Nearly half a century after George Lucas first dropped us into a galaxy far, far away, “Star Wars” remains one of the most career-defining franchises for actors. Joining it means inheriting a mythology, a fanbase, a lifetime of convention circuits, and the rare chance to shape characters audiences will carry with them forever. From Tatooine to Ferrix, here’s what the galaxy’s heroes, villains, and Jedi Masters have learned about the craft. May the Force be with you!
Chart your own (intergalactic) route.
“The only advice I’ve ever offered young actors is to try and figure out how to do it for yourself. Never be caught with the idea that you can imitate someone else’s success. As much as you might admire what someone else does, don’t try and imitate that. Find your own way. Find your own voice. Find your own feelings. And that will give you a unique opportunity.” —Harrison Ford
“I’m sorry to be such a cliche, but be yourself. Make that your complete priority, to not compromise anything that is true to yourself to meet some exterior standard. That doesn’t work. The thing that works is that you be you.” —Pedro Pascal
“The worst thing actors can do is listen to John Boyega and go, ‘I’m gonna walk in these footsteps.’ People in this life predominantly—and I’ve been there before—don’t get to do what they enjoy for a living. It’s very important to realize there’s a certain element of self-love where you decide to own your life and go get the career you want.” —John Boyega
“Your acting is about the moment. Listen: There are people that do it differently, and it might work for them—that whole ‘I can be here because it will take me there’ mentality, you know? But that process doesn’t work for me. I would have never thought that doing ‘Y tu mamá también’ was gonna get me to be in ‘Rogue One.’ ” —Diego Luna
“It’s so courageous for actors to do what they do…. So all I can say is just be yourself and try to relax, because at the end of the day, you’re still going to be you.” —Frank Oz
“When you’re [young], there’s just a pure love for what you’re doing…. If you’re an adult and wondering where your passion lies, think about what you loved when you were 11 years old.” —Natalie Portman
Do or do not—there is no try.
“You’ve got to be a sponge. In terms of acting, a great foundation is always information. If your foundation is wack and rocky and muddy and you’re trying to build a five-star hotel, forget it. Go back. Dig deeper.” —John Boyega
“I say the words, do the work, rinse and repeat…. It’s what I love doing. I love telling stories. I love pretending to be somebody else.” —Harrison Ford
“I think you should take risks. You can’t please everybody.” —Mark Hamill
Named must your fear be, before banish it you can.
“Sometimes you can get into a habit of pre-planning how you’re going to portray a role. But then working with a director…who forces you not to play but to be, it’s several different things in your performances that you can’t remember performing.” —John Boyega
“The first day of shooting [2024’s ‘Megalopolis’], one of [filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola’s] directions to everybody in the room was, ‘We’re not being brave enough,’ which I think was the best piece of direction that I’ve ever been given. He wasn’t interested in making something that people had seen before. He wanted to…push performances toward not being so literal, because he has faith that an audience can handle ambiguity.” —Adam Driver
“Fear is not something you have any control over. And so if you fight it and if you tell yourself, ‘Fuck, I’m nervous and afraid, and I’m going to screw this up,’ and you treat that as something that you have to resist, then it will have a better chance of beating you. But the only thing you can do is embrace it as what’s happening and embrace it as maybe even what your character is feeling.” —Alden Ehrenreich
“Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.” —Carrie Fisher
“Don’t sweat it…. It’s an ongoing journey of not worrying about the little things, but it’s a hard one. It’s the thoughts that will get you if you’re not careful.” —Felicity Jones
“Of course there are nerves—but that’s the work and you put the work in.” —Genevieve O’Reilly
“There may be people here who think they’re not good enough, but you don’t know before you do it.” —Frank Oz
“Make friends with failure. It’s so hard to keep that candle burning, particularly given the current state of the industry. But I have to remind myself to keep taking risks and failing. You’re a channel for the creative spirit, and it needs to be able to move.” —Kyle Soller
No one flies Solo.
“You have to collaborate…. You’re improvising under pressure, and you have to follow a chain of command.” —Adam Driver
“I’ve gotten to work with these incredible people, which is the great joy of my creative and professional life. That is the juice that I get out of this and it’s when I feel good about a work that I do or a thing I’m a part of.” —Alden Ehrenreich
“Every film, every TV show, every play is different. The beauty of collaboration is that if you just think about your process as one thing, you’re missing the opportunity of actually becoming part of something bigger.” —Diego Luna
“As an actor, I hate not to feel like a member of the filmmaking team. My least happy experiences on a film are where you feel like the director and the [director of photography] are making the film and you’re sort of being used to help them do that. But I’ve always felt like, as actors, we are filmmakers. Therefore I’ve learned to have an instinctive sense of camera and where the camera is and where it could be.” —Ewan McGregor
“It’s about learning to be very comfortable with trying other things and knowing that, as an actor, you’re at the behest of a director’s vision. So much of it is just being open to the people you’re working with.” —Daisy Ridley
Remember what the Force is for.
“Train hard, be a fan of what you love, study other people who have struggled the same way you have. It’s all about just calibrating and trying to find what specifically motivates you. Your freedom in that is knowing that there are no rules that could limit you as a creative.” —John Boyega