Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett and Manny Jacinto have been discussing their roles in 2024’s The Acolyte, and it would seem that blasters are not the primary weapon on show in this High Republic era adventure. While drawing inspiration from the classic battle between Maul, Kenobi and Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace, Charlie Barnett goes on to explain just how visceral the fights are.
“I will say too — not to shade’ but we have a lot more tangible physical moves than I saw in that fight,” says Barnett, who, like Keen, is playing a Jedi. “As badass as it is, there’s a lot more grounded work that goes into our stunt training and our stunt performances.”
For Barnett, that reliance on practical and physical work will come through on the screen. “We have an awesome stunt team. Doing so much without cables, without CGI, without a lot of effects — it makes the fight seem so much more visceral. Truly. I mean, I know I’ve been hit on the head a couple times.”
Keen also admits to being bonked on her noggin on multiple occasions. “All of the fight training that we’ve gone through is so heavily influenced by samurai.” Only this time, laser swords are subbing in for, you know, actual swords.
And that choice of lightsaber weaponry also appealed to Keen. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but I will just say it. There’s a lack of guns, which personally as someone who loves fighting and stunts and stuff, I love. Because it gives you that body-to-body choreography — that dance feeling. It actually looks like a real fight as opposed to just I point and I shoot, which is kind of an easy cop out in a way. We get a lot of that body-to-body.”
Of course, the less you use blasters, the more you must rely on fight training and choreography, both with and without lightsabers. “We have a lot of the sabers,” says Keen. “And Chris Cowan and Mark Ginther and Daren Nop have choreographed all of these wonderful, wonderful stunts in such a beautiful way — it’s visually stunning. We watched some stuff the other day and it was just gorgeous. And then we have a bunch of fights as well where there are no sabers where it’s just full on. It’s also really fun and does look really gritty and real. It feels like a fight.”
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Soule, Charles (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 31 Pages - 08/02/2023 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)
