'Star Wars cast pranked me in Harrison Ford scene'

A Star Wars body double has recalled the surreal moment the cast pranked him during the filming of Han Solo's death scene.

James Taylor was Kylo Ren's body double for all three sequel films, which included rehearsing the pivotal scene with Harrison Ford in The Force Awakens.

Speaking to BBC Essex for Star Wars Day on 4 May, he said Ford would often rock up on his bicycle ready to shoot while Kylo Ren's actor, Adam Driver, was still in make-up.

"[Ford] caresses my cheek and then I have to pretend to lightsaber him in the chest, and obviously he dies," said the 47-year-old, from Benfleet.

"He then says to me, 'It's lovely to meet you James. As I'm caressing your cheek, I should introduce myself, I'm Harrison'.

"Then the crew started to laugh - and I couldn't work out why they were all laughing. And as I looked down at my shoes, these big boots I had on, my shoelaces had been tied together and Adam Driver [was] standing there looking up [from the platform below] at me, laughing.

"So, I had to jump off the set with my boots all tied together. It was quite funny.

"Obviously, my concentration was on the scene and didn't even realise he was doing it."

Taylor said rehearsing the scenes with Ford for the 2015 movie was "quite daunting", but said "you just have to pull your socks up and get on with it".

Speaking to Emma Bullimore, Taylor said it was "like a family" working with the cast and crew during the three Star Wars films, which concluded in 2019 with The Rise of Skywalker.

Taylor grew up in the 1980s "fascinated" by Star Wars and said he was starstruck to meet his heroes.

"It was a dream come true, really," he said.

Taylor said he was "very close" with Driver and chatted to him daily. Meanwhile, Ford showed his serious side for the role but was "lovely".

"He used to ride his bike around Pinewood Studios quite a lot and we'd lose him, we couldn't find him," he recalled.

Taylor said more gigs soon followed.

"I played Kylo Ren in the Galaxy's Edge, the Walt Disney ride, so that's me actually being Kylo in that," he said.

However, his high-flying movie career did not begin this way.

"I started modelling when I was in my 20s... got into doing some plays and from there I led into the circuit which is EastEnders, Holby City, the Bill, those sort of things."

Taylor still features in films and says he turns out for "a lot" of Comic Cons.

He is also the co-founder of the HOME Hub wellbeing centre in Benfleet.

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