BB-8 the ball droid became a quick favorite after the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens showed him rolling on outta here. But then our fan devotion became even more justified when we learned the droid was “voiced” by Bill Hader (SNL) and Ben Schwartz (Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on Parks and Recreation). Schwartz was a guest on Comedy Bang Bang on Monday, where he talked about working on The Force Awakens starting about sixteen minutes into the recording.
According to Schwartz, his friend J.J. Abrams wanted BB-8 to have personality, so he had Schwartz read lines in character, and the recording was synthesized to make it sound like a droid. But, Schwartz said, the voice still sounded too human, so Bill Hader was brought in to record lines, as well.
“I don’t know if I’m in it at all,” Schwartz said, “I did spend so much time — a bunch of those scenes were fun. It was so surreal and so awesome. I would see scenes from the movie before anybody.”
After that, host Scott Aukerman resets, “Well, that’s fantastic. Star Wars came out a couple of weeks ago. It was a big flop.”
Oh man, BB-8 isn’t going to be happy about that. He could really use the money because technically he’s homeless.
So many mashup possibilities with this news.