StarWars.com take the opportunity to sit down with two of the stars of Ahsoka, Eman Esfandi and Diana Lee Inosanto, to discuss their characters and their fates in the latest hit seriers on Disney Plus. First, Diana looks at her journey with martial arts, a key component of her role as Morgan Elsbeth.
Lightsaber training
Inosanto’s love for Star Wars and its place on her journey as a martial artist dates back to the first film’s release. “Star Wars was one of those things that I got to bond with my dad [Dan Inosanto] about,” she says. As a child, Inosanto would travel with her father as he conducted international martial arts seminars. During a stop in Aspen, Colorado, the two saw A New Hope for the first time in theaters. “And it was incredible…that kind of energy was like a rock concert.” Her father was particularly enamored with the lightsaber combat. Months later, he returned home one day with two extendable plastic lightsabers. “He goes, ‘Come on, honey! Let’s work out.’ And so that’s how he was training me in martial arts.”
When Inosanto grew up and became a mother herself, she introduced her children to the galaxy. “My oldest son has autism and for whatever reason he really gravitated toward the whole Star Wars universe,” she says. “I loved sitting down and watching The Clone Wars and later on Rebels. They’re almost like modern-day Aesop’s Fables. There’s always some cool life lesson. And I think it’s even more amazing that, down the road when I would be asked to audition for Mandalorian, in the beginning, it was my son that I would read lines [with to prepare].”
Becoming Ezra
Fans and co-stars alike frequently comment on how much Esfandi is like his character in the series. To embody Ezra Bridger, the actor studied up as if Bridger and his family were real historical figures. “I did not watch Rebels ad nauseam because I didn’t want to get too much of the younger version of the character locked into my body,” he says. “But I watched key episodes that Dave recommended so I could understand the relationship between Ahsoka and Sabine and the rest of his crew. And I also researched Ezra like a public figure. I read all these articles… and then watched a ton of videos on YouTube about the Force, and interviews with George [Lucas] and interviews with Dave. I inundated myself with all things Star Wars to understand the tone and the idea of the show.”
