‘Ahsoka’: Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ivanna Sakhno Discuss Their On-Set Chemistry, the Inspiration Behind Their Performances, and More
Last week, the official Star Wars Twitter account posted a little Ahsoka promo where they pretended like Eman Esfandi had taken over the account and started to post a bunch of pictures and videos from the Lucasfilm offices, with Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ivanna Sakhno, and Diana Lee Inosanto also present in the background. One of the big questions there was, of course, what are they all doing at the office? Was it perhaps a meeting about a potential season 2 announcement? However, this seemed a little optimistic, especially due to the absence of Rosario Dawson. Well, we finally found out what it was.
The actors were apparently called in to do an interview with StarWars.com now that the strikes are over and they are allowed to discuss it. The conversation with Sakhno and Liu Bordizzo was just published, and we’ve included snippets from it below; check it out in full here.
The “Shabine” Chemistry in Ahsoka
One of the big takeaways from the first season of Ahsoka on social media was the chemistry between these two actresses, which Sakhno says they developed from the moment they started training together:
“We got to know one another through working in the training facility with Ming [Qiu], our stunt coordinator, who taught both of us focus and dedication to the craft and to lightsaber combat. The experience of working with [Natasha] was just fun. There was a lot of laughter on set, definitely, and inside jokes.”
Liu Bordizzo added:
“Our characters run parallel through this whole show together, and clearly there’s been some fan response to the intensity that our characters have for each other. And we felt it while we were filming. There’s just something really special and magnetic. These characters are such a yin and yang at times. They’re both struggling on their journeys and they’re both these apprentices who cross paths in very interesting ways.”
Moreover, the two also attended a panel at the Los Angeles Comic-Con, which The Cosmic Circus covered on their website, where they talked more on this topic:
Natasha Liu Bordizzo: “I mean, so much left unsaid here. I think Shin and Sabine, as the fans have reacted to the, shall I call it chemistry? [audience cheers]. Yeah, we felt it filming, we were like, these characters have this crazy magnetic connection to each other, and sometimes not in the best way. But it was really special, and we felt it on set. It was just something that, Dave, I don’t even think he’s aware of what he’s created.”
Ivanna Sakhno: “He was aware. I think he was aware on set, he would just look at us, and we’re like, ‘Dave, do you see what you’re writing?’ And he’s like, ‘What are you talking about?'”
Natasha Liu Bordizzo: “No, I mean, I think that they’re such great opponents for so many reasons. And it’s interesting because it isn’t that feeling of like good versus evil or anything predictable like that, you know. Sabine’s got some darkness in her, and Shin has some other interesting elements in her, too.”
Preparing for the Roles
After getting the part, Natasha Liu Bordizzo told StarWars.com that she watched every Star Wars project in chronological order, including Star Wars: Rebels. However, she didn’t incorporate Tiya Sircar’s version of Sabine in her own portrayal, but rather used it as a distant memory of a past version of who she was. There is a lot of time between both stories, after all, and the journey the character goes through is very different:
“But then, of course, time’s passed and she’s been through a lot. I wanted them to be streamlined, but still separate in a way, and I wanted to just bring the truth of whatever the live action project brought on the day, every day on set. Her journey has changed since Rebels in Ahsoka… where she had to work her way back to being that free spirited kind of kid that we all loved.”
She also discussed working with Rosario Dawson, and how she found it complicated to film the scenes where Sabine has to act tough and disrespectful towards her former Jedi Master:
“Being disrespectful to her in the scenes is so hard. It was challenging to remember that they have come from a period of a lot of pain and heaviness that has to be worked out and that their Master-apprentice relationship is being tested. I just respect Rosario so much, and there’s times where Sabine can be a little disrespectful. But I think it’s all part of the journey. It’s beautiful to watch that arc happen over the show and where they end up.”
Ezra Has Been Found
Natasha Liu Bordizzo also explained how Eman Esfandi, who channels Ezra Bridger in his everyday life, was a big breath of fresh air by the time he got to set:
“He came in when we had already been filming for quite a few months, and he was like exactly what would happen if Ezra suddenly joined a group of somewhat tired people. [Eman] jumps in and is making jokes and playing rap music, and is this burst of fresh energy. He’s so Ezra.”
Esfandi himself discussed at LA Comic-Con how he found himself in a very similar place in life when he got the role to where Ezra was:
“As an actor approaching a role, when you’re questioning like, ‘Okay, so this is where they find me. So then, as I arrived here, what was I up to, what was I really doing?’ And some of that is answered in the sense that I joined this nomadic tribe of the Noti, and they give me that bada- I mean cool, cool pod. But interestingly enough, just as a parallel, I had been in a very meditative, sort of isolated space myself for the six months prior to a few months of learning about Ezra.
And so I was having this very, almost ‘alone on an island’ experience in my real life. Just like meditating, grounding, all that stuff, and then I come on to this character, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you’ve been stranded on this planet with this peaceful, nomadic tribe’. And I’m like, ‘Well, it just sounds like me hanging with my homies’, you know what I mean? Like, I think I’ve been doing that, and I can relate to that pretty easily. So I did.”
The Ahsoka Villains
Sakhno also discussed how she and the late Ray Stevenson approached the roles in the series, describing how Dave Filoni explained the background of their characters in Norse mythology:
“The first story in that book is called Far Away and Long Ago, and it speaks on two wolves, Hati and Skoll, chasing the sun and the moon. It has this perpetual cycle of chase that I think reflects the transient nature of life and the coexistence of opposing forces. And much like the tales of the galaxy far, far away, I think it reflects on some fundamental truth, which is: In every shadow there is light, and in every light there is shadow finding its quiet home.”
Sakhno also added that she based a lot of her performance on Vader:
“If I’m honest, specifically in those [dark] moments, I would channel Darth Vader. Not necessarily him as a character, but the darkness that he possesses, I would start breathing as he does before doing the take and trying to really reach the evil within me.”
She didn’t get into specifics about the official backstory for their characters, but
“We have yet to discover what their beginning was like and how Baylan came to know Shin, but I think they have a really meaningful relationship. I think there’s this dynamic of father-daughter. Sometimes I imagine when Shin was little and just kind of discovering the world. I think they have a very warm relationship and I think of them as a family, as much as I think of Ray Stevenson being a family to me.”
The Messages of Ahsoka
Both actresses also discussed the messages they think fans should learn from their character arcs — the overall themes of Ahsoka. For starters, Liu Bordizzo thinks her Sabine should tell people that you’re allowed to make mistakes and those who love you will still be there for you:
“I hope that people take from Sabine’s journey that you don’t have to live a perfect life and make no mistakes. You can be affected by what’s happened to you, and people will still be there for you. People can love you unconditionally, and you may not always make the best choices, or you might be going through a very hard time and be kind of difficult — button pushy. But there are people who’ll be there for you. And there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
Even though she played a villain, Sakhno hopes to have appealed to those who sometimes struggle to find kindness and goodwill within themselves:
“I think perhaps they can find themselves in [Shin] or certain aspects of themselves in her, and be reminded that life doesn’t come in absolutes. It’s very much that gray area of the good and the bad and all of the in-between. So perhaps those who sometimes struggle with it can find some kindness for themselves.”
Liu Bordizzo also said that she has no idea what’s next for Sabine, but she hopes “she continues to work well with Ahsoka and have this Master-apprentice relationship that they’ve been trying to have.”
No official announcement of a season 2 has been made yet.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
