Adam Driver was keen to watch himself in Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a cinema audience, because he knew the film was too big a spectacle for the screening room alone.

The 34-year-old actor, who reprises his character Kylo Ren in the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi, admits he never checks out his performances with a movie audience, but he was drawn to the first film of the new Star Wars franchise.

"The Force Awakens is the only movie I’ve sat with an audience and watched," he tells Esquire, explaining he really wanted to see what special effects experts did with his green screen scenes, where his acting was tested as he imagined what he was holding and what was behind him.

He tells the men's magazine, "The thing with Star Wars is that they're (visual effects supervisors) like, 'Trust us, there is space behind you', or, 'Trust us, your lightsaber will work'. So a part of the impulse in wanting to see it is because there is so much visual s**t going on that I didn’t know what was happening.

"You know what’s happening in (his 2014 film) While We're Young, you know? I did it. We’re in a bike shop. With Star Wars, it’s like, 'This is... where you meet (humanoid alien) Snoke'. And I’m like, 'OK, it’s kind of, like, a cave. I get it'..."

But he admits watching The Force Awakens with Star Wars fans didn't seem like such a great idea when the credits rolled at the beginning and he remembered his evil character was about to kill Harrison Ford's Han Solo.

"Credits started, the whole scroll at the beginning, and they (fans) start screaming, 'Oh my God! It’s happening'. And I flash-forward to where I killed Han, and I got really sick, and went really cold, waiting for when it was over."