In the Star Wars series Skeleton Crew, Jude Law has to bring home four children lost in space. But who actually plays them? We met the young stars for an interview.
While Jude Law is a familiar Hollywood face in the cast of Skeleton Crew, the heart of the new Star Wars series is four actors you’ve probably never heard of: Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter and Robert Timothy Smith.
As Wim, Fern, KB, and Neel, the four young stars get lost in the far reaches of the galaxy and discover that no one knows their home planet. What follows is a thrilling and extremely charming sci-fi adventure inspired by Amblin films like The Goonies and E.T. – and offers the young actors plenty of opportunities to showcase their talent.
Who plays who in Skeleton Crew?
Ravi Cabot-Conyers plays Wim, who wants to be a Jedi.
Robert Timothy Smith plays Neel, Wim’s best friend.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays Fern, the coolest girl at school.
Kyriana Kratter plays KB, the tech genius and Fern’s best friend.
But what is it like to lead a Star Wars series as a child? Pretty exciting! When I met the quartet for an interview before the start of Skeleton Crew, I was met with a huge wave of enthusiasm. It’s a dream come true for the four of them: not just watching Star Wars, but living Star Wars in front of the camera.
Moviepilot: I just saw Funko Pops of your characters from Skeleton Crew. That must be completely surreal for you. How does it feel to be part of a project as big as a Star Wars series?
Robert Timothy Smith: It’s very strange.
Kyriana Kratter: Completely crazy.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: It’s very, very weird. What’s so special about Skeleton Crew is that the entire story is told through the eyes of children. This has never been done before in Star Wars. It’s a very cool concept and we had a lot of fun shooting it. It was a unique experience.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: I think I didn’t really realize it until I was in Fern’s costume and on set for the first time. That’s when I realized, “Oh, this is really happening.” I was incredibly excited.
Kyriana Kratter: I usually get homeschooled or online school when I’m shooting a movie or show. During the reshoots, though, I was back in a regular school and it felt like I was living two lives. On set, you get your makeup done, your hair done, and you get dressed up. You’re treated like a young adult. And then you go back to school and pretend to be a normal girl again. As a child star, you live in two different worlds. At school, I can just be myself; on set, I take on a role.
Robert Timothy Smith: To be honest, I still haven’t processed it all. But I am very grateful that I was able to do all this with these wonderful people here. It’s not a given to be a part of Star Wars, something that’s been around for so long and connects so many people.
There’s usually a lot of secrecy at Lucasfilm. Who were you able to talk to about being cast in a Star Wars series?
Robert Timothy Smith: Just my family. We weren’t allowed to talk to anyone else about it.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: For a long time, we weren’t even allowed to mention our character names. Everything was top secret.
Kyriana Kratter: It was almost creepy how careful and confidential everything was treated. I usually talk a lot about my acting with a grandpa. He’s a huge Star Wars fan and always talked to my dad about it. And I wasn’t allowed to tell him anything. At some point, he wondered and asked what I was working on. When he realized that I was beating around the bush, he tried to get it out of me with clever questions.
Robert Timothy Smith: My best friend also sensed something was up. He called me as soon as we got off the stage after the Star Wars Celebration, where we were revealed as the cast of Skeleton Crew. I was on FaceTime with him as soon as we got off the stage and he was like, “I knew it!”
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: My friends were almost like spies. They were always trying to figure out what I was in. They’d be like, “So what are you shooting right now? Oh. Okay. Interesting.”
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: [To the others:] Did your friends Google you too?
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: Yes, and one of them even found out. I really don’t know how. But she called me on FaceTime and just said, “Skeleton Crew?” And I was like, “Whaaaaat?! Nooooooo! That’s not me!”
Did she believe you?
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: No [laughs]. I’m a very bad liar. But you have to be very careful on a show like that.
Did you then communicate with code words?
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: Yes, there were lots of them, actually. We just named a few things after food. And the whole production also had a code name: Grammer Rodeo, after that one Simpsons episode where they run away from home.
Robert Timothy Smith: We also had Simpsons names. I was Millhouse.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: I was Bart.
Kyriana Kratter: I was Maggie.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: And I was Lisa.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: And in the script, there were a lot of scenes that didn’t exist. And we had different names again. I was Wyatt and Rob was Ned. Kyriana was…
Kyriana Kratter: I was Kylie, what about you?
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: I think I was Fae.
Kyriana Kratter: We also had to wear cloaks when we came to set so that no one would recognize us and see the costumes. I felt like a Jedi in those dark, long cloaks. We even had code names on our dressing rooms.
How can I imagine such a fake scene? Is it still set in the Star Wars universe or is it about something completely different?
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: They were written in such a way that there was no direct connection to Star Wars. Most of the time, it was just about our characters. For example, there’s a moment when I, as Wyatt, meet Rob, who is Ned. We’re at a bus stop and…
Robert Timothy Smith: SPOILER ALARM! SPOILER ALARM!
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: [To Smith:] That’s all in the trailer. That’s the scene where I say, “Don’t you ever want to experience anything exciting?”
Robert Timothy Smith: Oh yeah, right.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: So basically they just change certain keywords. They would never write lightsaber. Or that we find a Jedi temple in the forest. It would just say something about treasure or something.
Kyriana Kratter: It was really confusing when I was auditioning. In the first scene, I wear my visor. At the time, I didn’t know what it was. I just knew it had something to do with my eyes. So I used sunglasses. Oh, and I have to tell you: I thought at first that my character had a crush on Ravi’s character.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: Really?
Kyriana Kratter: Yes, in that scene on the beach. But then when I saw you during the chemistry read, I quickly realized that it wasn’t like that, and I changed my whole approach to the scene.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: That’s crazy, I didn’t know that.
How did you prepare for your roles in general? Is there a manual on how to find your way in the Star Wars universe?
Robert Timothy Smith: Since I play an alien, I watched a lot of interviews with other people who had also transformed into creatures with elaborate costumes and makeup. I also watched a lot of old movies and especially creature features to see how they move. I was able to pick up a few tips.
Which tip was the most helpful?
Robert Timothy Smith: Stay hydrated. It gets very, very hot under your outfit. And it’s very, very heavy. The heat and the weight are really not to be underestimated. They tried everything possible to cool me down. They even gave me a T-shirt with tubes and pumped cold water into it. But then it became too many layers for the costume and so they set up a kind of cooling chamber for me. [To the others:] Do you remember that?
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: Yeah, that was crazy.
Robert Timothy Smith: There were all these fans in it and I kept going in after every take, just thinking, “So long, suckers.” [Laughs]
I heard you also had regular movie nights to get a feel for the show’s history?
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: They were always really fun. We watched The Goonies and E.T. And then I added movies like Stand by Me to my research, which also goes very well with Skeleton Crew.
Robert Timothy Smith: Stand by Me is sooo great.
What was the biggest challenge for you during the shooting?
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: The emotional scenes are always the hardest because after a while you get exhausted, especially when it comes to something extreme like screaming and crying. After a few takes, it gets really difficult. It takes a lot of strength to get into a character’s head. Nevertheless, you try to give it your best shot with every take.
Robert Timothy Smith: I had a similar problem with Neel. He does this very funny scream and I wanted to make it as high-pitched as possible. After two takes, though, I realized that wasn’t the best idea.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: Sometimes it’s tricky to stay focused after a long day. I get really stiff in that situation. When I notice that it’s happening to me, it’s often enough to just move around so I don’t feel frozen.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: I also have to say that it’s easy when you’re playing with someone like Jude Law. The energy on set quickly returns.
Kyriana Kratter: For me, the visor was definitely the biggest challenge. I had to get used to that first. In acting, you work a lot with your eyes. But what do you do when they’re suddenly covered? I had to relearn how to act. How do I make KB look alive and not just stand around? That was the first thing I had to figure out. And then there was the technical aspect. They tried out various prototypes of my visor that could glow thanks to batteries, but they always got very hot.
Robert Timothy Smith: I can completely relate to that. I couldn’t show my face in the entire series and so I had to work more with gestures. Still, they modeled Neel’s face after my facial expressions later on, and I think there’s a lot of me in there. Oh yeah, and originally I was green.
Kyriana Kratter: You looked like Yoda.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: And then one day he came in with blue hands and a blue head and we were like, “Whaaaaat?!”
Thank you so much for your great answers! Finally, an easy question, or maybe a hard one: Which is your favorite Star Wars movie?
[The answers come in rapid succession]
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: Star Wars.
Robert Timothy Smith: Star Wars.
Kyriana Kratter: Star Wars.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: I love Empire Strikes Back.
Oh wow, I didn’t expect that. I would have bet that you might have preferred The Clone Wars or the sequels. Personally, I grew up with the prequels back in the day.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers: I think it’s the nostalgia. Star Wars was the Star Wars movie I first saw when I was five years old. That’s what I grew up with.
Kyriana Kratter: I feel the same way. Every time I watch the movie, I think about how I first saw it with my dad and brothers. I even thought for a while that my dad was Han Solo.
Robert Timothy Smith: I think that when you ask a question like that, you always choose the movie that you saw first in a series. Because that’s the one that leaves the biggest impression.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: I also got to know Star Wars through my dad. He grew up with it, I grew up with it. The Empire Strikes Back was the first Star Wars movie for me – and it’s just incredibly iconic.
