Eman Esfandi on Working With Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Manifesting His Ezra Casting, and What He Expects From His ‘Star Wars’ Future
Last year’s Ahsoka Disney Plus series not only saw the return of Rosario Dawson to the role she first played in The Mandalorian season 2, but also the live-action introduction of many characters from Star Wars: Rebels. One of the big ones was, of course, Ezra Bridger, played by Eman Esfandi.
The Hollywood Reporter recently sat down with the actor, and covered in an interview the entirety of Esfandi’s experience with the saga so far, from his audition process to his ideal scenario for how his time as Ezra plays out. We have included the main snippets from it here.
The interview begins with Esfandi detailing how he landed the part of Ezra. He compared his experience to that of his co-star Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who played Sabine Wren in Ahsoka. As it turns out, both of them had to play the same scene from Top Gun for their audition tapes:
“It was actually the exact same scene that Natasha had. It was the same scene from Top Gun, but I had never seen Top Gun, so I didn’t know what the scene was from at the time. I just knew they were dummy sides.”
Once Ahsoka was announced, it was widely expected that many characters like Ezra who first appeared in animated form would be introduced in live-action. That expectation wasn’t lost on Esfandi, and he started making his interest in the part known well before casting began:
“I emailed my agent and manager six months prior to my audition and was like, ‘Hey, when they cast for Ezra Bridger, I’m going to play him. So use these pictures.’ And then, six months later, they were like, ‘Hey, we think this [audition] is the [Ezra] role.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, this is him. Cool.’
The anonymous sides tracked with Disney, so did the character description, and then the character’s name was Riz. I was like, ‘Okay, they’re probably looking for someone who looks like Riz [Ahmed].’ So we were all pretty sure that it was him. We were like, ‘Yeah, that’s got to be Ezra.'”
Whenever an animation character gets to jump to live-action, there’s always the question of how closely the new incarnation will resemble their original version. Some actors who have brought these characters to life in live-action productions have chosen to watch the animated series their character debuted in while others have chosen not to do so. Esfandi falls into the latter category, as he didn’t want his performance to become an imitation of the character as he was portrayed in Rebels:
“I treated Ezra [as a public figure I was playing in a biopic]. I read about his family, his parents, his upbringing and his master. So I read everything about Ezra and watched other surrounding, adjacent things.
“I just didn’t want to watch actual young Ezra, because I didn’t want the voice to get too locked into my head and throat. I didn’t want to be too hokey about trying to copy a certain physicality and mannerisms that are technically from an animated show.”
However, Esfandi wasn’t just concerned with avoiding impressions of the animated version of Ezra. He also hesitated at first to show too much of the character’s sense of humor, as he worried his portrayal could reinforce racial stereotypes that have been all too common in Hollywood productions. Over time, though, that fear faded away:
“Ezra’s levity was really charming, but I shied away from being silly and goofy at first because there’s a stigma. […] But Ezra is super silly and goofy, and it was so light and charming. It’s a hopeful energy that he has, and it relieved all of that from me. I was like, ‘Oh, no, I can totally let that side out, and it will be really fun.’ So it’s much more fun to be light and optimistic and carefree, and I’d say that was the most enjoyable thing about Ezra that was actable. It’s opened that up in my own existence, which has been really nice.”
Ahsoka’s first season featured some rather memorable scenes and moments, particularly in its sixth episode, which featured the live-action introduction of both Ezra and Grand Admiral Thrawn. That episode ended with Sabine and Ezra finally reuniting after years apart. As Esfandi tells it, the scene came together quickly and naturally for him and Bordizzo:
“We got together with Dave and Jennifer [Getzinger], the director, to run through the scene and see what the chemistry would be like. But as soon as we got together for the rehearsal, both Dave and Jennifer joked, ‘Okay, you don’t even have to practice this. You two already have the chemistry of these characters, and we’re just going to let you guys do it.’ So Natasha and I were like, ‘Great!’ […] There’d also been a lack of communication between Ezra and Sabine anyway.”
He also added that, even though the directive up until his arrival on set was not to improvise, that changed when Ezra came into play, as he was given free range to go on his own for a few takes on his first day, which meant the final version was pretty “loose and free.”
As viewers will remember, Ezra and Sabine had a lot of catching up to do once they were reunited. However, Sabine didn’t tell her long-lost friend all the details of what she did to find him. Esfandi already has an idea of how the character will respond to the news when he’s eventually told:
“I think he’ll forgive her. He’ll understand what it would’ve felt like to be in her position, especially after hearing about her family on Mandalore and how everyone that she cared for was gone. So I think it’ll resonate. He was a kid all on his own for a really long time until he was found. He did stuff that he doesn’t necessarily regret, but wishes he hadn’t done. He followed the dark side of the Force. He went with Darth Maul and opened a Sith holocron at a Sith temple.
He did a lot of things to try to help and to try to get things for his family and the people he loved and the planet he loved. So he’s not a stranger to following your intuition in a way that maybe isn’t for the best, but feels most satisfying.
And either way, I’m sure he’ll also have some sort of feeling that it all played out the way it was meant to play out. So, even though her actions seem counterintuitive and work against everything Ezra sacrificed himself for, he has such a good connection to the Force that he would understand it was meant to be.”
Speaking of future plans, Ahsoka hasn’t yet been officially renewed for a second season. That said, it’s obvious that the story of Ezra, Sabine, Ahsoka, and the other major characters from the show will continue in some form. Given the way that Ahsoka‘s final (for the moment) episode ended, Ezra will have plenty more live-action adventures in the coming years. Esfandi is ready to give viewers more of his interpretation of the character, but he also doesn’t want Ezra’s story to continue without a clear purpose:
“Including a potential season two and the film, I think I’ll be very involved. From everything I’ve learned about Star Wars and what’s canon at the moment and the way Dave and everyone seems to be writing and moving forward, I think Ezra plays a very pivotal role, which is exciting. As a human, you’re like, ‘I get to act! I get to do the thing that I like. I’ll have a job,’ but story-wise, it feels correct. It feels like, ‘Yeah, they should use him. He’d be a really good person to use for this or for that.’
“After [the announced movie and a potential Ahsoka season two], I actually don’t know. If I do a second season, I’ll be happy. If we also do a movie, I’ll be so happy, and I would never need more than that. I’m like Harrison Ford in that way where I don’t need Ezra’s story to just live forever.”
Only time will tell when and how the story that started in Rebels and Ahsoka will continue, but at least Esfandi is eager to continue in the role. We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, there’s plenty of Star Wars goodness headed our way in 2024.
You can head over to The Hollywood Reporter for the full interview with Eman Esfandi.
Eric has been a fan of Star Wars ever since the age of five (or so) when his parents sat him down in front of a TV with pizza and a Sprite and showed him the original trilogy. He keeps trying to convince more fans to read the amazing 1980s Star Wars newspaper comics by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson. When he's not reading, watching or playing Star Wars media, he's often enjoying other great fantasy and science fiction sagas or playing roleplaying games with his friends.
