Anna Grimm writing at CultureSlate.com spoke to Diana Lee Inosanto at FanExpo Chicago about Star Wars and her time playing Morgan Elsbeth in The Mandalorian, Ahsoka and Star Wars: Tales of the Empire.
CS: Morgan is such an interesting and complex character, how did you prepare for the role?
DLI: So, I studied different complicated historical figures at first, everything and everybody from Julius Ceaser, Catherine the Great, and then later on I started studying Thrawn because I knew once the line of Thrawn is in the show, I knew I gotta study Timothy Zahn. I knew the people around Thrawn’s circle would have a lot of intel about his character.
CS: What has been your favorite part about playing Morgan Elsbeth?
DLI: Honestly, the fans. I was already a fan and now I’m in Star Wars. I love it, and I’m a mother too of a son with autism, so I get a lot of people in the special needs, or intellectually developed community, they come to me, they know they’re safe with me and that’s a real privilege I enjoy about being part of the universe.
CS: You returned to voice the role of Morgan in Tales Of The Empire, how was it going from playing the character in live-action to voicing her? Was it difficult to switch mediums?
DLI: So the approach to playing her was still the same but in this case, it was fascinating to work closely with the animation team and to be able to really enjoy the process, like creating all the fight scenes around her, which they were copying my fight scenes from YouTube, and what I did on the show. So that was pretty much the only thing that was different, but the approach as an actress was still the same.
Read the interview in full here, and stream Diana Lee Inosanto in The Mandalorian, Ahsoka and Star Wars: Tales of the Empire on Disney+.
