Star Wars has featured some of the most iconic fights on the big screen, from The Phantom Menace’s Duel of the Fates to Revenge of the Sith’s Duel on Mustafar. And after a long while, the action will continue in the new Disney+ series The Acolyte.
The trailers for The Acolyte have given a glimpse of the incoming fights, from the colourful battle of the lightsabers to the use of the Force.
Among the many characters the show will introduce, one who takes the lead is Amandla Stenberg’s Jedi Padawan Mae.
One of the major fights in the series will be Mae’s (Carrie-Anne Moss) face-off with Jedi Master Indara.
Stenberg underwent gruelling fight training to do this, from studying the basic foundation of martial arts to performing complicated stunts.
Amandla Stenberg’s Fight Training for The Acolyte
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Stenberg detailed everything she went through to perfect her fights and moves in The Acolyte. And mind you, it wasn’t a walk in the park.
She prepared to play the role of a Jedi Padawan for weeks. Even before the production started, she had already studied Wing Chun to have a basic martial arts foundation.
Compared to her co-stars, she started filming six weeks earlier to train with her stunt doubles, Cassie Jo Craig and Kellina Rutherford.
Together, they learned how to land basic punches and kicks until they began doing the complicated stunts.
If there’s one thing Stenberg wanted to achieve in doing this, more than giving justice to her character, it’s to be on par with her Star Wars predecessors.
“I remember saying something along the lines of: ‘Well, Hayden Christensen trained for this amount of weeks, and I’m only training for this amount of weeks!’” she said. “And they were like, ‘It’s going to be fine. You’re going to work with your master, and it’s going to be okay.’”
As expected, the hard work paid off, thanks to the help of her real-life Jedi Master, the assistant fight coordinator Lu Junchang.
Stenberg began to manage to execute long fight scenes, like her battle against Moss in Cantina.
The feeling was rewarding for the Hunger Games alumna. With Junchang’s guidance, she started doing her scenes faster than ever and could even film on-the-spot sequences.
“It was incredible for me to acquire that ability,” she continued.
Amandla Stenberg Ends Up Napping at Jedi Temple Set
Stenberg admitted that she still felt stunned whenever she would arrive on set despite weeks of training and preparation.
She loved wandering around the production venue and going to the set of the main Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where the Jedi council held its meetings.
It was also where several iconic scenes of Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, and Yoda took place. Stenberg also revealed that she napped in the Jedi Temple as they prepared for filming.
“There was one day we were in pre-production, and I took a nap in the Jedi temple,” she revealed. “It wasn’t used for a short amount of time, so I laid down there on the marble. That’s when I really freaked out.”
Stenberg's fighting scenes in The Acolyte trailers prove she has worked hard to bring her role to perfection.
So, more will be seen when The Acolyte drops its special two-episode premiere on June 4 on Disney+.
READ MORE: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Nabs Surprising Disney+ Viewership Record
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