The Acolyte cast hail Amandla Stenberg as an ‘amazing leading woman’

Watch: The Acolyte cast reflect on Amandla Stenberg's 'rare' talent

In the new Star Wars series The Acolyte Amandla Stenberg takes centre stage, and it was a role that the actor took very seriously, her co-stars tell Yahoo, and earned her a huge amount of respect. So much so that the cast describe her as a "rare" talent and a "kind soul".

Dafne Keen, Lee Jung-jae, Charlie Barnett and Rebecca Henderson all had high praise for Stenberg, who plays the dual roles of Mae and Osha in the Disney+ show. The show follows the sisters and their story against the backdrop of the High Republic era, a time of peace and prosperity for the Jedi Order that is about to be put under threat by a rising dark force.

Mae and Osha may be played by the same person but they couldn't be more different as characters, and Stenberg's approach to embodying them was admirable to her cast members. Keen, who plays padawan Jecki Lon, shares: "It was really fun to get to see her play both these roles and it was really interesting to see how different they were, and also how tormented these two roles were by each other, which was such a beautiful, sensitive thing from her as an artist.

"And it was so wonderful to see her like grow into the part, I came into it and she'd been in London for like a week prepping. So I came into it really early and I got to kind of see Amandla grow into and become Mae and Osha, and it felt like such an honour and such a beautiful thing to watch."

Keen, who is known for her roles in Logan and His Dark Materials, added that she loved how much of a "hard worker" Stenberg was, adding that her co-star prepared for her dual roles by having "two huge binders", one representing Mae and the other Osha.

Read more: What we know about new Star Wars series The Acolyte

"She was also such an amazing leading woman, she was so supportive to all of us," Keen went on. "A lot of number ones don't really care about anyone else, and she was there every time she wasn't on camera.

"She was so dedicated in other people's coverage —which is very rare— and was such a dedicated, kind soul as an actor, which is really beautiful to watch."

Barnett, who plays Jedi Knight Yord Fandar, added that he was also "blown away" by Stenberg, saying that it often isn't the case that actors who grew up in the industry would be so dedicated.

"There's a lot of people in this industry, especially people who have been working for such a long time —like [Dafne] and Amandla— who have been working at a young age, and you would expect for someone to have that kind of ease to come in and maybe not work as hard," the actor says.

"Maybe not put in the best efforts that they could and Amandala is —I mean Dafne as well— [the] polar opposite of that. I was so honoured to walk on the set and have a scene partner who was willing to challenge me, which in a person with that kind of caliber or that career, you don't have to.

"You can walk on and not know your lines and throw it away and do your thing and go. She was there to work and it was really important to her to deliver a performance that was rooted and layered, and beautiful and I really think she succeeded. It's a difficult one to play, this role."

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Lee Jung-jae, who plays Jedi Master Sol, felt similarly, saying that Stenberg "really help up her role as the lead character" of The Acolyte. He added: "She really prepared and put a lot into her role, so when I saw her at training camp I noticed that because she had to do choreography for both Osha and Mae, this was a lot of training that she had to go through.

"But she put her all into the preparation of this, and I really saw her strong will."

Sol is a nurturing presence for Osha, who as a former padawan comes to reunite with her teacher in unexpected circumstances: "We had a lot of conversations, the three of us —Leslye [Headland], Amandla and I— about the relationship between Master Sol and Osha, and I really appreciated her sharing her thoughts and ideas about this relationship.

"I could tell that she was very immersed into her character and also understood the Star Wars universe very well. So I think she really did her all to hold her role as the lead in The Acolyte."

A brave new world

The Acolyte also marks a big change for the Star Wars universe as it is the first series to not have any obvious connection to the Skywalker saga. Set thousands of years before the events of the films and shows that fans know so well, showrunner Headland is welcoming viewers into a brave new world.

Barnett called it "incredibly freeing" to be part of a narrative that had little precedent, saying that it was only Henderson's character Vernestra Rwoh who had been written about in books before. "It's a completely fresh start and it's just for me [it felt] like I don't have those kind of pressures, the same kind of pressures put on my back."

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Henderson added to her co-stars sentiment, by saying: "You really don't need to know [about Star Wars], I mean, most people do know a fair amount about Star Wars but you don't need to know anything to be able to enjoy this series. For some of my friends who have not watched a lot are like, 'can I watch this?' and I'm like. 'Yeah, you're gonna love it.'"

While most of The Acolyte will be new to Star Wars fans, Vernestra is a character they may have some familiarity with as she leads a number of books in the High Republic series. This made it "interesting" for Henderson to approach the character, she reveals: "I did spend most of my time thinking about what happens to a prodigy over the 100 years of her life, and just try to live in the fantasy of that.

"Somebody who starts a certain way, and where you see her in The Acolyte things have really changed. She's sort of seen it all, she knows everyone coming in and out of the temple, and she's much more thoughtful, balanced, and interior than you see her in the books. That was really fun to play."

For Lee what was most fun about being in a show like The Acolyte was the Jedi training, which he and his co-stars all had the chance to partake in. It proved an interesting challenge, as he explains: "I was curious how they would train us with the lightsabers and with all the very specific choreography on The Acolyte.

"It's a lot of Leslye's doing, but the fight scenes are very naturalistic. So Leslye, working alongside the stunt team, created choreography that felt very natural to look at and to act out. It [took] a while, but I started from the basics and there was choreography part by part. We would break it down like that and also practice in the long run as well, so there are various levels to it.

"It was very systematic and I think that really helped me because we went through the process with no injuries, and also I think my collaboration with Amandla [in those scenes] was really wonderful."

Keen mirrors this sentiment around Headland's approach to the narrative, saying: "It's really wonderful that we had so much creative freedom.

"And the person who created it was a fan, so seeing that Leslye was such a fan and got to, like, explore a space in which she could be creative from the mind of a fan of what the fans want to be seeing."

The Acolyte premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, 5 June.