Kelly Marie Tran steps into stardom with ‘Jedi’ role

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Kelly Marie Tran still can’t quite believe she’s in a “Star Wars” movie.

The 28-year-old was about to give up on her dreams of becoming an actress when she landed a breakthrough role in “The Last Jedi.”

So after years of toiling and hoping and working disposable jobs, Tran is now a movie star, the kind of person who holds hands with Laura Dern at media events and considers Gwendoline Christie a good friend.

“I know, right? Let me pinch myself real quick,” Tran said, her effervescent excitement bright and obvious. “I am just trying to stay present and really trying to experience every moment of this. It still feels very impossible and very much like it’s all a big dream or something.”

Tran was plucked from obscurity to play Rose Tico, a Resistance mechanic in “The Last Jedi.” Rose idolizes Resistance fighters such as pilot Poe Dameron and former Stormtrooper Finn, but does her work behind the scenes.

“She’s never been someone who has been in the limelight,” Tran said of her character. “And then we get to see her get pulled into the forefront of the action, and you see how she deals with it.”

Sounds like art imitating life for a certain actress.

“Totally, 100 percent,” Tran said with a beaming grin.

Director Rian Johnson found her after “a huge, exhaustive casting search” that included well-known actresses and newcomers.

“And Kelly just, I don’t know, she really jumped out at me as someone who I was looking for in the character,” he said. “I wanted someone who – thinking back to me as a kid being a genuine nerd you could relate to – someone who didn’t feel like they belong; someone you wouldn’t necessarily imagine as a big hero. Let’s throw them in the mix and see the world through their eyes.”