Pedro Pascal may be the face of bounty hunter Din Djarin in “Mandalorian and Grogu,” but there’s another actor who does much of the walking, talking and gun-slinging as the “Star Wars” character: Brendan Wayne.
In 2018, Wayne auditioned and screen tested for an untitled Lucasfilm project, where he had to put on a bulky costume that looked strangely similar to Boba Fett with boots that were too big for his feet. Director Jon Favreau, with whom Wayne had worked on “Cowboys and Aliens,” and Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni were there, watching Wayne closely as he picked up a sci-fi rifle. Immediately, Wayne noticed something was wrong. He pointed out that his rifle was too long and would catch on his boot when he walked, so he told the team to shorten the gun by six inches and add a holster to the suit. How did he know the intricacies of this all-new, cowboy-inspired character? Well, his grandfather was Western icon John Wayne.
“I love westerns,” Wayne says. “I love the cowboy code. My mom demanded that it be a part of the way I lived. I failed constantly at upholding it, but it was always striving to have that idea of ‘If I go up, we go up. It’s never me, it’s always we.’ That was the way I was raised, also with the idea of rugged individualism. I have a very different opinion than you, and it’s okay that you disagree with me. I’m going to be smart enough to understand why I believe in what I believe in. The funny thing is, all of that informed Mando, because his process from day one is trying to figure out why he believes in the creed.”
