Kelly Marie Tran’s “Star Wars” audition is so pure it hurts

Much like J.J. Abrams chose then-relatively unknown actors Daisy Ridley and John Boyega to front in the latest Star Wars trilogy when casting The Force Awakens, Rian Johnson, who helmed The Last Jedi, went a similar route when looking for the perfect new addition for the eighth episode of the iconic franchise. And much like Abrams struck gold with Ridley and Boyega, Johnson found the perfect person to play resistance maintenance worker Rose Tico in Kelly Marie Tran.

While anyone following The Last Jedi press tour has seen exactly how much of a delight Tran is — we’re happy to report that she shines as Rose in the film. With the war between the First Order and the resistance in high gear, and the resistance seeing heavy losses, Rose — a maintenance worker who has until this point been far away from the action — and Finn team up on a secret mission with Poe Dameron and BB-8 to sneak into the First Order base and disable a tracker, which has been allowing the First Order to follow the Resistance through lightspeed. Yeah, it’s a pretty tall order.

Tran has by far the biggest role of any of the newcomers — including space Laura Dern and a sneaky Benicio Del Toro — making it incredibly important that Rose seamlessly fit in with the rest of the characters. With The Last Jedi officially in theaters and Tran blowing everyone away as Rose, Lucasfilm has released her chemistry read with Boyega and it’s as amazing as you would expect.

Watching Tran and Boyega reenact the scene where Rose and Finn argue about whether to hire DJ (Del Toro) to help them on their mission, felt, to Johnson, like he was seeing the character he’d written show up to read — making it a no-brainer to cast Tran as Rose in the film.

Tran revealed that despite being on-set, it’s still hard for her to believe she’s in Star Wars. She said, “So many people wish for something like this. I still don’t believe I’m doing it.”

We absolutely loved seeing Tran light up the screen in The Last Jedi and, after seeing her chemistry read, it’s clear she was the perfect choice from the start.