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.”
Wayne booked the role of Din Djarin, aka Mando, on “The Mandalorian,” which now is headed to theaters after running for three seasons on Disney+. The rugged warrior is a no-nonsense drifter who fires off more laser bolts than one-liners and looks out for the adorable Grogu, aka Baby Yoda. All Mandalorians live by a strict creed (summed up by the phrase “this is the way”), which involves never removing their helmets out of fear of banishment.
On the rare occasion Mando does take off his bucket-like helm, Pascal’s face is underneath. However, Wayne walks the walk and talks the talk for every other non-action scene. But when a Stormtrooper shootout occurs or Mando has to take down a colossal space beast, stuntman Lateef Crowder dons the armor. While he won’t disclose exactly how much of the time it’s him underneath the helm compared to Pascal, Wayne gives one tip for spotting him.
“I have the longest neck, so I have a little more space between my cowl to the cape. That’s how you know,” he says. “I’m long, like a straight line. As my daughters like to call Lateef, he’s a Dorito. His shoulders are out to there, his waist is down here and he’s got these trap muscles. I don’t even know what those are; my body didn’t produce those. Plus, he’s got dreads, so they’re even filling it out even more and his cape sits a little higher.”
Wayne credits his grandfather’s legacy for informing his movement as Mando.
“You see the angles when he sits at his hip, there’s a reason why people like, ‘That looks like John Wayne.” It’s because it’s me. That’s just my natural resting body,” he says. “I tried to stay away from the idea that I was going to ride [my grandfather’s] coattails. I was never going to be him, but Favreau slowed me down so much that I went, ‘Oh my god, this is genetics.’ I really didn’t have to think about it.”
Mando’s full costume weighed 62 pounds, and Wayne was putting in 13-hour days on set without taking it off. He could pop the top off to eat food, but it took around seven minutes to get undressed — plus an extra 10 minutes if the Grogu puppet was positioned on his shoulder. Despite the heavy costume and long days, it was all worth it for Wayne. After appearing on shows like “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Sons of Anarchy,” “The Mandalorian” gave him his biggest role yet.
“It gave my children and us some peace of mind,” Wayne says. “I worked seven days a week through Season 1 and part of 2, and on the weekends I’d still bartend because you never trust Hollywood. I’m signing a contract every day, and the reality is I’m on an incredibly small-budget contract for such a big production. But to me it makes the biggest difference. I’m a father of three girls, and I wanted them to give them a chance to succeed in life. I was able to put my kids in places where they had an opportunity to learn values and have a great education because of this. It was life-changing. Even as just an actor, I got to create a character on a show who is literally defining an era of ‘Star Wars.’ If that’s not life-changing, I don’t know what you’re looking for.”
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