The cast of the upcoming Disney+ Ahsoka show spoke to EW.com, prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA/actors’ strike, about bringing the animated characters to life and being part of Star Wars in such a highly anticipated show.
Speaking to Dawson about Ahsoka is a bit like talking to a human Wookieepedia article come to life. She references Ahsoka’s journey in specific Clone Wars episodes or one-off appearances in the Disney+ animated anthology Tales of the Jedi. She also speaks of Eckstein’s voice performance with reverence — and one of Dawson’s favorite days on set was when Eckstein came to visit, gleefully tromping through the mud in sparkly tennis shoes.
When Ahsoka begins, the now-adult heroine is no longer a naïve Padawan, having faced plenty of trials that would vanquish a lesser Jedi. She’s certainly one of the few Force-users to duel both Darth Maul and Darth Vader — and one of the fewer to survive. Dawson was particularly interested in how Rebels left the character: The animated series ended with a shot of Ahsoka in all white, returning to the physical world after navigating the ethereal Force dimension known as the World Between Worlds.
“In the animation, you saw her go to the white, but what I loved is the idea that there was even another level to her,” Dawson explains. “Dave and I talked a lot about Gandalf the Gray and Gandalf the White — talking about that transition and how she’s someone very capable and excellent and looked up to as a leader, but she still has levels of development to go.”
The actress approached every new challenge with wide-eyed joy, whether it was spending hours in the makeup chair or months perfecting her double-lightsaber fighting stance. Many of Ahsoka’s gravity-defying moves were easy to execute in animation, but much trickier for an actual human to complete, and Dawson had to essentially train herself to fight ambidextrously. (She still remembers the first compliment fight coordinator Ming Qiu gave her, after months of training: “That one didn’t make my eyes hurt.”) Even amidst all that hard work, when EW spoke to Dawson’s costars, every one of them singled out her seemingly boundless energy on set and her penchant for singing between takes, repeatedly describing her as human “sunshine.”
“I don’t have a single memory of her looking tired, which is crazy considering we’re on the same schedule,” says Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays Rebels alum Sabine Wren. “On the weekends, she’s always doing work for charities that she’s passionate about and flying off and doing speeches at events — and I’m just in bed. And I’m still tired.”
Read the article in full at EW.com here. Ahsoka starts with a two episode premiere on Disney+ on August 23rd, 2023.
