[beeping greeting]
[beeping resumes]
Morning.
-[beeping greeting] -[woman chuckles]
[Meza] When I'm operating BB-8, I prefer to kind of be totally behind the scenes,
and then in that way, someone's having a genuine interaction with BB-8.
-[beeping greeting] -Hi.
-[Meza] It's a showstopper. -Oh, my gosh. [chuckles]
[beeping happily]
[Meza] No matter what they're doing, they just suddenly-- They stop.
[beeping excitedly]
Really?
[beeping sadly]
I'm so sorry to hear that.
[beeping continues]
[Meza] The border between reality and fantasy is completely dissolved,
and to them, in that moment, that's the character.
You need to go downstairs, but stairs are probably a little bit difficult for you.
You should probably take the elevator, huh?
[responsive beeping]
[Meza] They ask BB-8 these different questions,
and they have these really genuine moments with one another,
and it's a really amazing thing to kind of be both a fly on the wall
but also interpersonally connected to them in that way.
[inquisitive beep]
My name is Este Meza.
I'm the Senior Manager of Events and Character Appearances at Lucasfilm.
My job is a little bit difficult to explain.
Even my parents probably still don't really know what I do for a living,
but, basically, I get to create and dream up these different events
and experiences for our fans to enjoy and connect with our brand.
Want to kind of review the different costumes
that we're gonna pick out for our stormtrooper exhibit.
Thanks for laying all these ones out.
[Burkert] Something elses that we were thinking about
is whether or not we wanna include a handful of weapons to go with them.
Um, these ones are a little easier because they actually have like a mount
already built onto the Force Awakens mannequins.
-On that side. Yeah. -Yeah.
[Meza] While I was definitely a Star Wars fan,
and I graduated from film school,
I had no aspiration that I would ever get lucky enough
to actually work at Lucasfilms.
Just kinda threw my hat in the ring, put in a job application,
and then got a callback, and, luckily for me,
my job really matched the experience that I had.
And my boss at the time,
she really wanted someone who understood the technical side of events,
and that's how I got my foot in the door.
And with the power of the Force...
there's BB-8.
[inquisitive beeping]
[Meza chuckles]
The moment I power BB-8 on and it starts firing off sounds,
it's like all kind of reality breaks, and he just becomes BB-8.
And even though I know, obviously, I'm controlling him,
I have these interactions, and it sounds silly but, I'm like,
-"Hey, BB-8. How you doing?" -[beeping excitedly]
Ah, yeah, you're good? Me too. Yeah.
I like driving around the office as much as possible.
I kind of use it as a guise of...
I'm just trying to get my practice reps in,
but really I'm just trying to have some fun
and kinda bring some joy to the office.
-[beeping excitedly] -[woman chuckles]
-Hi. -How are you doing?
-[responsive beeping] -[woman 2 chuckles]
[beeping continues]
You're just adorable.
[Meza] BB-8 rolling by, you just kinda melt.
And you're like, "Oh, my God, there's BB-8."
[all chuckling]
[inquisitive beeping]
I don't speak droid. I'm sorry.
[beeping sadly]
-[woman 3] No, Steve, you made him sad. -[Steve chuckles]
[Steve] Oh, no. I'm sorry, BB-8. I still love you.
[beeping happily]
[cheering, applause]
[Meza] At Lucasfilm, we do quite a few different events.
The big premier event is probably Celebration.
Celebration is definitely the highlight of my year.
I'm in the really lucky position
where I get to interact with our fans on a face-to-face basis pretty regularly.
Our fans are amazing.
Like, they are the core of what makes my job meaningful.
I see definitely a lot of amazing different experiences
at the different events that we do.
We had someone propose to their girlfriend.
Another time we had someone who brought their grandmother,
and I was just kind of overhearing their conversation, and they asked grandma like,
"What do you think of the Millennium Falcon?"
And she said, "Oh, it was dope."
It's really phenomenal, and I think, to me,
it really reaffirms the positive aspects of humanity, right?
You have these people who are very passionate,
and they're connecting with one another, and, in that connection,
they are able to kind of create these really great experiences.
And that's one of the great things about Star Wars in general.
It's this unifying experience.
[crowd cheering]