Interview: Diana Lee Inosanto | Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Ahsoka [ENGLISH]

Diana Lee Inosanto first appeard in the Star Wars universe in The Mandalorian season 2, when Ahsoka had to confront her Morgan Elsbeth. Later on she was part of the Ahsoka live-action series cast.

During Noris Force Con 7 I had the pleasure to speak with her about her role in the Star Wars universe.

You can find the German version of this interview HERE.

How are you today?

Oh, it’s good, it’s a very good day.

What is your first impression of this event – of course, it hasn’t started yet, but what is your impression from what you have heard about it and the press conference?

Oh my goodness. It is so efficient and incredible. I mean, I feel like I am actually on one of the sets I have worked on. So it is quite impressive. But even more so it is impressive that is also set up to be for something very good and that is for charity. And I tend to always support anything that is a vehicle to make our world a better place.

What did the casting process for Morgan Elsbeth look like? Did they offer you the role or did you have to audition for it?

I auditioned. So I was discovered during the time they were getting ready to film The Mandalorian in season 2 and they knew that they were going to introduce Ahsoka live action, but they wanted to try to setup, I guess, with a convincing villain and Jon Favreau had told – my understanding – Dave Filoni, that „We need to find an incredible martial artist who can also act and someone who is authentically going to look menacing and can stand her ground against Ahsoka“.

So Dave Filoni went on Google and said „Let me find her“ and so he goes on Google and types in on Google „woman martial artist“ – in some cases „badass woman martial artist“ – and my picture somehow came up and it led him to a trailer that was connected to my independent movie that was called The Sensei. And he looked at it and he goes „Oh my goodnes, this is Bruce Lee’s goddaughter. Oh, this is Dan Inosantos daughter. She is a martial artist and an actress, I think we might have found our woman.“

And so I guess Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni contacted the casting group, which was under Sarah Finn, and they had me come in and read and I had no idea what the role was about. I didn’t know that her name was Morgan Elsbeth, because they keep it secretive. But I came in and I read and three days, four days later they said „They want you“ and I cried, because I was just stunned. Particularily in Hollywood at that time I couldn’t even find an agent to represent me. And I really thought that my time to try to have a career in Hollywood was done. So it is a real miracle and I feel like the force was really with me.

But the funny thing is, I never knew that my name was Morgan Elsbeth until the night the Mandalorian episode aired globally. That was the first time I had ever heard the name of my character. I just knew, that I was called The Magistrate.

Did you know beforehand that you were going to be on Ahsoka?

No. No. It was really nervewrecking, as the day that I had to shoot my fight scenes with Rosario Dawson George Lucas came to the set. Number one to support Dave Filoni. And he brought Kathleen Kennedy, and Jon Favreau was there beautifully producing, making sure everything was running smoothly. And I just thought „Wow, I can’t believe George Lucas is here to watch our fight scene.“ I felt a tremendous responsibility, but I had no clue that that episode was so important because it would be the deciding factor whether or not there would be an Ahsoka live action show and I still absolutely pinched myself at the reality that globally there was a huge fan reaction and that would be the deciding factor on an Ahsoka show. And then later on … months later on … I would find out that I would be part of the cast.

Of course, as you mentioned, you have a martial arts background. Was there still something – fight scenes or a stunt – which was really memorable because you that that was really tough?

No, I’ve been a martial artist since I was a baby and my father is Dan Inosanto. He is a renowned martial artist having helped introduce to the world many different martial arts styles and systems. But before that he was known for his relationship with my godfather, the late Bruce Lee. They used to run the Chinatown schools. So martial arts is my heritage, it is my culture. So I was actually ready for this.

But uniquely, as a little girl, when I first went to see Star Wars with my father, after we saw the original Star Wars my dad goes: „Can you imagine if you do a lightsaber fight with two lightsabers?“ I thought „Oh that’s an interesting comment.“ Months later he would see in a toystore plastic lightsabers and in martial arts he would train me with plastic lightsabers, two of them.

Flashforward into the future, when I am on set with Dave Filoni and he is directing Rosario and I, I could see Rosario with the two lightsabers at the end of the bridge, I thought „My goodness, all my life I’ve been preparing for this.“

Destiny.

Destiny. Right! Beskar spear and I am doing a fight with a Jedi with two lightsabers and my father used to train me with two lightsabers. Two plastic lightsabers. Isn’t that weird?

Yes, that’s amazing.

It’s extraordinary.

It had to be.

It had to be, yes.

When I first heard the name of Morgan Elsbeth I had to think of the myth or legend of the Morrigan. It’s a goddess or mythical creature between life and death, and sort of collecting souls. And somehow it seems to be very close to the nightsister background.

Did you know that Morgan might be a nightsister?

I thought that it could be and I wonder if they told you anything about the background, if they were inspired by myths like this?

I found out that Morgan was a nightsister around the time when we were shooting in production. And I thought „Oh this is great, but we are not saying yet, that she is a nightsister. Why not?“

But I had to keep everything secret. Everything is so secretive for a good reason. But I didn’t know she was a nightsister by birth? Was she a nightsister raised on Dathomir? Nobody told me any of these things and they spoon-fed only certain specific details.

What I did know is that she was in close proximity to Thrawn because that was the night, not only did we learn that Baby Yoda was really Grogu, but that was the night in Mandalorian that we learned that Grand Admiral Thrawn was going to be a figure somehow in the show.

And so Timothy Zahn, the author, his books were very important to me. I knew, that whoever Thrawn was … whoever he chose in his circle, had to have certain key details about their personality and character. So I was reading Timothy’s books to get an idea of who I might be with the Empire. And then I could only use my imagination of what a nightsister was. I relied on E. Anne Convery‘s book, Bug, as well later when I did Ahsoka.

E. Anne Convery is the wife of Dave Filoni and she is a writer and she wrote the beautiful story about the nightsisters of Dathomir and her story was called Bug and it goes into the massacre what the culture went through on Dathomir and again, later on, when you saw Tales of the Empire, the animation, it goes into Morgan Elsbeth’ childhood and when her people are being attacked.

What was that like? Going into animation and also going into her background a little more?

I loved it so much and of course Dave Filoni started off in animation, right? So it was a real honor to play this character and do the voice of her – and the voice of my mother – in Tales of the Empire. And I didn’t realized that I was going to do this animation either. He said something about an animation, but I didn’t know that it was going to be so detailed and so extensive about Morgan Elsbeth’ background.

With the secrecy there are of course so many surprises. Do you love it or do you hate it?

I realized that it is part of the course when you work with Lucasfilm. Then I knew this has been a practise since days of Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, because even Harrison Ford didn’t know that Luke Skywalker was the son of Darth Vader, right?

So I knew that was the tradition of Lucasfilm and I think it’s a fun tradition and it’s a good tradition for the fans. I mean, when you think of season 2 of The Mandalorian, when we see Luke Skywalker at the end, this whole moment with Pedro Pascal and Grogu – I mean, what a treat for the world in a time when we were going through Covid and people were on lockdown in many of their homes. So it’s those moments that make it special that kind of secrecy and the surprise.

Too much is spoiled nowadays anyway.

Absolutely.

So Ahsoka Season 1 didn’t really end well for Morgan …

Yeah, poor Morgan!

But it’s also science fiction and it says that in sci-fi no one really ever dies.

Right?

Of course I understand, that in case you are involved in something you can’t talk about it, but would you like to come back and how would you personally bring Morgan back?

Well, it’s not for me to decide how Morgan Elsbeth is – if she is – brought back, this is Dave Filoni’s creation, just like Ahsoka is Dave Filoni’s creation. But he knows how much I love this universe. Jon Favreau absolutely knows how much I love this universe. And they know best, if they need to bring Morgan at some point back. She is a nightsister and her people are a unique entity within the world of the force. So we will see. But I love Star Wars and it’s always been a great narrative about hope. So I am hoping.

Let’s hope for the best. Thank you so much for taking the time.

Oh, thank you so much.