One of the highlights from last year's first season of Ahsoka was Eman Esfandi's portrayal of the Jedi Ezra Bridger. It was our first time seeing Ezra since the finale of Star Wars Rebels, and it did not disappoint.
Eman Esfandi has high praise for Ezra Bridger: 'He is a beast'
Recently, Esfandi spoke about his portrayal of Ezra at a panel on Ahsoka at the Calgary Expo. He gave some very interesting answers about what went into playing Ezra and the tiny details about the character he wanted to honor. Esfandi's answers come via Collider.
One interesting piece of connection that Esfandi found between himself and Ezra was meditation. The actor noted that he had been into meditation for months and was fascinated to find out that Ezra's character was probably doing a whole lot of meditating before he was found by Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren on Peridea. This probably helped Esfandi portray Ezra knowing there was this link of commonality between them.
However, one aspect where Esfandi felt he needed to improve was with his martial arts skills. Ezra, and many Jedi, are known for being quick on their feet. Esfandi felt he had to get up to speed in that department in order to properly honor the character because, as he says, "Ezra is a beast. He’s really nimble in Rebels, and I needed to catch up to him in that sense."
Esfandi definitely succeeded in this regard. He convincingly played Ezra in the fight sequences in the series alongside Rosario Dawson, who portrays Ahsoka, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who portrays Sabine. All three did a great job of providing a degree of realism, even in this fantastical world, with their commitment to their craft and impressive fighting skills.
One final tidbit that Esfandi shared was that he wanted to honor the more subtle nuances of Ezra's character. Specifically, Esfandi wanted there to be some goofiness and humor to the character which is in keeping with the Ezra we saw in Rebels. Even though this is an older and more mature version of the character, it added an extra layer of continuity, seeing Ezra joke around with Sabine or cracking jokes in the middle of a fight sequence. We usually see Jedi as stoic, fairly humorless characters, but given Ezra's unorthodox training, it makes sense that he would stand out from other Jedi in this regard.
Esfandi clearly put a lot of work into preparing for and executing on his portrayal of Ezra. His performance was a standout in a series that saw many great performances. It will be exciting to see Esfandi build upon his portrayal of Ezra in season 2 of Ahsoka as well as other Star Wars projects going forward.