How Ava DuVernay made 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' a better film

Ava DuVernay is busy. When she’s not directing Oscar-nominated feature films and unleashing critically acclaimed must-watch entertainment unto the television landscape, she’s live-tweeting the presidential debates and generally living the kind of best life that lets you pose in front of step-and-repeats with Oprah Winfrey. But somehow, DuVernay has managed to squeeze “part-time lightsaber duel consulting” onto her C.V.

On Wednesday, Yahoo Movies published an exclusive commentary excerpt from the upcoming four-disc Star Wars: The Force Awakens collector’s edition, out Nov. 15. According to the audio track, The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams showed an early cut of the sci-fi epic to DuVernay, who made “a bunch of great suggestions.”

“She really wanted to see Daisy, in her attack on Ren, coming up to have one really cool moment,” Abrams said of the two characters’ climactic lightsaber duel. “Boom! [It’s] a little thing, but it really connects you to her intensity.”

Good thing he listened! She was right! It does! The poster for 2011’s I Don’t Know How She Does It but with Ava DuVernay’s face Photoshopped over Sarah Jessica Parker’s! Listen to more of Abrams’ Force Awakens commentary, here.