It's hard to believe it's been more than half a decade since The Mandalorian premiered on Disney+. That auspicious premiere kicked off what would become an epic new saga for the Star Wars franchise, one that introduced some of the most beloved characters to date. While Grogu, aka “Baby Yoda,” and Pedro Pascal’s Mando get most of the attention, there was another that caught my attention: Werner Herzog’s The Client. So it was thrilling for me to speak to Herzog about his role on behalf of CinemaBlend.
I couldn’t get over the fact that Herzog, the acclaimed filmmaker behind some of the most decorated documentaries of all time, was playing a high-ranking member of the former Galactic Empire. And, even after these past several years, that sense of remains so all these years later. So, when I recently caught up with Herzog to discuss his Ghost Elephants documentary, I asked how his role came together. It turns out, Jon Favreau deserves a lot of credit:
Well, I never competed for that part. I was invited by Jon Favreau, and he wanted to have me, my face visible for many people out there in the world, because he loves my films, and he said people have to see what this man looks like.
The fact that Favreau, who created the series that is about to launch the first new Star Wars movie in seven years (this summer’s The Mandalorian & Grogu) specifically wanted Herzog to play a part in his show is just so cool. Though I was already familiar with Herzog and his body of work at the time, I like to imagine his brief appearance introduced him to a whole new audience.
Herzog previously said that not only was he not familiar with any of Favreau’s previous films, but he also had never watched a single Star Wars movie, which is wild to think about. That said, I got the impression that the filmmaker enjoyed his time on set, even if he didn’t think that Grogu was cute. (At least he didn’t punch the puppet like one of his co-stars in the show’s first season.)
Later on, I asked Herzog, who is no stranger to working in extreme locations on ambitious projects, what it was like working on The Mandalorian. That question seemed to have unlocked some long-buried memory, as the German director started to geek out about the new technology Favreau used to bring the alien planets to life, both in the finished product and on set. As Herzog explained:
I was very much intrigued by these round horizons, where as an actor you do not see a green screen, you see the planet on which you are living, you see the interior of the spacecraft in which you are traveling, and the camera sees it as well. Finally, cinema is back where it should be, has been in its beginnings, and should be forever, not green screens, but where you know in which landscape you are moving, where you see it as an actor and as a cinematographer.
While it's been seven years since Herzog appeared on The Mandalorian (his character didn’t make it to the Season 1 finale), I could pick up that the experience meant something to him, both then and now. For all of that to come as a result of an invite from one of his biggest fans is truly magical.
If you’ve ever wanted to go back and revisit Werner Herzog’s performance as The Client in The Mandalorian, the full series is available to stream with a Disney+ subscription. You will also be able to use that to watch Ghost Elephants when it makes its streaming debut on March 8th.
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