Leslye Headland on casting Carrie-Anne Moss in ‘The Acolyte’: ‘She was essential in establishing the tone’

Leslye Headland, the creator and showrunner of Disney’s latest Star Wars show ‘The Acolyte,’ says Carrie-Anne Moss’s magnetism was indispensable to kickstart the series

The Acolyte starts with a satisfying bang and the still centre of the flying kicks and leaps is the Jedi master Indara played by Carrie-Anne Moss. Leslye Headland, the creator and show-runner of the Star Wars series, set 100 years before the Skywalker saga, was apparently impressed with Moss’s work in The Matrix movies; she has been quoted describing Indara as “Trinity with a lightsaber!”

“Carrie-Anne Moss felt like an essential part of establishing, first of all the tone of the show, and also to pull you in to the universe that we were establishing,” Leslye said over a video call from Los Angeles. “Without her power and skill, I’m not sure we would have been able to achieve the magnetic energy of starting the show, of getting the ball rolling.”

The show, which follows an investigation into the killing of Jedi masters, also features Manny Jacinto as a retired smuggler living the good life, Dafne Keen as a young padwan, and Jodie Turner-Smith and Rebecca Henderson as differently powerful Jedi masters, among others. “I was lucky as the cast were all my first choices. I didn’t have any other ideas besides the actors that ended up being in the show, so I’m grateful they agreed to do it.”

When pitching the series to Lucasfilm, the 43-year-old co-creator of Russian Doll described The Acolyte as “Frozen meets Kill Bill.” “The Kill Bill inspiration obviously comes from a lot of martial arts films, which includes the Shaw Brothers, Kurosawa and others.” Ang Lee’s martial arts drama Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) was also a muse for The Acolyte, Leslye said.

“It was an inspiration not just for the fighting, but also for the sweeping epic-ness, which felt like something that was worth modelling ourselves after. Kill Bill gives you a sense of the genre you are watching. And Frozen represents the relationship between the two girls and how complicated that is.”

A big Star Wars fan, Leslye says her love for the happenings a long time ago in those galaxies far, far away, is visceral. “I don’t think I can intellectually say exactly why I’m a Star Wars fan (long pause). It’s almost like Star Wars has been in my life since I was a little kid. Each part of my life, my childhood, my adolescence, my young adulthood, all had a version of Star Wars to hang on to and love. From the original trilogy, Special Editions to the prequels, every time there was a new piece of Star Wars media, there was something else to love.”

With the different masters (including secret ones) and padwans, the show is aptly named. “There are two answers for the reason for the title. One of them I can’t say because it’s a little bit of a spoiler (laughs). I felt giving the show a provocative name, identifying a role or position would make the audience wonder, which one of these characters is the acolyte? It would add to the mystery and hopefully get people to tune in and keep watching to have more revealed.”