- Giancarlo Esposito said he broke six lightsabers while filming a fight scene in "The Mandalorian."
- Esposito said on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" that he asked to do his fight scenes himself.
Giancarlo Esposito said that he broke six lightsabers while filming a fight scene in "The Mandalorian."
Esposito played the villainous Moff Gideon, the leader of one of the factions born out of the fallen Galactic Empire.
During his appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" on Monday, Esposito explained that he asked executive producer Jon Favreau if he could film his own fight scenes instead of using a stunt double because the double didn't look like him.
"I did break six lightsabers," the "Breaking Bad" actor recalled. "The prop guy comes to me on the fifth one, and he's sweating because he's not telling anyone that I'm breaking them. He's just shoving them away."
"He comes over to me and says, 'I just want you to know I just have one more. You gotta be careful.' Because you want to pull your shots. You want to be really careful, but you have to make it look good. We made it through and I got a great, great, great scene and I learned a lot."
While Esposito didn't specify which scene he was shooting, the actor appeared to be referencing the season two finale battle between the titular character (played by Pedro Pascal), who uses a beskar spear, and Gideon, who uses a special lightsaber called the Darksaber.
Esposito also said he was knocked down at one point while filming the scene.
"I missed blocking him this way. He came over the top, he hit me bang on my forehead. I went backward. The whole room stopped. Slow motion. I'm falling backward. And I hit the ground and I went, 'Do not cut.' And I jumped up with my lightsaber," Esposito said, imitating lightsaber noises.
"The Mandalorian" season three finale streams on Disney+ on Wednesday.