Amandla Stenberg Talks About ‘The Acolyte’, Fighting Carrie-Ann Moss and Her Prequels Love
Amandla Stenberg has lifted the lid on The Acolyte, talking about her character Mae, what it was like fighting Carrie-Ann Moss, meeting Dave Filoni at Star Wars Celebration and her longstanding love of the prequel trilogy.
In another excellent interview with Empire Magazine, Amandla talked a bit about her fight with Carrie-Ann Moss and their relationship on-set.
Soooo cool. When I first found out about it, I damn near had a heart attack, because I love The Matrix. And my goodness, what a cool, strong character. It just felt incredible that I had the opportunity to learn from somebody in realtime, who had spent so much time in this industry in similar positions to me. She was an incredible source of inspiration – to be with her, and to know her, and be on set together… She’s also incredibly caring and so sweet. Low-key, she was mom. [laughs] I was having some pain in my knee, and she took me into the tent and started doing energy work on my body, talking through what was going on, and what tips she had in terms of how I could maintain carrying this show. She is just so cool. Like, ridiculously cool. And spiritually-aligned. It meant so much to me to have her wisdom.
She also spoke a little about Mae’s relationship with Master Indara, which she says is “definitely contentious” and “it’s not rainbows and butterflies”.
Empire pointed out that in the High Republic novels, much is made of how every Jedi sees the Force differently. They wondered if the “Force Fu” fight between Mae and Indara is influenced by that idea, and Amandla agreed.
Yeah, 100 per cent. It also speaks to the diversity of the galaxy – that there’s so many different kinds of people, creatures, species, Force users.
Amandla also went into detail about how she was pitched the role of Mae. She was surprised to learn they wrote the role for her.
The show was actually pitched to me in visual form. I had a meeting with Leslye and [Lucasfilm creative executive] Rayne Roberts. We sat down for some brunch, and they opened up this iPad with concept art that had been conceptualised – with me in it. Even at that point, details were being held from me, so I was extrapolating what I could based off off the images. But I understood that it was an exploration of the light and dark parts of ourselves, and the rules in the galaxy around how the Force can be used. Which was insane, to experience that.
It was so wild! That’s something I don’t think ever happens, ever. It was also my first taste of really understanding how Lucasfilm functions – it feels very familial. Obviously it was a massive honour, and shock. But it made me understand that this is the way they work with people – opening up their world, and collaborating, and placing their trust in people in this really beautiful way. Leslye is that way too, super collaborative.
So I got Leslye’s conceptual tagline that she’s been sharing, which is that it was a mixture of Frozen and Kill Bill. Which immediately sucker-punched me, because Kill Bill is one of my favourite movies. Going into filming, Leslye held a screening for the entire cast and crew of Kill Bill. And then I was told that it would be at the height of the High Republic era – which was so interesting to me, because I feel like the further back you go in Star Wars lore, the more fascinating it gets, and the more concepts people within Lucasfilm have started to dig into and explore. It creates a really rich, fascinating web.
She was then asked to reveal a bit more of Mae’s character, which she couldn’t get too deep into, but apparently Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was an important reference point for her. She then talked about Mae’s preference for knives as a weapon, which is uncommon for a Force user, but apparently setting The Acolyte in the past meant that they were able to get a bit more creative with her arsenal.
Well, being in the High Republic era opens up the terrain a bit for what kinds of weapons we might be interested in. The series relies upon very specific tropes and archetypes, and we wanted to follow in that lineage. So that’s why those knives are there. I also just think they’re super cool. It’s a time in the galaxy where the way people use the Force is… in canon, it’s very expansive. It doesn’t necessarily have the more rigid conceptions that it might have later in the Galactic Republic. So that provides us the opportunity to maybe explore the different way this character relates to the Force.
I can tell you about some of the references that were important to us – one of them was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I did about seven weeks of martial arts training with my master, [Junchang Lu], who is the sweetest master in the world. [laughs] Oh my goodness, he’s so adorable. Maybe you’re not supposed to say that about your master. But he’s so adorable. I love him so much.
When asked if Mae is aligned with the light side or dark side, Amandla sidestepped the question, clarifying that it was a bit more complicated than that. It seemed like we’re going to get some new perspectives on what it means to be on either side.
I think it’s a lot more complicated than that, which is the point of the show. Hopefully, if we did our job right, the show makes it an interesting interrogation into what it means to be on the light side or the dark side.
It’s been clear that Amandla Stenberg is a Star Wars fan ever since she rocked up to Star Wars Celebration cosplaying as Padmé Amidala. She told Empire that she grew up with the prequels and was a big Anakin fan in particular. Sadly she missed Hayden Christensen at Celebration, but she did get to meet Dave Filoni, who expressed his own excitement for The Acolyte.
It really started with the prequel series, because that’s the age range that I fall into. I have a soft spot for… somewhat vaporwave ‘90s content [laughs]. I also am a big Anakin fan. So it starts with the prequel series, watching those when I was younger with my older sister. Which is a controversial opinion, actually, my devotion to the prequels!
I didn’t get to meet Hayden. But I got to meet Dave Filoni, and I think I teared up a little bit [laughs]. He was like, ‘It’s so cool what you guys are doing over there! We’re so excited to bring you guys into the fold.’ And I was like, ‘You created The Clone Wars?!’
She revealed that she once took a nap in the Jedi Temple set on Coruscant, a special moment for her, and that she was generally thrilled by every set she performed on. It turns out, working in a Star Wars project is every bit as exciting for a Star Wars fan as we can imagine, for the crew as well as the cast.
It was the nap of my life. I pretty much freaked out every time I walked onto a new set. You see them on screen, and you fall in love with them, and being in person it’s kind of like… I don’t know, seeing a whale. You’re just struck with awe and majesty of the size and scope and beauty of it. So many people who work on Star Wars are huge Star Wars fans. It’s like a bunch of people’s childhood dreams coming true together, but mixed with this high-level detailed artisanship.
Amandla also said that her favorite set to be on was in Madeira, Portugal. She couldn’t say what planet it’s supposed to be, but that it was important in the hero’s journey (presumably her own character, not someone else’s).
We went to Madeira, Portugal, which was so stinking beautiful. My goodness. It was wild to be looking out across rock formations that were hundreds of feet tall in the middle of the ocean and think, ‘They’re gonna throw a ship on top of that rock!’
We’ll get to see Amandla Stenberg’s Mae fighting Carrie-Ann Moss’ Master Indara in 10 days when The Acolyte debuts on June 4.
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.
