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Article très intéressant du Orange County Register sur le rôle des 1.400 cast members sélectionnés pour devenir des "Batuuans" :

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Disneyland selects 1,400 employees for grand opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge  

Cast members are overjoyed to be moving to the new land; new hires will replace them in their current roles.

Disneyland employees wept tears of joy and whooped cheers of excitement when they found out they will be among a select group of 1,400 who will help open the highly anticipated Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge themed land.

“I’m beyond excited,” said Maria Zamora, who will be working on the inaugural Galaxy’s Edge attractions team. “I’m so stoked. I can’t wait.”

The reallocation of hundreds of cast members, Disney parlance for employees, means the Disneyland Resort will be looking to hire 1,400 new workers in attractions, food and beverage, retail, entertainment and custodial at the two Anaheim theme parks this summer to replace those that are moving to Galaxy’s Edge. The Disneyland Resort, which includes Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, employs 30,000 cast members.

Galaxy’s Edge general manager Kappy Thorsen said cast members were “coming out of the woodwork” and interest was “off the charts” for the opportunity to work in the new Star Wars land.

“It really speaks to the Disney brand but also the Star Wars brand because people just want to be a part of it,” Thorsen said. “It actually made recruiting very easy, which was really fun and exciting.”

The hiring campaign was complicated by the limited amount of details that could be shared about the highly anticipated themed land. But most recruits only needed to hear two words.

“They had me at Star Wars.” Thorsen said. “For me it’s just like, ‘Hello, #dreamjob.’”

Chris Kane has getting teary-eyed more in the last few months since he found out he would be a retail manager in Galaxy’s Edge than he has in his past 22 years at the company.

“I’m normally not super emotional, or at least I try not to be,” Kane said. “But I’ve had no choice.”

Zamora and Kane are both lifelong “Star Wars” fans.

Zamora learned to speak English while endlessly watching a VHS copy of “The Phantom Menace” after moving to the United States from Nicaragua.

“I kept replaying and replaying it until I burned out the copy,” said Zamora, 28, of Fullerton. “It was the greatest thing ever.”

Kane’s father took him as a child to a drive-in movie theater over and over again to watch the original 1977 “Star Wars” film from the back of their pickup truck.

“Sometimes when we drove by the movie theater, I begged to pull over to the side and we would just watch with no sound,” said Kane, 46, of Long Beach.

Thorsen has had several “pinch me” moments since she began overseeing operations in the new land, including the official announcement of the opening date.

“I actually had a moment of, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s real,’” said Thorsen, 48, of Yorba Linda. “There’s this enormous amount of excitement and ridiculous amount of pressure.”

The new themed land opening May 31 will be set in the Black Spire Outpost on the remote planet of Batuu, located on the outer rim of the “Star Wars” galaxy.

Disney’s wardrobe department worked closely with Lucasfilm to ensure the costumes in the new land look as authentic as the ones worn by actors in the “Star Wars” movies.

Cast members will wear costumes that place them into three distinct camps in Galaxy’s Edge: First Order soldiers, Resistance rebels or Black Spire Outpost villagers.

Villagers will get to choose from a mix-and-match collection of costumes that can be assembled into 80 combinations. Cast members will get to pick their own pieces from a selection of tunics, wraps and vests as well as accessories like necklaces, scarves, hats and belts. The costume pieces come in a variety of fabrics, colors, cuts and fits.

“It lets them express their individuality, their own backstories, their own ideas,” said Walt Disney Imagineering executive creative director Wendy Anderson.

Cast members are excited about the many costume combinations and accessories.

“Just the fact that you get to choose and mix and match,” Kane said. “That’s just fun for the cast.”

The First Order and Resistance looks will be more pre-determined. The bad guy First Order soldiers will wear sleek military-style uniforms. The good guy Resistance will wear flight crew gear with a jacket, vest and goggles on their hat.

Name tags for all Galaxy’s Edge cast members will be rendered in English and the Star Wars language of Aurebesh.

Cast members will build their own personas and backstories to help them become inhabitants of Black Spire Outpost.

“We give them an overview of the story of the land, but we’re encouraging them to create their own identities and personas,” said Imagineering managing story editor Margaret Kerrison. “All the cast are local Batuuans. They live outside of Black Spire Outpost. They’re commuting to work. They’re getting into their shuttle and they’re going into Black Spire Outpost to do their work.”

As a die-hard fan with two “Star Wars” tattoos, Zamora can’t wait to develop and refine her Batuuan persona.

“You get to be on a planet in the Star Wars universe,” Zamora said. “Any kid, any adult would be so jealous of this position right now.”

The goal is to empower the cast members as storytellers who have opinions and observations about what is happening in Black Spire Outpost — regardless of whether they are Resistance sympathizers or First Order loyalists.

“What we are encouraging them to do is know about your daily lives,” Kerrison said. “You know where you work, you know what you’re selling, you know who you’re working for. You also have an opinion of what’s recently taking place here. Which is the First Order just arrived a couple of weeks ago. How are you feeling about that? I’ve heard rumors that the Resistance is hiding here. That the First Order is looking for the Resistance. They’re just rumors, right? So there’s a lot of gossiping. There’s a lot of whispers and rumors about what’s going on.”

The role playing and storytelling in Galaxy’s Edge will bring the “Star Wars” story to life, Kane said.

“So many of our experiences are stories of yesterday or the future,” Kane said. “But this one’s alive now and it’s evolving.”

There will be limits to how far cast members can go with their in-universe persona building.

“We want to empower them to be able to play like never before,” Kerrison said. “A lot of them are Star Wars fans and they are so incredibly excited that they’re making up things that we’re like, ‘You can’t be Han’s second cousin. That’s just not a thing.’ We do have to set guardrails and parameters.”

Cast members will get “experiential-type training” that will allow them to experience Batuu before they step foot into Black Spire Outpost, said Imagineering creative director Cory Rouse. The goal: Visitors who interact with cast members in character as Black Spire Outpost inhabitants will get a glimpse into their day and daily life on Batuu.

“The training is more about their understanding of what their day-to-day life is. Where do they come from? What do they do?” Rouse said. “We’re not presenting Batuu. You’re on Batuu. So that’s a very subtle but a very important part of our training.”

Galaxy’s Edge trainees will learn about the First Order and the Resistance and then make a choice about which side to support.

“You get to pick your affiliation,” Thorsen said. “We’re teaching them this backstory of the outpost. Then they really get to go, ‘Well, I feel like I’m aligned more with this group.’”

The training encourages cast members to create genuine and authentic backstories that are true to the Star Wars universe.

“It’s going to be real,” Thorsen said. “It’s coming from their minds instead of us feeding them information. Then we know our guests are going to come in with their affiliations or how they see themselves or who they prefer. And when you bring those groups together, it’s mind blowing.”

The goal is to keep the storytelling simple and uncomplicated. If you have a pet in the real world, then you have a pet on Batuu as well, Thorsen said.

“I don’t know what kind of pet,” Thorsen said. “I’ve got to figure that out, but I have some creature that lives with me.”

Cast members working in Galaxy’s Edge will get a full day of immersion training and learn about the ongoing conflicts taking place in Black Spire Outpost.

“They’re being taught there’s bosses in Batuu,” Thorsen said. “Do not cross them. This is not Fantasyland. This is not It’s a Small World. Everybody’s not singing and smiling necessarily. You’ve got to be careful. You don’t know what’s around the corner.”

The Orange County Register - 20 mars 2019.