The Acolyte: How Amandla Stenberg approached the role made for her

Star Wars: The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg has been quite vocal about her involvement in the process. It's wonderful to see her enthusiasm at joining the family of actors who have played Star Wars characters.

In a new interview with GQ's Eileen Carter entitled "Amandla Stenberg Takes Star Wars Back to a Jedi Golden Age." Amandla goes into new detail about her approach to the project. A subject of great interest is that Stenberg will be playing twin sisters--Mae and Osha--whose relationships to the Force are significantly different. Carter has this to say on the subject:

"Headland has said she wants the show to explore and question the Jedi's use of power, and how their reign could yield to the space fascism in just a hundred years."

- Eileen Carter

The roles are physically demanding, and playing the sisters will be fascinating to watch. One has to admire how Amandla did her homework. She spent a year learning to understand the universe better, and collaborators on other projects noticed her reading up on Star Wars during breaks. Stenberg confirms this habit:

"I spent a lot of time on Wookieepedia...to exist in fantasyland [and] do methodical research on mythical beings and worlds as my job."

- Amandla Stenberg

She saw the preparation for the roles of Mae and Osha as a chance "to become the superfan that I knew I could be" and found herself interested in the women of Star Wars. Carter lists her interests as including the relatively female-light The Lord of the Rings, but her breakout role in The Hunger Games is one of the things that drew Headland to think of her for the role:

"She's worked on something that deals with complex sociological issues as well as being emotionally touching... It felt inevitable that she would come into her own to lead a franchise like this."

- Leslye Headland

All of this preparation will culminate in a rich experience for viewers as The Acolyte releases on Disney+ in June 2024. We can all look forward to seeing Stenberg's nuanced performance.