Interview: Kenny-Lee Mbanefo | Star Wars Sequels, Solo [ENGLISH]

Kenny-Lee Mbanefo has played many different roles in Star Wars – from a First Order Stormtroooper to a Mudtrooper to a prisoner of Narkina 5. At Noris Force Con 7 I spoke with him about his work on Star Wars and other productions.

You can find the German version of this interview HERE.

How are you today and have you been enjoying the convention?

These past three days have been the most enjoyable I have ever had. And I am deadly serious. I have hardly ever been to an event where I have felt so welcomed, where the people have been so hospital towards me. Not only is this my first event in Germany. This is my first time in Germany all together and it couldn’t have gone any better for me.

So we have left a good impression?

Absolutely. I definitively want to come back.

What does a day in the life of a stormtrooper look like? Starting with when you come to the set, have your costumes ready …

It’s definitively a busy and long day. My day can start as early as 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. I am getting up at like 2 o’clock. I have got a car or Uber picking me up at 3 that would take me to Pinewood Studios, which is approximately a two hours journey from my home. So I get there maybe at like 5 am in the morning. And as soon as we get there, we sign in with one of our ADs, which stands for Assistant Directors. We sign in with them. Then we head straight to the costumes department, put on the costume.

If it is a stormtrooper costume it can take some time, because you are literally putting it on piece by piece. Underneath the suit I am wearing a skin tight body suit. And then you put on the boots, the shin pads, thigh pads, butt plate, the cod piece, chest piece, back piece, biceps. Finally, you leave the helmet off, but you carry it with you. That all can take quite some time.

I am used to doing it by myself now, but at the beginning it took maybe two other people as well as yourself to put it on. I am used to it, but also the costume design has gotten better. You get a little bit more movement in it and you are able to put it on a lot more faster. Once we have it on, you have your breakfast. On these productions they do a really good breakfast, because you are on hard work, but you want to make sure you don’t overeat. You try to do your best to eat healthy, getting the sleep. Sleep is very important, because you can’t really do it when you are tired and especially with the stormtrooper it can get really hot after wearing it for ten to fourteen hours. It can get hot, it can get sweaty. You don’t want to pass out, you want to be hydrated at all times. You just want to make sure you don’t pass out. That’s why that is so important.

And then they will take you to set at around 6 am and then it is a full on day. So on set, you have inbetween breaks, you have lunch break and tea break, maybe some bathroom breaks, but when you are looking to wrap time, it can be anywhere between 6 and 8.

Then it is just the reverse order. You’re going back to the costume department, take everything off. Then you sign out and the car is taking you back home. When you are at home it can be 10 o’clock at night. And then it is repeat. The next day. It can get tiring, but like I say you just need to keep yourself healthy, eat well, sleep well and just stay focused.

What was it like to wear for example the First Order Stormtrooper or the Mudtrooper before anyone out there even knew that they exist? What was your first impression?

It is a good feeling, that you are wearing something that has never been worn before and never been seen before. I mean, yes, there had been stormtroopers for many years before that, but the designs had been changed a lot since then. Especially with the First Order Stormtrooper, which was the first of its kind at the time …

It was a great feeling, that you are wearing something new, that you are wearing something with a completely new design. It is a great privilege. Obviously it would be nice to take it home with you. Or if you have a helmet or a piece of costume to take home with you, but unfortunately everything is serial numbered. Everything. If anything is missing, they take it down to „Okay, where is your costume? Where is your helmet?“

It’s got that serial number, so you make sure that what you have you have and no one has taken it. It’s all part of the job.

I know from wearing my armor that often something fails. Do you have any memorable costume fails?

Not that I can think of from the top of my head. On a thing like Star Wars there is a lot of attention to detail. They do nitpick when you may have a little smudge on the armor or a little bit of mud on your boots. They see everything. The camera shows everything. They all pay attention to detail.

They will pick up on that and say “Cut” and go like “There is something on his armor” or “This little piece isn’t clean” or “His helmet isn’t sitting on right”. Or any other thing. It can determine what is professional, what doesn’t look professional on camera. People see this kind of stuff, especially now with the quality of TV. People always look for the easter egg. People always look for something.

I am sure you’ve heard of the story from Game of Thrones, where someone left a Starbucks coffee cup on the table, which was in an episode. They try to make sure, that anything like this doesn’t happen. So if somebody has a wardrobe malfunction, somebody will see it and they will not allow it to be seen. I can’t recall having any sort of this kind of accidents or something going on with my costume. I am a pretty neat person myself though. If they don’t see I definitively will.

You were also on Andor, in the Narkina 5 episodes. I’ve heard from many people that it was quite depressing to shoot because of all the Covid environment and everything. What was it like for you?

Yes, it was during the Covid pandemic. It was a case of like 48 hours before we would take the Covid test, where they would do a swab of your mouth or a swab of your nose to see if there is any detection of the virus. And within 48 hours you would get the test results, if they would be positive or negative. And if it’s positive, obviously you won’t be working. You would not be allowed on set, so unfortunately you had to be isolated at your home at least two weeks.

That kind of thing was happening and not only with members of the cast, but also wieth people on the set, whether they would be working in the lightning or the sound department. If there was somebody, they had to send them home. And that could delay the filming process, the schedule, especially when you had a cast member who was crucial to a scene come down with Covid. In this case you had to put the particular scene on hold for two weeks and then come back to it.

And on set we all were wearing masks and inbetween takes as soon as the director said “Cut” we put the masks on. The social distancing, make sure that you keep a distance of three feet. This was absolutely necessary. We had a masking shield. That were all things we were doing, so it wasn’t the nicest time.

It could become quite irritating, because you could spend half your day traveling back and forth to Pinewood studios, to get your test done and then you go home. The test was maybe 2-3 minutes and then you go home. It wasn’t the nicest time, but unfortunately it had to be done. Precautions were in place and we had to do what we had to do. That’s what I remember from it, but we got through it. We came out on the other side. I hope we don’t have to do it again and if so that we are prepared.

You have been on so many high profile productions. Is there something left where you would say: That’s the one I want to be in!

There’s quite a few. I haven’t worked like in the Harry Potter franchise. James Bond definitively. I would really like to get on James Bond in some kind of capacity. What else? If they are filming another Star Trek movie any time soon in the UK, that would be nice. Transformers. Transformers, I definitively want to get onto that. There’s still quite a bit I want to do.

Last question: I know it’s difficult to talk about future projects, but are there any future projects that you are allowed to talk about and that you want to talk about?

What I want to talk about and what I am allowed to talk about is two different things. I want to tell you about all the things I have coming up, unfortunately I can’t. The only thing that I can give you a general idea about it. I am working on another sci-fi movie and I am working on a fantasy-period-TV-series. And I am working on a musical movie that is soon coming out. And, yes, I think that is all I can say at this point.

Just watch my space really and when the time comes, when the time is right I will definitively be sharing with everybody, with all the fans, all the people.

Thank your for taking the time for this interview. 

Thank you.