Carl Weathers (Greef Karga) on the hardest part of making The Mandalorian

Carl Weathers boasts a wonderful filmography. The 72-year-old actor has taken on everything from the physically demanding Rocky movies (as Apollo Creed) to Predator to Toy Story 4. You may recognize his muscular forearm as one half of that handshake that’s been meme-ed round the world:

Most recently, he’s played as leader of the Bounty Hunters’ Guild in The Mandalorian, Greef Karga. Apparently, this role was tricky, in part because he kept having to act opposite Pedro Pascal, who’s Mandalorian character wears a mask the whole time.

“I found it, really a challenge. When you’re across from somebody they’re throwing all kinds of body language at you,” he said during an appearance on Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian. “And these two things here [points at eyes] you can be saying one thing, but these two things tell me something completely different. And what am I responding to? I’m responding to what you’re throwing. You’re hitting the ball this way, [and] whatever it’s doing, I’ve gotta adjust for it.”

Luckily, Weathers is an experienced actor and found a creative way to clear this hurdle: use Pascal’s voice as a signpost, although this was difficult, too. “[I]n that helmet, it is flat,” he explained. “There is nothing. I have to listen so acutely to the voice and hope that that voice is going to cue me to what this person, not just the words, but what they’re really saying.”

Weathers will hopefully be back as Karga in The Mandalorian season 2, where he’ll have trouble playing scenes with Pascal all over again. Technically, we don’t know if he’ll show up, since the last we saw the Mandalorian he and Baby Yoda were blasting off to parts unknown. But at least there’s a chance! As originally written, Greef Karga was going to die in Episode 3, “The Sin”! He was also apparently going to be done up in alien prosthetics. All around, we’re glad the show went a different way.

Meanwhile, the cast of The Mandalorian continues to grow, with Justified star Timothy Olyphant being the latest actor to come aboard. Look out for The Mandalorian season 2 to air on Disney+ in October.

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h/t CinemaBlend