The Acolyte’s Dafne Keen Got to Raise the Stakes

Spoilers forward for episode 5 of The Acolyte.

The Acolyte is racking up fairly the system depend. The newest Star Wars collection, made by Leslye Headland, started with the loss of life of Carrie-Anne Moss’s Jedi grasp, and in subsequent episodes Jedi have been dropping like mere stormtroopers. And nonetheless final week’s fifth episode, which saw the fatalities of not one but two big people — together with the most effective Padawan of the Superior Republic era — nevertheless arrived as a surprise.

Dafne Keen, who broke out enjoying a young clone of Wolverine in 2017’s Logan, traded her claws for a lightsaber to participate in The Acolyte’s Jecki Lon, Padawan to Jedi Learn Sol (Squid Recreation’s Lee Jung-jae). Though making an attempt to avoid the murder of a further Jedi master, Jecki and Sol come encounter-to-experience with a terrifying masked Sith Lord, whose id Jecki manages to expose following an rigorous duel with this a great deal a lot more seasoned warrior. But then Qimir (Manny Jacinto) pulls out a next lightsaber and kills the youthful Padawan, and soon just after he kills another young Jedi knight, Charlie Barnett’s Yord. It is a stunning minute that Eager says speaks to the central rigidity of The Acolyte: Jecki experienced so considerably probable, and it all disappeared in the flash of a red lightsaber.

Seeing you participating in a different badass lady with spiky areas felt quite normal. Did you see parallels involving X-23 and Jecki?
I normally love taking part in the trope of cub and lonely older gentleman. That is a pleasurable detail to play, particularly when you do the job with such proficient actors like Lee Jung-jae and Hugh Jackman. They are these kinds of distinctive characters, but you can come across their humanity. They’re both of those pretty much orphaned.

You mention their humanity — did you feel alien in the costume and all the make-up?
It was incredibly odd. I did not really experience like an alien I felt pretty a lot like myself till I would see playback and then I would appear entirely unique. It was appealing to determine out how to act with a absolutely new facial area.

Wookieepedia suggests Jecki is 50 percent-human. How significantly of her backstory and origin did you know? Was it created out for you as reference product, or did you concoct your very own?
It was pretty significantly established by Leslye and then she gave me a great deal of freedom to build more backstory. We talked about it a large amount. Jecki was a extremely gifted Jedi who went into the Get at 2 or 3 yrs aged — actually youthful — and was a standout in her lessons. Sol, who is genuinely picky with his Padawans, picked her simply because she reminded him of Osha, due to the fact they have been each prodigies. I hope you can see that in the preventing in the fifth episode, because it is unusual for a Padawan to be that gifted in overcome and we required to display that via that extraordinary fight scene.

We devised that she experimented with to develop into a Jedi knight at the similar time as Yord and acquired told that it was arrogant to believe that she could make knight that young — but that she did have the talent to do it. That was a little bit of the dynamic with Yord: that they’d performed the trials with each other, and he’d been executing them for a long time, and this 18-12 months-aged did it with him.

That speaks to some of the lousy-religion criticism of this clearly show. Not that you ought to be in a place to refute all of it, but one line I’ve seen has been individuals complaining that a Padawan can go toe-to-toe with a Sith Lord. I wasn’t bothered by that at all — Obi-Wan was a Padawan when he beat Darth Maul, and Jecki in the end does get rid of and die. You look to be presenting even much more of an rationalization, in that she was not just any Padawan. 
It is pretty amusing for me to see that simply because you see Anakin being very proficient you see Obi-Wan becoming exceptionally gifted you see Ahsoka remaining extremely talented. In Star Wars record, we’ve witnessed it so many instances. The position of what we have been striving to get throughout in that fight was how significantly probable she had as a Jedi and as a fighter. The purpose why she was not a knight was because she lacked experience, and a additional skilled Jedi would’ve identified that a Sith performs soiled and a Sith will pull out a dagger which is concealed in his saber. She would not have expected that for the reason that she was very superior at combat within just a schooling circuit, not in precise battle with an precise Sith.

Did you enjoy her as a child, or an grownup with her own agency? Because the character of the Jedi — specifically the ethics of the Padawan program — is a massive aim of the demonstrate. Sol sends her into battle but is stunned when she’s killed for the reason that she’s “just a youngster.”
I performed her as my very own age, which is very confusing for the reason that legally Jecki would be an adult. I was 18 when I was actively playing her we all imagined her to be the same age as me. But it’s these an arbitrary factor to say 1 day you are a youngster and the upcoming day you are an adult. I assume which is what Sol intended by that. She hadn’t had a great deal of existence encounter exterior of the Jedi temple. Specifically for a person as grown-up as Sol is, 18 a long time outdated is a kid. And to Qimir, she was a baby. It’s a lot more the sentimentality of how brutal it is to murder an 18-12 months-old, in particular to an individual who has lived a life and experienced more activities.

You claimed in one more job interview that you’d played Jecki as even though she had a crush on Osha. Can you elaborate on that? Is some section of that coming from Jecki conference a peer outside the house of the Jedi Buy for the 1st time?
It was so exciting to enjoy that due to the fact of how different that marriage could have been. Jecki could have been jealous of Osha and felt threatened by her, but in its place she was fascinated by an individual so equivalent to her. Another person who was Sol’s Padawan, somebody who was seriously talented like she was and who resolved to leave — that is entirely new to her. Jecki has lived in the Jedi temple and has not experienced exterior actual-existence activities. She did not have a family members since she remaining at, like, 3, so she does not have Osha’s activities with her sister and her mothers. She finds Osha so fascinating, and she’s kind of in awe of her. She’s just figuring out what she feels for Osha, and I performed that as obtaining a crush on her. It arrives generally out of fascination and that confusion that comes when you like an individual, in particular when you’re queer: I don’t know if this is a friend or if I’m into them. Then add the layer of her owning also been Sol’s Padawan: Am I jealous of her? Do I want to be like her? Do I want to date her? Jecki’s by no means knowledgeable any attraction to anybody in advance of, so she does not know how this works. It felt like an innocent tiny crush.

Yord’s demise was a actual surprise due to the fact I considered it would just be you, not two important-character deaths in rapid succession. How did you and Charlie really feel about your character fatalities coming 1 ideal after the other? 
We have been so thrilled about dying. It’s so uncommon to find a director and writer who will go there. So lots of people currently will not eliminate their figures — or will eliminate them and bring them back to life and be really cheeky about it. It is so bold of Leslye to have designed these wonderful, total figures that she then just kills off. It feels so serious — unfair, sudden. It raises the stakes. And you want stakes. You want hazard in one thing like Star Wars. It is not “Look how terrifying this terrible man is, but he’s not heading to get rid of any person.” It is substantially more terrifying and outstanding if the undesirable male does kill all people in just the initially episode of assembly him. And also, on an ego amount, it was just seriously pleasurable to enjoy a awesome character who goes out in type.

Do you assume Osha was completely wrong to quit Sol from killing an unarmed Qimir when he had the prospect, even if it was towards the Jedi code? 
You never want to go to his level. It is fantastic to take the large street. No matter if that in the extended operate is terrible for the tale or great for the story, I’ll permit the viewers make a decision. But morally I agree with not killing an individual who has killed, for the reason that then you are a killer, too.

I could not support but observe that Sol just leaves your system guiding. Was that truly you on set enjoying lifeless for that, and how did you really feel about Jecki and Yord just becoming still left out to rot?
It was me and Charlie participating in useless. We experienced a complete working day of just lying on the floor, which was actually humorous. It is savage that Sol still left us, but it’s this kind of a moment of adrenaline wherever he’s not considering about people kinds of matters. He experienced these types of even larger fish to fry. Also, to the Jedi, people today are electrical power, and he is aware that Jecki and Yord are a person with the Force now, so their bodies are the the very least of his worries.

How do you seem at Jecki’s story? Is it a tragedy, in that her daily life was reduce down so swiftly? Was she an perfect Jedi and this is what Jedi are meant to be?
It’s definitely a tragedy, specifically simply because of how younger she was. That exchange that Sol and Qimir have exactly where he states, “She was a boy or girl,” and he states, “You introduced her right here,” form of explains every little thing you want to know. Jecki’s death is totally symbolic and moves the tale so far ahead. It gives the figures commitment to retain preventing, and so does Yord’s loss of life.

And in a definitely wonderful way, Jecki dies as a Jedi knight. She created it to knight. She was on a mission she died combating a noble lead to, fighting a Sith. She was executing genuinely perfectly, he cheated, and she took the loss of life with no anger and with grace. As she claims herself, it is always a beautiful detail to enjoy just about anything or anyone turn into 1 with the Force. She had that occur to her.

Did you get to decide on the lightsaber coloration for her? What would you decide on?
No, person, we all acquired supplied our hues. We all asked for colours, and no just one listened to us. I imagine anyone would say they want purple, but I beloved the green, like Jecki experienced. It feels correct with my electrical power and feels right with Jecki’s electrical power. But I would like to have two sabers, for absolutely sure.