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Amandla Stenberg is entering the “Star Wars” universe with “The Acolyte.”
“Extra” sat down with Stenberg and showrunner Leslye Headland to talk about the show, which is about a former Padawan (Amandla) who reunites with her Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) to investigate a shocking crime spree.
Leslye promised that fans will “feel the familiarity” of “Star Wars” but teased new twists and turns!
She commented, “My hope is that it is giving you the same feelings of warmth and love and excitement that I felt when I was first introduced to ‘Star Wars.’ I hope it’s also fulfilling some new pieces of action, plot turns, character twists, creatures, droids — just all of the things that you are used to seeing but possibly have not seen… We show you a new take on all of those things.”
Leslye added, “I think you can expect a lot of action, a lot of intrigue, but I think at the core of this show are the performances, specifically from Amandla.”
Amandla spoke about preparing for all the action, sharing that they started training six weeks before filming.
“A lot of it is me throughout the show,” Amandla said, laughing, “I get a lot better actually throughout the show.”
They shared, “I got really obsessed with, like, my technical ability, you know, and sometimes I overtrained. I was brought to set six weeks before we started filming and that’s when I got in with my master Junchang Lu and he started training me basics. You know, I had a cross taped to a cardboard box and I would just take my knife and I would trace the cross over and over again, and then once I graduated from that, then I was learning how to throw punches.”
Amandla continued, “I was learning how to, like, have a proper stance, where to place my weight in my body. Then once I had really just, for a few weeks, we had really just been drilled on all the basics then we started introducing stunt choreography and it really became one of my favorite things to do. I love it so much. It’s so much fun. It’s like dance, but it has this power behind it. It’s incredibly creative but also, like, menacing. It’s really cool.
“What I really learned was just to trust my intuition, and thankfully I got fast enough by the end that I could learn things very intuitively and quickly so we could keep pushing with the shooting schedule.”
Amandla reacted to hearing that Leslye always knew she wanted them for the part.
“I’ve known that because when Leslye and I had our first meeting together, she showed me concept art, and in that concept art was my face,” Amandla recalled. “I remember looking at that, like, just blinking, wondering if I blinked if it was gonna go away. It was just this vision of, like, the sweeping landscapes of ‘Star Wars’ and the costume design with my face in it.”
They shared, “I guess the way that I felt when I saw that is the same way I feel now — it’s hard for me to wrap my head around… It’s incompehensable to me. It fills me with awe and wonder. It kind of feels like how I feel when I’m standing on top of a big mountain looking at something beautiful and expansive.”
Amandla also opened up about showing off their violin skills in a featurette for the series, playing the “Star Wars” theme on their grandfather’s instrument.
They said, “I’ve attempted to play other violins and then it just doesn’t feel right… It feels like I have my grandfather with me, and it feels like a guardian angel. So to be able to have that with me in that moment, where, like, I have this incredible honor and privilege of playing the theme to ‘Star Wars’ as I’m brought into the family, it was really beautiful.”
“The Acolyte” premieres June 4 on Disney+.