I appreciate the reach out anyway though, thanks! I’m okay with keeping Guy Henry’s vocal performance as-is, I’ve already trimmed down some of Tarkin’s lines in this cut anyway.
The other thing that jumped out at me that I don’t think I noticed as much on previous watches - I mean I noticed it, but I don’t think I noticed how much of it was still hanging around - there was obviously an edit of this movie where Cassian and Jyn clearly have a much flirtier relationship that culminates with kissyface in that elevator on Scarif. In the original cut, nothing actually happens in the elevator (in this Special Edition I’ve simply gotten rid of the elevator ride altogether) but there are still like three or four weird moments setting that up still orphaned in the theatrical cut.
Now, seeing as Bix is a real thing and we know where she is and who she’s holding in a wheat field somewhere, none of that can stay. But it was interesting seeing how much of the theatrical cut seemed to tie Jyn’s maturation as a character and getting over her dads’ abandonment of her, into her suddenly wanting to make out with Cassian.
Editing Jyn was interesting: I found a lot of what improves Jyn’s character came from trimming out the more demonstrative and overtly smartass moments (i.e. curtseying and “I appreciate the support” after Cassian volunteers, for example) and doing way more with how expressive Jones is as an actor. The weakest part of her character was her putting up a front anyway. It was always unbelievable, and nobody in those scenes ever really believed it, so why keep any of that stuff? She’s wounded but earnest, and that’s what’s on her face, and that’s what comes through. And if this cut is trying to be a better bridge between Andor and Star Wars, this version of Jyn hopefully works better as a midway point between Cassian and Luke Skywalker, too. I’m aiming for a little more openly earnest, but still scuffed up and pissed off. The key difference is that she believes to a degree Cassian just can’t.
The crimey wiseass doesn’t play, and she drops it as soon as anyone pokes her hard enough in the eye so… just skip to the part where she’s being angrily earnest in the first place. Less fronting, less words, more emoting, better pace. Less lines, and more room to read between them, I guess.