Jedi Master Indara is set to bring martial-arts excellence to the galaxy far, far away in The Acolyte, coming to Disney+ this June, and showrunner Leslye Hedland has spoken about how Carrie-Anne Moss brought her skills learnt from The Matrix to the role.
As seen in the show’s first trailer, not only will the part see [Carrie-Anne] Moss get caught up in hand-to-hand combat with Amandla Stenberg’s mysterious Mae – she also brings Force moves into her fighting. Yes: she knows Force-fu.
“She is very much inspired by Trinity,” Headland tells Empire of Master Indara. Casting Moss was, she says, a “no-brainer” – if it means Star Wars fans see Indara as ‘Trinity with a lightsaber’, that’s the intended effect. “I personally wanted to see someone who had the highest status you could imagine in a Force-fu fight – somebody that would come in and you immediately would be like, ‘Oh, that’s the most powerful Jedi in the room.’ And that’s Trinity,” Headland states.
As for Moss, she was immediately hooked by Headland’s vision for The Acolyte – likening it to her conversations with Christopher Nolan and the Wachowskis. “I felt that a few times in my career with some of the big things I’ve done – Memento, The Matrix – where you’re talking to the filmmaker and you just go, ‘Oh, they totally get it,’” she says. And Moss, too, got plenty out of jacking into the galaxy far, far away. “Within my soul and my spirit, to get to play this Jedi Master and train for the fight was [an] amazing experience,” Moss enthuses. “A part of me forgot how much I love action. I love it. It’s hard. But I was just really thrilled that I could do it, and I wanted to do it well. ‘Gimme another take! Gimme another take!’” Whatever dark side force is rising in The Acolyte: dodge this.
Read the interviews in full in Empire Magazine’s June 2024 issue that celebrates the release of Star Wars: The Acolyte, streaming on Disney+ from June 4th in the USA and June 5th in Europe, with two exclusive covers and interviews with cast and crew (on sale from April 11th). Find Empire’s The Acolyte issue at all light side and dark side newsagents on Thursday, April 11th. Pre-order a copy online here.
