Werner Herzog on working with Baby Yoda on The Mandalorian: "It was a mechanical device of incredible intensity"

Have you watched the Baby Yoda show – sorry, we mean The Mandalorian? Of course you have. The whole bloomin' galaxy has seemingly devoured the Star Wars show on Disney Plus. One of the highlights from the show is celebrated filmmaker Werner Herzog's role as "The Client".

Herzog gives a delightfully sinister performance opposite Baby Yoda – even if the documentarian doesn't know his Wookie from his Ewok. Speaking to our sister publication Total Film magazine in the new issue, Herzog reflects on working with "The Child".

"What is a yodi or yedi? I don't know his name," Herzog says initially before TF course corrects him. "It was a mechanical device of incredible intensity and calibre. Heartbreaking to just look at it. And then they contemplated... for security, they thought, 'We should do it green screen and as a digital effect.' And I said, 'No, you shouldn’t do it! You are the trailblazers. You are showing us a new technology. Show it to the world that you are confident. Don’t be cowards!' And they dropped it."

"You could see that the little creature had heartbreaking expressions – you could see it. Trust what you see with your naked eye; trust what the camera saw because you can see it on the screen, see it on the monitor – trust in what you see."

Herzog also says he's unaware of the cult following Baby Yoda has online. "I had no clue and I made a little side remark once, half a sentence, and I found myself in the middle of millions of comments on that, on the internet," he says. "It is as it is."

Read the extensive interview with Herzog, touching on his career – plus conversations with Ryan Reynolds, Taika Waititi, Shawn Levy, Jodi Comer, and Joe Keery – in the upcoming issue of Total Film, which hits shelves and digital on Friday, May 1. You can subscribe online here.

If you can’t make it to the shops, you can order a copy of the print magazine from this link from Friday. You can also subscribe to Total Film digitally on your tablet, and there’s currently an offer that allows you to get your first five digital issues for just £5/$5/€5. Head to this link to sign up (Black Widow issue available from April 3). Terms and conditions apply, offer runs until April 30, 2020. If you subscribe, you can get exclusive covers like the one below.

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.