David Bridges
Rosario Dawson and Hayden Christensen met lengthy earlier than they crossed paths in Star Wars; although their careers have been largely divergent (her breakout was 1995’s Youngsters; his was 2002’s Assault of the Clones), they attended the identical NYC drama college as teenagers. Now each related to main roles in Star Wars and have shared the display screen in Ahsoka, they maintain drawing on that lengthy friendship.
In reality, it’s their shared historical past—and the film awards-show photographs that captured it through the years—that helped persuade Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni to solid Dawson because the live-action tackle his animated Clone Wars and Rebels heroine within the first place, particularly since Ahsoka and Anakin have their very own shared historical past. “One of many extra notorious photographs of us was on the [2004’s] Unbiased Spirit Awards right here in LA. There’s an image of us embracing, and we offered on stage collectively,” Dawson stated in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “And that was truly one of many photographs that Dave noticed when he first imagined doubtlessly casting me [as Ahsoka] … So to see us younger collectively and actually have this unusual, bizarre, magical, connective, fortuitous historical past and connection to all of it, it’s undoubtedly one thing that the followers have been very enthusiastic about. Who may have ever imagined this? You possibly can’t make these things up. You possibly can’t write it.”
As Dawson suggests, she and Christensen are conscious of what Star Wars followers hope for (and generally, demand from) the franchise. However they’ve been in Hollywood lengthy sufficient to see first-hand that tastes can shift. Take the prequel movies Christensen starred in, as an example; although they raked in money on the field workplace, they have been famously met with blended reactions from each critics and diehard Star Wars followers on the time. That’s shifted within the many years for the reason that prequels hit theaters in 1999, 2002, and 2005, with the goodwill now so effusive that Christensen lately reprised his character in Disney+ collection Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka.
“My expertise with Star Wars has at all times been a optimistic one,” Christensen instructed THR. “The critics actually took their goal at these movies throughout the prequel days, however I at all times felt the help from the followers. So it’s been very nice to get to come back again now and be part of this franchise, and proceed with the character and in addition benefit from the reception that these movies have now.”
Added Dawson, “I wish to say that [Hayden’s] obtained the excessive floor now”—referencing, after all, Anakin’s climactic brawl with Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith. When requested what recommendation he’d give to the actors coming into the realm of Star Wars for the primary time as a part of new Disney+ collection The Acolyte, Christensen sounded grateful to nonetheless be part of it himself. “Simply have enjoyable with it, as a result of it is such a singular expertise,” he stated. “It’s such a particular world to be part of, so relish each second.”
Learn the complete interview with Dawson and Christensen at the Hollywood Reporter.
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Daniel Mercer
