Sound Supervisor Matthew Wood Reveals What BB-8 is Actually Saying in The Force Awakens

zstar-wars-force-awakens-rey-bb8-daisy-ridley1On Tuesday of last week Star Wars: The Force Awakens finally became available for fans to own. Then, on Thursday, the Disney and Lucasfilm dropped on us the teaser trailer of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. With the recent release of “The Force Awakens,” which is now out on Blu-ray and DVD many fans have been wondering what that little BB-8 droid is actually saying.

 

By now, most people have seen the footage of Rey and BB-8 walking determinedly across the sand plains of Jakku in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Many fans have been wondering what exactly BB-8 said to Rey in order to convince her to let the droid come along with her, and now we have some answers.

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The Huffington Post caught up with the sound supervisor for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Matthew Wood, and he discussed how his team at Skywalker Sound created BB-8’s unique voice and language, and explained what was BB-8 actually saying in that scene?

 

“The first time you hear him, it’s sort of off screen, and you hear him yelling because Teedo has kidnapped him, and you have the creature sound that Teedo is riding on the back of, and BB-8 is making sounds, but then it’s when Rey runs over and starts talking to him. Even moments there when she first rescues him, and she’s like, ‘That’s just Teedo. He’s a dune bandit, and he’s going to sell you for parts.’ And then Ben Schwartz’s dialogue would be like, ‘Oh, yeah? Well, you know, I hate you, Teedo.’ And he’s like yelling to him, basically getting mad at him. And it’s good for us to know the emotional beats. Like, ‘Well, can I come with you?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, thank you so much for saving me … please take me with you.’ And she’s like, ‘No, I’m not going to,’ and it was just that kind of dialogue to help the plot. Is he feeling desperate here? Is he feeling angry?”

 

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Wood said most of the dialogue matched up with what the puppeteers had already done on set, since BB-8 is so expressive, but the phrases were meant to help Abrams editorially with the beats of what was being said. The last step for BB-8’s voice was bringing in Bill Hader, who helped create a library of sounds.

 

“We spent days recording with him and set the output of this oscillator device into Bill Hader’s mouth, and he could almost do it like a Peter Frampton guitar type talk box … and give it sort of a more rounded quality” said Wood.

 

You can watch the actual scene where Rey and BB-8 first meet, as seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in this clip below. Perhaps now all this helps you understand BB-8 a little better. Thanks to the YouTube channel ‘Movies Oklm’ for the clip.

 

 

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43 thoughts on “Sound Supervisor Matthew Wood Reveals What BB-8 is Actually Saying in The Force Awakens

  • April 11, 2016 at 1:24 am
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    Teedo was the name, not Tito.

  • April 11, 2016 at 1:38 am
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    I’m more interested in what Rey said to convince him to let BB-8 go.

    • April 11, 2016 at 1:44 am
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      “Fuck you, Teedo! He’s mine now, biatch!!’

      Seems legit.

  • April 11, 2016 at 1:44 am
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    *Teedo*, not Tito.

    • April 11, 2016 at 10:27 pm
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      Teedo was riding Jermaine.

      • April 12, 2016 at 5:25 am
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        But both of them bowed down to Michael.

  • April 11, 2016 at 3:33 am
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    I’d like an explanation as to how Rey interprets beeps and whistles as discernible words.

    • April 11, 2016 at 6:09 am
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      Same way people can understand Morse code.

      • April 11, 2016 at 8:14 am
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        People understand Morse Code by identifying signals, then translating them into letters to spell out words. It’s not something that a person can hear and instantly know what is being said.

        • April 11, 2016 at 10:38 am
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          Babel Fish

        • April 11, 2016 at 3:25 pm
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          But the original trilogy gets built in immunity from being asked this question?

          • April 11, 2016 at 7:33 pm
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            When in the OT did anyone listen to droid beeps and know what was being said? Luke had his X-Wing interpret R2’s speech on a screen, which they made a point to show onscreen.

          • April 11, 2016 at 9:50 pm
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            On Dagobah. He talked to him.

          • April 11, 2016 at 10:27 pm
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            He talked AT him – “IF (emphasis mine) you’re saying coming here was a bad idea, I’m beginning to agree with you.”

          • April 11, 2016 at 10:32 pm
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            Even asked him questions. But Chewie is the same way with the growls.

          • April 11, 2016 at 11:41 pm
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            That’s worth pointing out as an argument against you though – he asked specific questions, with yes/no answers. I can believe “Ready for some power?” Beep! “Okay”, much like I can believe “Who’s a good boy? Do you want some food?” Woof! “Okay, boy!” sooner than I can buy “Where are you from” wheebley-woobley-fart noise-squank-shoobeedoobeedoobeedoo-skoobie-doobie-doo “Really, classified you say? That’s very interesting!” or poodle-woodle-woo “The Ilenium system!”.

          • April 12, 2016 at 10:49 am
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            People can levitate things with their minds in their universe, read minds, but it’s unrealistic to believe anyone can understand bleeps of a droid. I get it. Now go back to your reg scheduled hating everything.

        • April 11, 2016 at 8:34 pm
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          I’m not saying it is exactly the same thing, just giving a similar real world example of non-verbal signals. Another, visual, example would be sign language.

          Also, I believe some people can understand what is being said in Morse code fairly instantly if they know it well enough. But, again, I’m not saying droid Binary IS Morse code.

    • April 11, 2016 at 9:12 am
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      Same way Luke can understand R2-D2. Or Kanan, Ezra and crew can understand Chopper. They just… do.

      • April 11, 2016 at 7:30 pm
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        Luke understands R2 by reading the screen on his X-Wing console

        • April 11, 2016 at 10:25 pm
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          And by gesturing angrily at Threepio to translate.

      • April 11, 2016 at 11:57 pm
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        If you listen closely on some scenes you can somewhat make out what choppers says and also by watching his actions.

        • April 12, 2016 at 12:28 am
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          But that’s because Chopper swears like a sailor 🙂

    • April 11, 2016 at 3:21 pm
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      Star Wars reasons.

      • April 11, 2016 at 10:24 pm
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        Because Reysons. MaRey Sue Reysons.

        • April 12, 2016 at 5:27 am
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          Actually, the same reasons that other people (including MALES) know how to interpret the beeps in the GFFA. She lived on Niima Outpost, and was forced to learn the language to survive. Thank you very much.

          • April 12, 2016 at 6:23 am
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            Really? She had contact with a whole bunch of BB units? I mean, because that aint in the film – there’s no other droids at all from what I remember, let alone ones that speak that particular dialect. Must be some of that fancy book-learning Disney expected everyone to do to excuse some lazy screenwriting.
            And please, don’t try to make this a gender thing – MALES (not sure why you’re capitalizing here, but, okay, I can play along) don’t actually know how to interpret the beeps in the GFFA. That’s why droids like R2 have counterparts.

          • April 12, 2016 at 6:40 am
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            Oh dear, my brain is breaking. Don’t you think that Rey (a trader/scavenger) on a *trading outpost* would learn some alien/droid dialects here and there? Come on Cranky, learn common sense. I thought you had wrapped your head around this.

          • April 15, 2016 at 12:35 pm
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            Yeah, she knows droid language, ships mechanics, has ace piloting skills, even the oldest ones, but lives alone as a scavenger and can barely find food. Makes sense!

          • April 16, 2016 at 6:18 am
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            Yes, it does make sense. That’s the only way she can make money on Jakku? What do you think is the alternative? She doesn’t WANT to leave Jakku, so yeah.

          • April 12, 2016 at 11:28 am
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            Lawrence Kasdan told JJ Abrams to trust the audience and not try explain too much. Because he’s was writer of the darlingly loved ESB, I’d think you’d give him some merit. She’s lived there for like 14 years. Just because you don’t see her learning how to understand binary droid in the film doesn’t mean she didn’t.

          • April 15, 2016 at 12:33 pm
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            Lawrence Kasdan took credit for ESB but it George Lucas all along. Kasdan is just as much of a hack as JJ Abrams, and Force Awakens proved it. Did you know that Kasdan wanted Yoda to be lightsaber wielding Jedi master? It’s Lucas that thought the Yoda we know. Kasdan only did some dialogues. Look at his other movies, he almost only made crap.

          • April 15, 2016 at 1:37 pm
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            Give me your referenced documented sources.

          • April 15, 2016 at 9:51 pm
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            Let’s see it seems a huge amount of people didn’t like George’s writing for the prequels, A huge amount of people liked ESB more than any other SW movie. One article proves no one a hack.

          • April 15, 2016 at 10:42 pm
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            What did Kasdan make outside Star Wars? We didn’t hera about him since ESB untill he wrote TFA. An embarrassing end of career. George Lucas created Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Willow. And why George didn’t bring him back when he wrote the prequels?

          • April 12, 2016 at 7:36 pm
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            She knew enough about BB units to know about their schematics… Doesn’t seem too far fetched that she could understand BB-8’s binary language.

          • April 13, 2016 at 10:19 am
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            I guess with all of your experience that you speak Bocce?

  • April 11, 2016 at 11:44 am
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    the first time you hear him is at the beginning of the film warning Poe that the first order are coming. It could even be before that when he first sees them

  • April 11, 2016 at 2:45 pm
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    That video below does literally nothing.

    • April 11, 2016 at 3:38 pm
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      Just like my goggles.

      • April 12, 2016 at 11:59 am
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        I understood that reference.

  • April 12, 2016 at 9:49 pm
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    “He”?? I thought Kathy said BB-8 was a “she”. Good grief, gender roles to robots..

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