Hayden Christensen and Rosario Dawson go deep on Anakin and Ahsoka's long-awaited reunion

The longtime friends and costars also address if Anakin will be back in season 2 of Disney+'s "Ahsoka."

When Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano crossed lightsabers on the fifth episode of Disney+’s Ahsoka, it was more than just a highly anticipated live-action reunion featuring the most celebrated pair to ever come out of the Star Wars animated universe. The “Shadow Warrior” installment was also a reunion between the two old friends playing the former Jedi and Padawan. Hayden Christensen and Rosario Dawson first met as students at New York City’s Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in the summer of 1995.

“I had just started acting,” Dawson tells Entertainment Weekly. “Kids was in the theaters, and my grandmother was like, ‘If you're going to take this seriously, you go to acting class.’ She could afford one semester, and in those couple of weeks over that summer I got to meet Hayden and do a class where I learned how to really feel a drop of water hit my head and drip down my body. I learned how to go method!”

And what was Dawson’s reaction five years later when her acting school buddy landed the role of playing the future Lord of the Sith? “I remember thinking it was going to be quite the performance, because he is one of the nicest human beings you could possibly meet. I was so proud and so happy for him.”

Little did she know that over 20 years later they would be doing battle in a galaxy far, far away. “We never could have imagined we'd be here doing this together,” Dawson laughs. “It is a pretty cool thing to know that we have a history that we were able to play with and actually engage with, and that there is a history there that didn't have to get made up.”

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For her longtime friend and costar, the feeling was mutual. “It's really been a very special experience for us to get to reunite on this project,” says Christensen, “and to get to play these characters that have the history to their relationship that they do, and get to explore some of that with someone that I've known for quite a while myself.”

We reunited Dawson and Christensen one more time to talk all about their epic Ahsoka meet-up in the World Between Worlds on “Shadow Warrior.” It was a meeting that included a furious lightsaber contest, as well as the former master imparting one last lesson to his erstwhile pupil — a lesson that delved into the dark side before eventually giving Ahsoka the closure and answers she so desperately needed. What was it like on set in between takes? Who got the better of whom when it came to the lightsaber fighting? And might Anakin still be around to offer training and advice in season 2? We went straight to Snips and Sky Guy for answers, and somehow managed to Jedi mind trick them into giving us some exclusive behind-the-scenes photos and script pages as well.

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I’ve talked with Hayden before about the super warm welcome he’s gotten from fans coming back to the franchise after all the ups and downs of the original trilogy, so now I just want to make him really uncomfortable and have to sit there as I ask you about it, Rosario. What’s it been like to see Hayden come back and get all these accolades?

ROSARIO DAWSON: It's so beautiful and so special. I was just elated when I saw Hayden in Obi-Wan Kenobi and just hoped, fingers crossed, that that would happen with him on our show. I don't want to put anyone in the crew out there, but I will say there were some tears shed when we got to see that lightsaber in his hand again. It's pretty remarkable and very special.

I remember Ewan McGregor telling me how nobody cared about him on set when Darth Vader was around. I know you're a modest guy, Hayden, but could you feel that electricity from the crew when you stepped on set — that all eyes are on you?

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN: It is a character that people have a lot of affection for, and yeah, you get a sense of that. A lot of the people who are working on these projects now grew up on the prequels and were huge fans of those films, and so I think they have a special connection to these characters and to Anakin. Anytime Vader shows up, that's a crowd-pleaser, so that's an easy one. But it's really nice to see the support that Anakin has now.

How did you all approach the preparation for these World Between Worlds scenes together? Let’s start with the physical elements of the lightsaber battle. How often were you able to practice with each other beforehand?

DAWSON: We actually didn't really practice together. Once we started filming, it was almost impossible to be able to get us together. It was just an insane schedule, but that was actually what kind of made it a little fun. I think [fight choreographer Ming Qiu] had a weird thing about wanting us to really have that moment be more on-camera than anything, which was very cool.

And the set was so wild. It was very unusual for us because a lot of times we were shooting on the Volume, so you could see everything. But on this one, we had this whole other area and this grading with the light coming through, and it was very kind of bare. It almost felt a little theatrical. It was magical to see what they ended up making it look like because [during filming] it was very keyed down and just us on this beautiful long strip of a platform which was very, very cool.

I think we had two full days of filming on there, with the kind of flipping into Darth Vader and back and forth. We had this beautiful catwalk runway and people just watching us. It was quite a spectacle, I have to say. I kept getting really caught up in it. And when you were shooting with [Ariana Greenblatt, playing young Ahsoka], I got to come and visit on set, and that was really remarkable because even before they did all the special effects, it was breathtaking to watch these beats and moments. Seeing you coming out of this smoke and steam, it was very surreal.

Hayden, you have a bit of a reputation with a laser sword in your hand. Is this the most fun part of the job for you, just getting to let loose with a lightsaber?

CHRISTENSEN: Easily the best part. Any work day with a lightsaber, it's a good day, and the experience on this one was really awesome. Ming came up with a really great sequence of fights, and we spent a lot of time working on it. Like Rosario said, we do it in isolation just with the stunt team, and then we get to practice a little bit together before we get to set. But the experience of getting to do that on the stage was awesome, and we were just laughing a lot because we couldn't believe our good luck that we were getting to do this together.

I was going to ask you all about that, because it’s this super intense scene, but you all are old friends working together on Star Wars — pretty hard not to be a bit giddy even when dealing with such heavy material. What was it like during those moments when they weren't yelling action?

CHRISTENSEN: It was a lot of laughter, and a lot of hugs, and a lot of smiles.

DAWSON: I would be watching, and I'd get nervous because Hayden would have all these little candies and snacks everywhere. There were wrappers that would just be left and it would be like Halloween on his chair. People would just come and keep dropping him off different chocolates and things like that and I'd be like, “Oh man, it's going to get even more heavy-handed. He's souped-up on sugar now!”

CHRISTENSEN: [Laughs] A big sugar dose.

You have a sweet tooth, Hayden?

CHRISTENSEN: I've got a serious sweet tooth, especially when there's free candy around.

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Hayden is known for being pretty intense with his lightsaber work, Rosario. So what was it like to cross swords with him?

DAWSON: Between Ray Stevenson and Hayden, I don't know who was more heavy-handed. There would definitely be moments where I'm like, “We're pretending to kill me — right, guys?”

CHRISTENSEN: You had some force behind your swings too, though. We had a good go of each other, but there were no major mishaps, as I recall.

DAWSON: We had a lot of fun actually. It really was very special. That was definitely a major highlight of the production, and one of those pinch-me moments for myself of just going, “Is this work?” There’s plenty of times on a project where you feel the intensity of it and this one, I would've paid to have been there.

CHRISTENSEN: Likewise. It really felt like play. And you're awesome with the lightsaber too, I should say. Especially with two lightsabers, which is not easy. I remember there was a brief moment in Episode II where Anakin has two lightsabers, and I was trying to figure out how to do all the twirls that you do and I couldn't get it. So hats off to you.

DAWSON: Thank you.

There’s not a ton of dialogue here between you all, but it’s all super important, so how did you approach it?

CHRISTENSEN: This scene was so nicely written. [Creator Dave Filoni] conceived something that was really exciting. From my point of view, I just wanted to bring that to life and help him realize his vision. And all of the lines are so specific that they tell the story, and it was capturing versions of these characters that was very compelling. Following Dave's lead was a very satisfying experience. We were in great hands with him.

DAWSON: Yeah, I remember we all got the hair raised up on the back of our heads just hearing that whole sort of Anakin discovery, and hearing “Snips” and that connection into the animation was just so amazing after so many years of seeing this dynamic between these characters, and now seeing it realized in live action. It felt really poignant and powerful and very satisfying.

I remember we kept wanting to have a pull of maybe adding “Sky Guy” in there, but it didn't make sense in that beat, in that moment. But we wanted to! We really did! But to hear “Snips” was more than enough. It kind of took the scene. It was so standout. It was definitely a fan girl moment that I had on set. There were moments like that, like when I first put in the contacts, and first put on that costume, and to see Hayden in the Clone Wars outfit — there was just so many moments that pulled you out of what we were doing right then and brought you back into that fan who just really enjoyed watching this over the years. It just felt really delicious, really exciting, really fun.

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Hayden, what was it like to wear the animated Clone Wars gear and get the Anakin Clone Wars hairstyle?

CHRISTENSEN: I loved it, man. It was a really exciting version of the character, this kind of post-life Anakin that is this wise master that is an expression of the totality of the character with a sense of everything that has happened to him and that he's gone through and being able to wield both sides of the Force. It was a really exciting version of the character that I had a hunger to get to play, and I think audiences had an appetite for as well.

How much did you have to think about calibrating your performance in terms of how much light side and how much dark side to show, because the dark side meter seems to change throughout this episode?

CHRISTENSEN: It was all on the page and it was very clearly mapped out and is sort of congruent with how the lesson is going, too. Anakin is trying to guide Ahsoka through this lesson without spelling it out for her, and she's kind of getting it, but she's also kind of not. And so then he has to switch to the dark side and is a little bit more to the point. He says to her, “You lack conviction.” You break down what the lesson is, and at its core, it is something that we all kind of go through at different points in our lives where you have to reconcile things in your past that are holding you back so that you can move on as a better version of yourself.

And so there's a progression to that lesson, and finally, Ahsoka gets it and the story moves on, and then you see Asoka just standing on that star bridge that then starts to fold into itself and disappear. And then you have that shot of the black liquid rising up her body. It's a really beautiful bit of acting that you did where your face is just about to become submerged, and you see some level of reconciliation that has taken place. It's beautiful. And then you get that shot from below where you see her just floating in the ocean. Visually, I just thought it was stunning.

DAWSON: I really loved that whole idea of her choosing to live, because we've sat so long with hearing Darth Vader say how much he's killed Anakin, and that Anakin is dead. And so that line for me had a lot of layers to it. She's developing herself to get to this next level. There's that beat just before when she grabs his saber that you see — and it was nice seeing the fans' comments saying, “Wait, did her eyes go red or did they not?” And that is that beat and moment.

What I love so much about this story is that it is always a constant choice, and that's why you're vulnerable potentially, because it's never like you just make the decision and you get to just be of the light or of the dark forever. It's constantly a choice you have to make every single day, and you'll be continuously challenged and tempted. But it's finally her starting to let go of the conflict of it. She's held onto trauma there for a long time and it was really powerful to be able to have this opportunity to heal that part of herself and be able to ascend to someplace else.

Related: Hayden Christensen wants to play Darth Vader in more Star Wars projects

How much is Anakin part of her story moving forward? I know you’re not going to give me a direct answer on that, but we do see Anakin as more of her story after that encounter. She's watching the training video with him, and there's that scene at the very end of the season where his force ghost pops up. She’s had this struggle ever since Anakin turned to the dark side, yet they now seem to be aligned again. What can you say in terms of the relationship between those two characters now as we head into season 2?

CHRISTENSEN: You got this one, Rosario.

DAWSON: I will just say that as she puts on that hologram of him, you see that there's several of them. So I think there's that potential. But I love, also, not just being relegated to those messages and things that we might be able to see more of in the future. We've gotten to see from the films now into the show that he's been able to become this force ghost that brings him back to Anakin, who at the end of the day, when he went and ascended to that space, that's what he became.

And I love that she's got that access point. I love that that peace has continued and you get to see it reflected in him that he gets to enjoy seeing what his legacy has become in a different way. And if Dave Filoni is listening, I hope we get to explore that more, because the road ahead is not going to be easy. And I think that's been one of the really cool things about this story is a lot of these folks have been able to continue. I'm very into that sort of intergenerational openness of wisdom being passed on, and I would hope that she'd still be able to access that wisdom.

Hayden, I feel like you just did a Jedi mind trick and waved your hand in the air and said, “Rosario will answer this question.”

CHRISTENSEN: [Laughs] Look, as to whether or not we see Anakin again, I don't know. But as evidenced by that last shot of the series, he’s with her in spirit, and they continue to have this connection.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.