Via Fandango.com:
Fandango: So you’re about to make a Star Wars movie — is that something that you think about? How much you’re going to influence this younger generation, handing them a movie and an experience they may cherish for the rest of their lives?
Trevorrow: It’s how it was with us [growing up]. Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia were all characters that we were able to identify with in various ways, and especially with the character of Rey and what she means to young girls right now, and the challenges that she’s up against. It is extremely crucial that I understand what actual children are feeling about these stories that we’re telling them, and I think it’s important that I have kids, and if filmmakers don’t have kids, they should go talk to them because they don’t see things the same way that we did when we were kids. So, yes, I am very dialed in to that because I think it’s a requisite of the job.
Fandango: Rian Johnson has a list of movies he watched that helped inform Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Do you have a list of movies you watched or are watching right now to help you prepare?
Trevorrow: I mean, I watch movies all the time just cause I’m a person, but I’m not in a research phase right now. I also do a strange thing, which maybe isn’t the right thing to do, but as I get close to a movie I stop watching movies that are similar to it because I’m afraid I’m going to rip off shots from them or something and I want it to feel pure and instinctive all along the way. There’ll be an interview someday where I’ll say what those movies were that inspired me, and they’ll print it. That’s not yet, not yet.
Fandango: Is it your hope to make a film that’s better or more memorable than, say, Return of the Jedi?
Trevorrow: My hope is to make it as richly satisfying as it could possibly be. I have a lot of support, and a lot of really brilliant thinkers and storytellers around me. Kiri Hart and the Lucasfilm story group, and Michelle Rejwan, and Kathy Kennedy, my producers, and J.J. [Abrams] and Rian [Johnson], and Larry Kasdan, and when you look at this army of brilliant people that we have, it’s not me alone. It’s a whole team.
