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 Children; 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 screen in Ahsoka, they maintain drawing on that lengthy friendship.
In truth, it’s their shared historical past—and the film awards-show pictures 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 pictures 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 mentioned in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “And that was truly one of many pictures that Dave noticed when he first imagined probably 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 might have ever imagined this? You’ll be able to’t make these items up. You’ll be able to’t write it.”
As Dawson suggests, she and Christensen are conscious of what Star Wars followers hope for (and typically, 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 illustration; 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 a long time for the reason that prequels hit theaters in 1999, 2002, and 2005, with the goodwill now so effusive that Christensen just lately reprised his character in Disney+ sequence Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka.
“My expertise with Star Wars has all the time been a optimistic one,” Christensen advised THR. “The critics actually took their purpose at these movies through the prequel days, however I all the time 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 likewise benefit from the reception that these movies have now.”
Added Dawson, “I prefer to say that [Hayden’s] acquired the excessive floor now”—referencing, in fact, Anakin’s climactic brawl with Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith. When requested what recommendation he’d give to the actors getting into the realm of Star Wars for the primary time as a part of new Disney+ sequence 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 novel expertise,” he mentioned. “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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