Star Wars: The Force Awakens villain Kylo Ren owes much to a feline, as it turns out his Force rumble sound effect came from the purring of a cat.

"The Kylo Ren Force rumble—the really chunky and animalistic rumble—is my cat’s purring," supervising sound editor and designer David Acord revealed to Nerdist (via THR). "It’s heavily pitched and slowed version of my cat’s purr that becomes [the] Kylo Force rumble."


Acord also discussed a few of the movie's other sound effects, some of which were pulled from other Lucasfilm properties, including one starring Harrison Ford. "When the rathtar is rolling down the hallway after Han and Chewie, I put in the sound of Ben Burtt’s boulder roll sound from Raiders of the Lost Ark when the boulder is chasing Indy," he said.

Additionally, another sound editor on the film named Matthew Wood discussed Adam Driver's method acting approach in looping Kylo Ren's dialogue, recalling the time when they were setting up the scene in which an officer tells Ren they lost a droid. "He was… I think we had to cut out many, many swear words between the lines to get the intention there," he said of Driver's intensity. "That’s how he works."

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been a phenomenal success for Disney. In fact, the company expects J.J. Abrams' space epic to cross $900 million domestically and reach $2 billion worldwide this weekend.