--- title: Adam Driver Masters Dark Side: Star Wars: The Force Awakens description: The actor recently spoke to TIME about where he drew inspiration from to play the bad guy. canonical: https://time.com/4129579/adam-driver-masters-dark-side-star-wars-the-force-awakens/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-01T13:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:55.084Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Here’s How Adam Driver Learned to Master the Dark Side og:description: He took a page out of George Lucas's book og:url: https://time.com/4129579/adam-driver-masters-dark-side-star-wars-the-force-awakens/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt031b8f0e808268e0/6988731f0a4a222f619c740b/adam-driver.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "Lobby Hero" Photo Call og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here’s How Adam Driver Learned to Master the Dark Side twitter:description: He took a page out of George Lucas's book twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt031b8f0e808268e0/6988731f0a4a222f619c740b/adam-driver.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s How Adam Driver Learned to Master the Dark Side > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Star Wars The Force Awakens Trailer [Watch (HLS stream): Star Wars The Force Awakens Trailer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UyGxWpXw.m3u8) (2:35)  _Published 2015-10-20. Star Wars The Force Awakens Trailer_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 1, 2015 1:00 PM UTC  Adam Driver is seen on Nov. 9, 2015 in New York City. Adam Driver is seen on Nov. 9, 2015 in New York City.Robin Marchant—Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 1, 2015 1:00 PM UTC Both director J.J. Abrams and star Adam Driver have been incredibly secretive about Kylo Ren, Driver’s [_Star Wars: The Force Awakens_](http://time.com/4127901/watch-han-solo-open-fire-in-the-new-trailer-for-star-wars-the-force-awakens/)character, during the lead-up to the film’s Dec. 18 release. In fact, there are only a [select few details](http://time.com/3994149/star-wars-the-force-awakens-kylo-ren-adam-driver/) known about the villain of the franchise’s latest installment. However, the 32-year-old actor recently spoke to TIME about where he drew inspiration from to play the bad guy. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation: **TIME: Did you go back and look at some of the other dark Jedi and how they moved, or how they projected that sense?** Driver: Kind of. Actually, I went to \[Akira\] Kurosawa’s movies first — J.J. and I were talking about that from the very beginning. Obviously _Hidden Fortress_ and those things influenced \[George\] Lucas from the beginning, so that’s where I went first and then rewatched them all again and then went, ‘that’s not going to be helpful.’ It’s almost like playing a real person. I’ve done that before, where you have to take the things that open your imagination and pull those things and let the things that aren’t working for you go. And even though the person wants you to inhabit every thing about them and someone has an opinion, eventually you have to divorce yourself from that and what they want and make it yours. I feel _Star Wars_ is kind of like that. **Have you played a villain in a movie?** No, I don’t think so. I mean I don’t think anybody is really a villain…No one believes they’re a villain; I think people think that they’re right. **Did you do any physical fight training?** Oh yeah, lots of it. I trained a couple of months before and then all the way through \[the film\]. **You have a military background right?** **So fight training isn’t entirely new to you?** We didn’t have lightsabers in the Marine Corps but yeah, I enjoyed the physical part. Plus it’s part of the \[_Star Wars_\] world we’re trying to inhabit. Their bodies and the way they inhabit them physically is very much their world, so it didn’t seem so much of a huge undertaking. It’s like the vocabulary of this world. **Read next:** * [Two New _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_ TV Spots Focus on Kylo Ren’s Attack](http://time.com/4129116/star-wars-the-force-awakens-tv-spots/) * [The 10 Most Fascinating _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_ Fan Theories](http://time.com/4116403/star-wars-force-awakens-fan-theories/) * [5 New Facts About _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_ Bad Guy Kylo Ren](http://time.com/3994149/star-wars-the-force-awakens-kylo-ren-adam-driver/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4129579/adam-driver-masters-dark-side-star-wars-the-force-awakens/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4129579/adam-driver-masters-dark-side-star-wars-the-force-awakens/"},"headline":"Here’s How Adam Driver Learned to Master the Dark Side","datePublished":"2015-12-01T13:00:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:55.084Z","description":"He took a page out of George Lucas's book","url":"https://time.com/4129579/adam-driver-masters-dark-side-star-wars-the-force-awakens/","keywords":["movies","Newsfeed","Star Wars topic","Actors","adam driver","films","J.J. 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