Pedro Pascal may be the face of bounty hunter Din Djarin in The Mandalorian and Grogu, but there’s another actor who does most of the walking, talking, gun-throwing roles of the Star Wars character: Brendan Wayne.
In 2018, Wayne auditioned and screen tested for an untitled Lucasfilm project, where he had to wear a heavy costume that looked uncannily like Boba Fett and boots that were too big for his feet. Director Jon Favreau, who worked with Wayne on Cowboys and Aliens, and Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni were also there, watching closely as Wayne picked up a sci-fi rifle. Wayne immediately knew something was wrong. He pointed out that his rifle was too long and would get caught in his boots when he walked, and instructed his team to shorten the gun by 6 inches and add a holster to the suit. How did he learn the intricacies of this brand new, cowboy-inspired character? Well, his grandfather was Western icon John Wayne.
“I love Westerns,” Wayne says. “I love the cowboy code. My mother demanded that it be part of my way of life. I kept failing to live up to it, but that code was always striving for. ‘If I rise, we rise. It’s never me, it’s always us.’ I was raised that way too, with ideas of rugged individualism.” I have a completely different opinion than you, and it’s okay if you disagree with me. “I’m going to be smart enough to understand why I believe what I believe. It’s funny because Mando is all about understanding why he believes what he believes from day one.”
Wayne has booked the role of Din Djarin, aka Mando, in The Mandalorian, which is currently in theaters after airing for three seasons on Disney+. This rugged warrior fires more laser bolts than one-liners and is a serious drifter who keeps an eye on the adorable Grogu, aka Baby Yoda. All Mandalorians live by a strict credo (summarized by the words “This is the Way”) of never removing their helmets for fear of banishment.
On rare occasions, Mando takes off his bucket-like helmet, and underneath it is Pascal’s face. However, Wayne actually walks and talks in every non-action scene. But when there’s a stormtrooper gunfight or Mando has to take down a giant space beast, stuntman Lateef Crowder dons the armor. Although he won’t reveal exactly how much time he spends at the helm compared to Pascal, Wayne does offer one hint to tell him apart.
“I have the longest neck, so there’s a little more space between the cowl and the cape, and you can see that,” he says. “I’m tall and straight. He’s Dorito, as my girls like to call Lateef. His shoulders are that high, his hips are down here, and he’s got trap muscles. I don’t even know what they are. My body didn’t produce them. And he has fear, so they fill it out even more, and his cloak sits a little higher.”
Wayne believes his grandfather’s legacy influenced his movement as Mando.
“You see the angle when he sits on his hips. There’s a reason people think, ‘He looks like John Wayne.'” Because that’s me. It’s my natural resting state,” he says. I was never going to be him, but Favreau slowed me down so much that I thought, “Oh my god, this is genetics.” I didn’t really have to think about it. ”
The entire Mando costume weighed 62 pounds, and Wayne spent up to 13 hours a day on set without taking it off. Although I was able to remove my jacket to eat the food, it took about 7 minutes to remove my clothes. It took an additional 10 minutes if I was carrying Grog doll on my shoulder. Despite the heavy costumes and long days, it was all worth it for Wayne. After starring in shows like Agents of SHIELD and Sons of Anarchy, he was given his biggest role to date in The Mandalorian.
“It made the kids and us feel safe,” Wayne said. “Up until Season 1 and part of Season 2, I was working seven days a week and bartending on the weekends, because Hollywood is never trusted. I’m signing contracts every day, but the reality is I’m signing contracts for these blockbusters on incredibly low budgets. But for me, that’s the biggest difference. I’m three people. I’m a father of girls, but I wanted to give them a chance to succeed in life. I was able to put my kids in a place where they had the opportunity to learn values, and because of this, it was life-changing for me, as just an actor, to be able to play a character that literally defined an era in Star Wars. If that’s not life changing, I don’t know what you are looking for. ”
