‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’: Kumail Nanjiani talks about his con-man character Haja

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kumail Nanjiani reveals that his character in Obi-Wan Kenobi is a con-man named Haja. Here are the most interesting excerpts:

“His name is Haja. And he’s this guy who works on the streets of Daiyu, which is this new Star Wars location that we haven’t seen before that’s absolutely gorgeous. And he’s the guy who’s worked really hard to stay out of the bigger conflicts at play. He just kind of wants to be his own guy. Survival for him is all that matters.” […]

“He’s this sort of con-man guy who cons people for money. That’s what’s important to him. And then he has a run-in with Obi-Wan and suddenly he sort of gets stuck in the bigger conflicts at play, which is the thing that he really tries to avoid. So he is this street-level con-man guy who then gets embroiled in stuff that’s way too big for him. And he has to make a choice.” […]

“I think it’s a type of character that we haven’t exactly seen in Star Wars either — with a con man, you know? He can talk people into stuff, so that’s a really fun character to play. And I actually did a lot of research online on con men, and on magicians too. Because magicians, let’s face it, they’re kind of like a con man, right? They’re tricking people. So I really looked up a lot of stuff about that to learn how to really play a character like this.”