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A couple of weeks ago Collider.com interviewed actress Daniela Ruah about her role in Red Tails, and what it was like working with George Lucas, who recently took over directing duties to film some re-shoots.

by Christina Radish, Posted:October 2nd, 2010 at 5:28 pm

What was it like to have the opportunity to work on Red Tails? How was that experience?

Daniela: That was a wonderful experience, mainly because it was my first big film. Just to be able to work on something that came out of George Lucas’ mind was quite an honor. Initially, it was directed by Anthony Hemingway, and then George Lucas wanted to change some of the tone of it and decided to direct it himself, so we had a few re-shoots and I got to work specifically with George Lucas on those re-shoots. That was really special, to see how he works and to see what the process is. They only had me for a weekend because I was shooting the show, so everything had to be on the ball, at all times.

Who do you play in the film?

Daniela: I play this Italian character. The film is about the Tuskegee Airmen, so it’s the Second World War in Italy. I play David Oyelowo’s love interest. He’s one of the main pilots in the film and he falls in love with me, and I’m his drive to survive. To play an Italian character was a big challenge. I don’t speak Italian. I’ve always wanted to do something which required as much character work as possible, so it was a wonderful opportunity for me. I can’t wait until it comes out, and I have no idea when it will.

Did you do a lot of green screen work?

Daniela: Yeah. We initially shot in Croatia and the Czech Republic, so during the re-shoots, I was doing the show and they only had a weekend, and they couldn’t fly me over to Eastern Europe because it was too far. So, we did a lot of green and blue screen stuff and that was unbelievable.

Was it daunting to be a part of something knowing that it was George Lucas’ first original project since Star Wars?

Daniela: No. If anything, that helps drive you to do as well as you can. It’s an honor that that is the case. He’s been planning this for 20 years or so, so for him to have wanted me to be a part of it is huge. It’s wonderful and it feels really good, and it gave me strength and energy to play the role as well as I could because he put that trust in me.