Rosario Dawson Says Ahsoka is "In Me" and Discusses The Challenges of Adapting Her Fighting Style For Live Action

Rosario Dawson put everything she had into becoming Ahsoka Tano in the live-action Star Wars: Ahsoka series. She took the whole thing to an incredible level of dedication, especially when it came to the lightsaber fight sequences that they had to shoot. It’s not easy being a Jedi in real life!

While speaking with io9, Dawson shared that she trained "two hours a day, seven days a week" and when they actually started shooting, they spent "seven to twelve hours" filming these epic fight scenes some days. When talking about being a part of that intense experience, the actress said:

"But I loved that because that's who Ahsoka is. It's her! Every fiber of her being is on the line at every given moment, so it felt really good to have that strength. It was this amazing mental, emotional, physical experience."

So, while it was incredibly hard work, she embraced the challenge of it and it ended up being an awesome experience for her.

One thing that I’ve been curious about is how they would translate her fighting style from the animated series into live-action. If you’ve watched those incredible fight scenes in the animated series, you know what I’m talking about. But, animation allows the freedom to stage these lightsaber duels in any way the imagination wants. They also don’t have to worry about physics.

As you might imagine, this presented a problem when adapting her fighting style for live-action. Dawson went on to explain that there were some things they simply couldn’t pull off because it wasn’t physically possible. She said:

"Our stunt coordinator, Ming Qiu, looked at Ahsoka's fighting style, and said, 'That's not physically possible for a human, so let's see what we can do to figure out how to do that move.' We tried to do as many stunts as possible practically. We had ropes and pulleys and all kinds of things to make them work. There was a lot of experimentation, using technology that was developed while we were filming."

It’s understandable that they couldn’t pull off some things in regard to Ahsoka’s fighting style and techniques, but they certainly did their best and Dawson brought everything she could to the role and she explained that taking on the role was a lifestyle shift:

"I did everything I could to be physically prepared every day, trying to get a good night's sleep and eating well. I've mentioned it before, but Ahsoka is not some character I can just play and then dismiss when I take off the head montrals. It's been a lifestyle shift in connecting to her and performing her. She's in me."

This show is going to be freakin’ awesome! Ahsoka premieres August 23, 2023, on Disney+.