It took about 240 hours of training to turn “The Acolyte” actress like Danfe Keen into a certified Jedi master. That meant 240 hours of lightsaber practice, force training, stunt work and movement coaching from a dedicated team of instructors at Lucasfilm. But according to Keen, the most “surreal” part of her regiment was the “force meetings,” where every force user in “The Acolyte” would sit in a quiet room and discuss the mysterious space magic with an expert “Star Wars” advisor.
“You ask questions about the force to this all-knowing man called Pablo [Hidlago], who has been working at Lucasfilm for decades,” Keen explained Thursday at “The Acolyte” premiere in Los Angeles. “And anytime you had a doubt, you’d be like, ‘I need to talk to Pablo.'”
Although Hidalgo was absent, Keen and the rest of her Jedi trainees celebrated the release of Disney’s newest Star Wars saga “The Acolyte” at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood Thursday night.
Popular on PvNew
“The Acolyte” is set in the “High Republic Era.” The series follows Jedi master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) as he tracks down a deadly force-wielding assassin known as the Acolyte (Amandla Stenberg). Joining the rank of Jedi with Jung-jae is Charlie Barnett, who made sure to find time for fun among all the rigorous preparation. He said that he and his co-stars played Jedi off-set with their prop lightsabers “all day, every day.”
“You know, there are some walls that got dented I’m not going to lie,” Barnett joked.
When it came to Stenberg’s training, she was thankful to have action superstar Carrie-Anne Moss as a mentor. The first scene in “The Acolyte” features a fight between the pair, and according to Stenberg, she learned a lot “just from observing her.”
“I get really hyper-fixated on technical ability and demonstrating the moves perfectly, but what I learned from her… is it’s just about how you interpret [the movement] as that character,” Stenberg said. “She also is a really spiritual, grounded individual. She always shared with me that you can’t do the work if you don’t first take care of yourself and feel grounded in yourself as a person.”
“The Acolyte” premieres on Disney+ June 4.
