Warning: Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi are in this article!
Since
Star Wars: The Last Jedi hit theaters, much has been made of Kylo Ren's big shirtless scene, which writer/director Rian Johnson refers to as the film's "beefcake" moment.
For those who may have missed it,
Star Wars: The Last Jedi establishes a Force connection between Kylo Ren and Rey that allows the two to communicate and have conversations with each other from across the galaxy. In one of the scenes, Kylo Ren appears with his shirt off, and Rey, clearly uncomfortable, admits she'd "rather not do this right now," and asks him to put something on. He doesn't, creating a sort of awkward moment for the two, and a rather lighthearted beat for the audience.
While
we've since learned the purpose of this particular moment was to show the audience that their Force connection allows the two to not just hear each other, but see each other as well, Rian Johnson has elaborated on the decision to have Kylo Ren appear shirtless.
“It’s all about those Force connection scenes,” Johnson explained to EW. “The keyword being intimacy. And the idea that this was a way to just, why not step that up? The idea that, what’s even more uncomfortable having a conversation face to face with a person you don’t want to, is if they’re half-naked during it, while you’re having to do it. And so it was just another way of kind of disrobing Kylo literally and figuratively a little bit more, and pushing that sense of these conversations becoming increasingly more intimate.”
While there may have been a deeper meaning behind the scene, many in the audience were simply happy to see Adam Driver half-naked. And Johnson even admitted that Driver's physique was particularly photogenic. "Adam looks so damn good because he'd been training hardcore for the past six months for those fight scenes," he said. "I'm like, 'Eh. He looks so good. We should put him up there.'"
As for how Driver felt about being the film's hunk? EW asked if he was shy about his beefcake moment.
"No, no, he's good. He's great," Johnson assured. "He knew he looked good."
You can see Adam Driver shirtless as Kylo Ren right now as Star Wars: The Last Jedi is currently playing in theaters everywhere.