Last weeks 5th episode of The Acolyte absolutely lit a fire under Star Wars fandom, igniting conversation regarding the fate of Yord and Jecki, the motivation of Sol and so many other topics, but nothing got people talking more than the destructive turn of Qimir from an awkward former smuggler into the most terrifying, ruthless villain seen for a long time. Manny Jacinto, the actor behind Qimir and The Stranger discusses this duality with StarWars.com.
“Honestly, I joke that I don’t know if I’d be able to top this role ever, and maybe I should retire. It is a dream role for any actor to be able to tackle because of the complexities of [the Stranger and his alias]. You get to just show a spectrum of different personality traits and characteristics. It was such a fulfilling thing to do.
“When we first met, Leslye and I talked about how you approach a lower status character and then convert him into this complete badass. That was the problem from the jump. What appealed to me about The Acolyte, this whole story and the character of Qimir and his shift into what we call the Stranger, is that everything was a huge challenge. And I just love a good challenge. I love being able to build characters that we’ve never seen before from the ground up.”
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“How does one get seduced by the dark side? I was very intrigued by that, when [Headland] mentioned that, it’s such an interesting concept. Because with seduction, you have empathy and vulnerability. And that was really appealing to me because we never really see that in the Sith or in the dark side. It was a lot to explore.”
We’ll find out more in the next 24 hours when the sixth episode of The Acolyte lands on Disney Plus.
