StarWars.com sat down with Manny Jacinto to talk about the duality of his role in The Acolyte, as Qimir and The Stranger, working with creator and showrunner Leslye Headland, and readjusting to his regular life.
Spoiler warning: This article discusses story details from The Acolyte, Episode 5, “Night.”
Taking inspiration from an eclectic blend of Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise mixed with Toshiro Mifune’s Kikushiyo in Seven Samurai, Jacinto would practice walking like Qimir at the local grocery store and even speak in character to the cashier at the checkout. Then, just like in the series, he would make the switch, honing into the stillness of the Stranger. Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master was a masterclass in that specific kind of duality. “You think he’s just a drunk, but he’s actually a kung fu badass,” Jacinto says. “The Stranger was just a bit more grounded. Isolation was a good and a bad thing, but it was very beneficial in trying to mold the characters. It was just chaos and stillness and balancing those within those two [personae].”
Human or Alien or Robot
Jacinto, whose breakout role as Jason Mendoza on The Good Place couldn’t be less like his latest character, was intrigued by the Stranger from the start. “Honestly, I joke that I don’t know if I’d be able to top this role ever, and maybe I should retire,” he says. “It is a dream role for any actor to be able to tackle because of the complexities of [the Stranger and his alias]. You get to just show a spectrum of different personality traits and characteristics. It was such a fulfilling thing to do.
“When we first met, Leslye and I talked about how you approach a lower status character and then convert him into this complete badass. That was the problem from the jump,” he adds. “What appealed to me about The Acolyte, this whole story and the character of Qimir and his shift into what we call the Stranger, is that everything was a huge challenge. And I just love a good challenge. I love being able to build characters that we’ve never seen before from the ground up.”
Jacinto has a background in dance and a deep appreciation for the physicality of performance, which made him eager to do as many of his own stunts as possible. Along with action designer Christopher Clark Cowan and fight choreographer Lu Junchang, who also served as Jacinto’s double at times, the team trained Jacinto in the foundations of stunt work then looked to previous Star Wars fight choreography to find ways to differentiate the Stranger’s style in battle. “We wanted the Stranger to move very differently from what you’ve seen in the prequels and in the original trilogy. If you compare them, you’ll notice that it’s very much an upright fencing type of structure to the fighting,” Jacinto says. “Whereas with the Stranger, we really wanted to be very fluid. We wanted him to move like something we’ve never seen before: quick, yet powerful, but also sneaky. And in order to have all these things, you had to be strong, but also flexible and dynamic.”
Costume designer Jennifer Bryan and creature department supervisor Neal Scanlan’s teams crafted the costume and helmet, respectively. “In terms of the costume itself, Jennifer Bryan created this beautiful silhouette for the Stranger,” Jacinto says. “When it moved, it was very much just like water. It added to the mystery of the Stranger. You didn’t know what he was, if he was human or alien or if he was a robot.”
Jacinto is hoping to get a replica of the mask for his own collection. On set, three variations of the piece were used for different sequences. “It’s aesthetically beautiful, but it is the worst utility-wise. You can’t see anything. You can’t breathe in it.” To help offset those limitations, Jacinto trained with a cloth or paper mask from the beginning, working on breathing exercises to avoid feeling sick from the exertion. “I kept that in mind, just to get used to not being able to breathe,” he says. “Then I would wear this apparatus, like construction-meets-sound-engineer, and I would practice with that.”
Read the interview in full here, and stream the first six episodes of The Acolyte on Disney+ now.
