Adam Driver Didn’t Realize Quite How “Devoted” Star Wars Fans Were Until Going to Comic-Con For the First Time

Apparently, Adam Driver didn’t understand just how big of a deal it was to be starring in the new Star Wars trilogy… at first.

During an interview on BBC late-night talk show The Graham Norton Show, Driver talked about his first—and he says, only—time attending San Diego Comic-Con, while promoting his role as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens back in 2015. Driver has been very clear in the past that he doesn’t watch or listen to his own work, once even walking out of an NPR interview when they played an audio clip from one of his projects, and also seems to be a bit uncomfortable with the spotlight of celebrity. So, it’s unsurprising that the prospect of thousands of eager fans all rushing him at once in an environment like Comic-Con would fall somewhere in between overwhelming and mildly terrifying.

“I didn’t know the rules of Comic-Con,” Driver said to Graham Norton. “I got in at the hotel at two in the morning … and I’m like, ‘Maybe tomorrow I’ll go get a coffee.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh no, you can’t get a coffee.’ I’m like, ‘Well, maybe I’ll get a coffee in the hotel.’ They’re like, ‘No, you can’t get a coffee in the hotel.’ ‘We have some masks, in a bag, if you want to put a mask on.’”

Not only is Star Wars is one of the most popular franchises in the world, but The Force Awakens was the first new film set in that galaxy far far away in over a decade—meaning that fans were (maybe literally?) rabid with excitement to learn anything about the new trilogy during the cast’s 2015 Comic-Con appearance.

“I opened my window because I’d been in the room for 24 hours before this thing we were supposed to do,” Driver said, “and then there was a band at the bottom of the building playing the Star Wars theme on repeat, because [the cast was] all staying in the hotel. It was scary.” He continued. “And then you show up and it’s two thousand people who are just… very devoted. It’s just a lot of energy, as you can imagine.”

What an incredibly kind way to describe the mixed bag of the Star Wars fandom. Frankly, who can blame Driver for being hesitant to be around throngs of Star Wars fans considering how weird and intense people tend to get about all things Kylo Ren.

[NY Post]

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