made it easier for Gleeson to get into that dark mindset.

“It keeps you very upright and it does all these things to your posture, and it’s a little bit uncomfortable and I think that’s a good place to kind of sit.”

Even though Gleeson is a big fan of the franchise now, his entryway into the Star Wars universe is a bit different than some of the other new members of the cast. Instead of growing up watching the original trilogy, he first came in contact with Star Wars through his cousin’s AT-AT toys.  He thought “it was the coolest toy ever” and eventually started learning more about Star Wars himself. Gleeson caught the prequels in theaters, but he didn’t see the original trilogy on a big screen until after he signed on to do The Force Awakens. 

“I watched them on the big screen, not a cinema screen but a really big screen and that was kind of amazing.”

Instead of Star Wars, Gleeson said he grew up on Mary Poppins, Bambi and Indiana Jones.

“Harrison Ford meant something different to me before I saw Star Wars when I was a bit older.”

Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15, 2017.