The second of the intimate panels held over the Invasion weekend came at 1pm with the arrival of Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
For this panel, Starfury founder Sean Harry kicked things off with a brief conversation with Mary covering the breadth of her career. After this brought us to the present day, it was back once again for the audience to ask their questions to Mary in a very relaxed fashion.
Below are all the things covered in a galaxy far, far away.
Mary kicked things off by saying that Star Wars had always been a part of her life and she grew up with the original films in her household from childhood. It was her love of Princess Leia that really got her into saga. Mary explained how she connected with the character straight away and felt the spirit of Leia from a young age. She described Star Wars as an “omnipresent force” in her household.
Going into the Ahsoka series, Mary told us that by Hera having a connection to Leia in the story is something that was incredibly emotional for her.
When it came to preparation for Ahsoka, Mary admitted that she didn’t have enough time to go back and watch every episode of Rebels – she is the mother of a toddler after all – however, she did watch the most pivotal episodes that Dave Filoni recommended and made it a top priority to view these. She then went into detail of the tragic relationship between Kanan and Hera and bringing that element of Hera’s past into the show. Mary also went to detail about keeping her version of Hera separate to that of Vanessa Marshall’s portrayal. She was aware of the French accent that sometimes-accompanied Hera in Rebels but left it down to Dave Filoni and his instructions.
To the surprise and delight of many fans in the crowd, Mary also informed us of her viewings of The Bad Batch and how incredibly important these episodes featuring Hera were in her prep.
Someone asked what her favourite moments of portraying this character were and Mary instinctively answered that she loved the parenting moments the most with Jacen. Being a new mother at the time of shooting, she felt the connection to this storyline and really worked hard as an actor to make this element of her character the emotional epicentre.
Another question fielded from the crowd was that we haven’t yet seen live-action Hera in action and while that hopefully is to come, Mary went on to detail that her favourite fight of Star Wars thus far was the rematch between Obi-Wan and Anakin in the finale of the Kenobi series due to the emotional stakes.
When it came to the more philosophical questions surrounding that of being in Star Wars, Mary explained that it’s “pure joy to be surrounded by the fantastical everyday at work” and the make-up team worked hard to streamline the eye lenses and lekku in the make-up department.
When it came to my question for Mary, I had to bring up the fabulous scene involving C-3PO. Mary explained that all rehearsals were done with Anthony NOT in his costume. When the time came to shoot the scene, everyone got “chills” as C-3PO entered and emotions ran high. All involved in that scene with C-3PO knew that they were involved in something special and no one took it for granted. Mary once again, proving her point, brought up how this emotional scene made her feel as it highlighted her character’s connection to Princess Leia. I explained to Mary a connection she might not have known. Her husband, Ewan McGregor, had a similar moment back in 2003 shooting Revenge of the Sith. For the prequels, 3PO didn’t get to shine until Episode III as for the previous two instalments he’d been naked with wires and then looking a tad rusty in Episode II. On the Episode III DVD extras, there’s footage of Ewan talking about how acting opposite Anthony in full, shiny gold Threepio costume was a very powerful moment for him. Funny how things work out sometimes.
Sticking with family, Mary explained how it was special to be able to connect with Ewan about Star Wars and share this together and how it was also fun to be closer to his Uncle Denis through it and, of course, their son – Laurie – who is also coming to be a big Star Wars fan thanks to his love of Grogu.
Stay tuned for my coverage of the panel with Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Eman Esfandi.
- Hardcover Book
- Breznican, Anthony (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 492 Pages - 04/21/2026 (Publication Date) - Insight Editions (Publisher)
