Dragon Con Q&A With 'Star Wars' Guests From 'Ahsoka,' 'The Mandalorian,' 'The Book Of Boba Fett,' And 'The Acolyte’
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While at Dragon Con, Star Wars panels are a must! It’s a delight for the fans and a wonderful way to connect with the actors starring in the franchise. The Star Wars guests, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Giancarlo Esposito, Danny Trejo, and Manny Jacinto, bonded over joining Star Wars recently, gave advice to those wanting to get into acting, and enjoyed a lot of laughs.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo plays Sabine Wren in Ahsoka and got her start in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny in 2016. Earlier this month, she revealed that Ahsoka has been renewed for a second season. When asked about her favorite scene during production on Ahsoka, Bordizzo excitedly shared that she’ll always love the experience she had battling with Shin Hati (played by Ivanna Sakhno). “It was the first time I held a saber. We filmed for three nights in a row [with] lots of coffee,” she laughed, “It was like a sleepover with sabers.”
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Giancarlo Esposito joined the Star Wars franchise as the villainous Moff Gideon in The Mandalorian. Acting in numerous movies and shows like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Once Upon a Time, Esposito is also a well-known producer and director. He was also the only guest in this session that had appeared at Dragon Con previously.
Danny Trejo has acted in hundreds of movies including Machete, Spy Kids, and From Dusk Till Dawn, recently joining the Star Wars universe as a Rancor Keeper in The Book of Boba Fett. Trejo discussed how he really doesn’t mind being typecast as the bad guy. The only two times that came to his mind as playing “good guys” were his role in the Spy Kids movies as Machete, uncle to characters Juni and Carmen, and in the animated movie, Storks, playing Jasper.
Manny Jacinto starred in The Acolyte earlier this year, though he got his start with The Good Place almost ten years ago. He was thrilled to be cast in The Acolyte, calling it “the role of a lifetime.” Just last month, it was announced that The Acolyte would not continue for a second season.
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The Panelists On Their Favorite Moments Filming 'Star Wars'
Bordizzo commented that one of her most memorable scenes as Sabine was using a saber and a blaster at the same time. She also really enjoyed training in martial arts again for the role. Esposito really enjoyed his time on set with Gina Carano (Cara Dune) and Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan Kryze), but certainly took a liking to his time with little Grogu as well.
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Jacinto’s favorite moment on The Acolyte set was “the scene where he gets first introduced in the mask…when he floats down from the cliff and creeps his way over to Osha. We actually filmed that in reverse to give a feeling of something that just was disturbing. We wanted it to feel very uncanny. That was my intro…and I’ll remember [that] for a really long time.”
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Filming The Mandalorian was such a positive experience for Esposito, having the freedom “to be unjaded, to be a child again, to have fun…I love that because it allows me to be bigger than I normally would think to be in my life.” He also explained how Star Wars has been different from other roles he’s portrayed: “You know you’re entering a franchise that’s bigger than you are…All of those big cultural movements that we go through in our own lives are reflected in this world. So you want to do it justice and you want to be able to extend that mythological charm of these stories.”
Esposito felt a strong connection to Moff Gideon and knew how to read between the lines in the script. During one critical moment of production at the end of season three of The Mandalorian, he halted everything happening on set to talk with writers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni about a scripted line. He recalled some of their conversation: “[By the end of] 45 minutes, we start talking about a sequel for Moff Gideon…Dave says, ‘wouldn’t it be a great idea if we had Moff Gideon leave and come back and be somebody else,’ and [Jon] says, ‘no, he’s Moff Gideon!’...‘It’s going to be great and we’ll think about a sequel.’” Esposito was later asked how he would like to see Moff Gideon’s character continue, and he replied, “I want to live! There was a f*cking clone. Make it true! So mote it be!”
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Trejo And Esposito Describe Special Effects On Set
Star Wars has always been on the forefront of high-end special effects, in Trejo’s words, what is becoming “the future of movie making.” He also talked about virtual sets with LED walls, or as he puts it, “a green screen that was actually alive.” Industrial Light & Magic made revolutionary strides in virtual production on set for season two with their new platform Helios, a cinematic render engine used for creating, designing, and altering visual special effects in real time.
Esposito added to Trejo’s response: “You’re in a room that’s three times as large as this and the ceiling is three times as tall…The whole ceiling starts to move. It’s not CGI, it’s right in the room. The whole ceiling curves, the horizon curves, your whole equilibrium is really weird…it changes your perspective on what you’re doing within the space.”
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Both Esposito and Trejo talked in depth about the ingenious puppetry and mechanics behind Grogu on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Many of Moff Gideon's lines while he was holding both the Darksaber and Grogu were improvised by Esposito. “I was talking to this puppet and he was moving his ears,” he recalled for the audience, “He was reaching out for the Darksaber and I said, ‘Oh no, no, no, no. You’re liable to [put an eye out].’”
Trejo was astonished with the technological advances seen in Grogu, “the star of the show,” especially how he winks and breathes. In the Q&A session, he talked about getting to meet Grogu: “First they told me, ‘This cost two million dollars, wanna hold it?’ I said, ‘Hell no!’ But it was unbelievable.” He even compared the experience to filming his cameos with The Muppets, saying that you just want to interact with Kermit like he’s any other actor. Esposito had similar feelings about his scenes with Grogu, saying, “I felt like I can talk to this little puppet like it’s a child. That, to me, was very freeing because it was probably one of the moments where you see Moff getting a little bit lighter.”
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Consulting Jacinto And Esposito About Acting And Creative Art
The panelists were prompted to give their advice for aspiring actors. The first piece of advice came from Jacinto, “Don’t do it,” which was then echoed by Esposito, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it, unless you really have to.” Later on, Jacinto shared an anecdote about auditioning for The Good Place and not impressing anyone until he reauditioned a week later: “You really make up your own experiences. You learn from your mistakes.” He wants to push anyone getting into acting to give it their all and to try everything, reminding the audience, “Don’t take those ‘no’s, because those ‘no’s can turn into ‘yes’es.”
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Esposito gave heartfelt advice for actors, dancers, singers, and all of the creative artists: “Whatever you pursue and you fall in love with, and no matter what level you do it on, if you are a creative artist, it’s hard not to do it. So you should just do it. I think life is a creative process that unfolds for us if we follow our dreams…You’ll know if that’s your life…that’s what you’re supposed to be doing.” He reminded the audience that success doesn’t have to mean making a huge amount of money: “The judgment on what success is… Success is happiness.” It’ll take some time to feel successful, “Fake the funk until you’ve got it, baby.”
Trejo And Esposito Talk About What’s Next For 'Star Wars'
The guests were very positive about the future of the Star Wars franchise, with all of them wanting to return whenever possible. Trejo mentioned that Boba Fett has his rancor now, so there’s definitely an opportunity for him to return in his last role. Esposito said that he has the feeling that there is plenty more to come, conceptualizing that, “as in the MCU…Disney will figure out how to join all of these characters into one really great movie or TV show. That’s my sense of where it will go…Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau have a new vision, continuing on with a Mandalorian movie…My sense is that it’s all going to converge at one point or another and we’re going to have another set of… [a] trilogy, or more, of films.”
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As the hour came to an end, fans left with big grins and plenty to chat about. This Dragon Con Q&A was full of inspiring quotes and hilarious moments, leaving all of us in the audience wanting to watch our favorite Star Wars shows again and again. Getting to join these stars at Dragon Con was an absolute delight and this panel proved once more why Star Wars continues to capture imaginations across the universe. We highly recommend going to any convention with these stellar guests!
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