WARNING: Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi ahead

The relationship between Kylo Ren and Rey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi might be the most interesting part of the film according to most criticisms we’ve seen so far. Not only do they provide the key emotional balance with their diverging paths in the film, they are also responsible for some of the better moments while the rest of the cast is off riding animals and slowly flying away from the First Order.

A good reason why the Kylo/Rey scenes work so well is due to each of the actors going the extra distance to aid each other while filming. As Johnson tells People, each actor was off screen during their respective scenes, even when that required some serious travel:

“For those force connections, I needed them to talk. And I thought that the hardest thing that Rey could possibly be faced with is being forced to talk to this person that she completely despises. And also the audience, we hate him coming into it. She had to be our proxy and so that’s why in those first few conversations, she is just spitting in his face… “Every single time we shot one of their sides, the other person was off camera. Even to the point where Adam flew to Ireland just to be off camera for Daisy’s stuff, which was essential because they’re such intimate conversations. And that also meant we had to shoot each of those scenes twice basically, which meant the rehearsal time was really important. And my editor Bob Ducsay did an amazing job then of making it feel kind of seamless after the fact.”

Johnson adds that he was inspired by the interaction between each actor during the interrogation scene in The Force Awakens. That led to the Force chats in The Last Jedi and now leaves the door open for J.J. Abrams to do his own thing in the final installment. Prepare yourself for more shirtless Kylo Ren with the next film, followed soon by its own stand-alone film with Ren at the beach.

(Via People)