Ahmed Best Delves Deep Into Kelleran Beq and His ‘Star Wars’ Return
Ahmed Best is best known among Star Wars fans as the man who played Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy. He recently made his grand live-action return to a galaxy far, far away in The Mandalorian as Jedi Master Kelleran Beq, a surprise reveal that no one saw coming and was widely praised. He has now opened up about his experience in an interview with StarWars.com.
Best returned a few times to voice Jar Jar in The Clone Wars animated series, but after all the hate and abuse he received about the character over the years, he was understandably nervous to return to the galaxy. Thankfully, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni convinced him it was for the best (no pun intended).
Honestly, I had to think about it. I’ve been in the Star Wars world for such a long time and my story is such a rollercoaster ride of emotions. So coming back to Star Wars wasn’t an easy decision for me. It wasn’t something I could have immediately said yes to. I did have to marinate over it for a bit.
I mean, I was excited. I don’t think people really understand how much I care about Star Wars. Like, I really care. I really, really care about the storytelling, about the mythology, about the fans. I really want Star Wars to deliver, and if I become an obstacle to that, then I shouldn’t be in it. I don’t want to be bigger than the story. I don’t want to be bigger than the mythology. I want to contribute, I want to add to it. So it took me a minute.
I was still nervous, but it was really Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, and being with them, that made me want to come back.
As soon as I put the robes on for my first costume test, and I walked on to get approval from Jon and Dave, and they handed me a lightsaber, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m in this.’ And boom, Kelleran Beq came alive.
The actor also had a message for Star Wars fans in a social media post, thanking everyone for the kind words and support over his return in The Mandalorian. Watch it below:
A special message from Ahmed Best.#TheMandalorian pic.twitter.com/wg66OgKar0
— Star Wars | #TheMandalorian is Now Streaming (@starwars) March 27, 2023
While some fans may recognize Kelleran Beq from his role hosting the Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge game show, Best reveals that he came up with the name himself. The interview reveals that the surname was actually taken from his own cameo in Attack of the Clones, where he pops up as Achk-Med Beq in the Coruscant night club.
I went in deep with Kelleran Beq. It’s really special to me. Kelleran Beq was a character in name that I created, I came up with, was really encouraged by the Jedi Temple Challenge team and the StarWars.com team. Everyone just was so graceful in embracing my crazy ideas and bringing it forward, and to see that then migrate over to The Mandalorian is really super special.
Best put a great deal of thought into the character, shedding some light on how Beq experiences the Force. It provides a lot of insight that should inform how we see him when rewatching the episode.
To me, the Force is not just this thing that Jedi tap into when they want to throw something heavy. The Force is this thing that is constantly moving. You’re always interacting with it. I see it as like, if you’re under water and you’re moving through water, that’s what it feels like moving with the Force. So trusting the Force means trusting that these ebbs and flows of this feeling, you can move with.
In every single situation of this, I’m really trying to tune into this bigger feeling of the Force. When I’m getting attacked by clone troopers, I feel them coming. The waves of the Force are moving me before they even show up. So I know what’s about to happen because I feel the wave, and then I can react to the wave. Same thing on the speeder. I can feel the ship coming, so then I can react to it. I see him really having a lot of trust in this ability to surf the Force.
The interview also notes that Best developed his own fighting style for Beq, having studied martial arts himself for 40 years. It was heavily inspired by Bruce Lee and “the style of the unknown”, which allows Beq to adapt to any situation; an important quality for a Jedi known as “The Sabered Hand”.
The lightsaber of it all was really exciting for me. I’ve always, always, always wanted to do a lightsaber fight. And even in this one, it’s just like, one tenth of one percent of what I can do. But I was like, ‘Let me get it out there!’
Martial arts and motorcycles, I’m like, ‘I know this. This is who I am.’
Kelleran Beq was introduced in Jedi Temple Challenge as a Jedi with the responsibility of supporting the Padawans’ training and guiding them through their trials. Best delved into this idea more in the interview:
I see Kelleran as this journeyman Jedi who becomes a professor, who wants to be a teacher. Not a reluctant teacher, not someone who’s thrown into teaching. Who wants to influence, who wants to show Padawans how to become a greater version of themselves.
The interview took place before the actual episode aired, so Ahmed Best didn’t know at the time how the character would be received. As mentioned up top, he was understandably nervous about his reception:
I really care about how Kelleran Beq will be received. I know this might not be cool to say, but I want everyone who watches Star Wars to look at Kelleran Beq and go, ‘I believe that guy. I want to follow that guy. Where does he go? What happens next?’ I think all the best stories are stories that leave you wondering what happens next.
I think that’s why Star Wars has survived as long as it has, because all of these characters are characters who have lives.
Best signed off the interview by discussing Jar Jar and his role in impacting modern cinema, making a lot of good points about how technologically groundbreaking the character was at the time:
Being a part of Star Wars has been a dream come true since 1997 when I first was cast by George [Lucas]. Jar Jar changed movies, and I don’t think Jar Jar gets a lot credit for changing movies. But Jar Jar was the first CGI main character in movie history. There had been other CGI characters, but the evolution of the fact that you can star as a CGI character, and an actor in performance capture, was really George, was really Jar Jar and ILM and all of us, and it was a significant change in movies. To be a part of that is enormous for me.
Especially me coming from the South Bronx — this corny, artsy, nerdy, skinny kid, where Star Wars was the first movie I had ever seen in my life.
Now, coming back, being in The Mandalorian, part of me doesn’t want to let it go. In The Phantom Menace days, you had to let it go. It was just George doing it. Now, you can do it for a while. You can tell stories in Star Wars and have them be in multiple mediums. As a writer, as a director now, as a teacher now, there is so much more that I want to do that this universe is perfect for, that I don’t want this to be the end of legacy. I don’t want this to be the end of the story. I want this to be the beginning, and a new beginning. Especially through Kelleran Beq.
Hopefully, we’ll get to see Ahmed Best and Kelleran Beq again in the future.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
