Sometimes, you just know, and that very much seemed to be the case when the role of Ezra Bridger – leaping from animation to the three-dimensional flesh and blood world of the Mandoverse in season one of Ahsoka – became available and actor Eman Esfandi put it out into the universe that he was going to play him. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, he explained how that all came to be.
THR: Was your performance on tape remotely similar to Ezra? Can you see, in hindsight, what they saw?
EA: For sure, and I knew I was auditioning for Ezra. I was just like, “Okay, this is Ezra.” I only did one take for each of the scenes, and it just felt right. It felt natural. It felt like Ezra was really there, and I sent it in feeling pretty confident about them seeing Ezra right away. And they did.
THR: Natasha didn’t know she was auditioning for Sabine, so did you literally know you were auditioning for Ezra? Or did you just have a strong hunch?
EA: Technically, it was a hunch, but I treat my hunches as literally knowing things. I emailed my agent and manager six months prior to my audition and was like, “Hey, when they cast for Ezra Bridger, I’m going to play him. So use these pictures.” And then, six months later, they were like, “Hey, we think this [audition] is the [Ezra] role.” And I was like, “Oh, this is him. Cool.” The anonymous sides tracked with Disney, so did the character description, and then the character’s name was Riz. I was like, “Okay, they’re probably looking for someone who looks like Riz [Ahmed].” So we were all pretty sure that it was him. We were like, “Yeah, that’s got to be Ezra.”
- Hardcover Book
- English (Publication Language)
- 144 Pages - 03/05/2024 (Publication Date) - Titan Comics (Publisher)
