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These Jedi look different from the ones who’ve starred in Star Wars films up until now. Instead of muted tunics and monk-like vibes, these are Jedi of their time, decades before the events of the 1999 prequel “The Phantom Menace.” They wear bright yellow tunics and large thick leather belts while sporting green, yellow, blue and orange lightsabers. At the same time, they’re of the same visual and narrative lineage as past Jedis portrayed by Mark Hamill, Liam Neeson, Daisy Ridley and Sir Alec Guinness.
Add Keen and Barnett to that cosmic club. The 19-year-old Keen isn’t new to big-budget genre productions, having co-starred in the highly acclaimed X-Men spinoff film “Logan” and starred in the world-hopping fantasy show “His Dark Materials.” The 36-year-old Barnett is well-known for his role as Alan Zaveri in “Russian Doll,” the Netflix series co-created by “The Acolyte” creator Leslye Headland. Theirs are confident Jedi — not outcasts searching for their place in the universe, but dutiful warriors who assume their order will survive forever.
How do you become a space knight? What’s it like to put on the robe and don the lightsaber? What’s on a Jedi’s playlist? Keen and Barnett recently chatted about the making of “The Acolyte.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How does it feel playing a Jedi? How does it feel to take on that role?
Charlie Barnett: It’s an honor. Just a blanket of honor.
Dafne Keen: It felt immense, like just such a huge thing.
Barnett: Almost all our fathers brought us or showed it to us. That’s what makes it an honor — to be living up to my father’s dreams of me being a Jedi. It’s few and far between to get an opportunity like this.
What does it feel like to wear the robes and become a Padawan or a Master?
Barnett: I wanted the braid more than the robes. I was like, man, I’m not a Padawan and I lose my braid.
Keen: I was pretty happy with my braid. I loved my robes.
Barnett: I’m sure any fan that’s out there who’s put on a robe and tried to swing any kind of lightsaber around knows it’s difficult.
Keen: The saber gets caught in there. You might trip on the robe. It’s not graceful.
Barnett: I’m incredibly claustrophobic too. I don’t know if everybody knows, but it’s like four layers of wool we’re wearing on top of cinch belt.
Keen: It’s like hard leather.
Barnett: And then throw a robe on top of that. And my robe was, I think, 14 pounds or something like that. It was like ridiculously heavy wool. I would freak out. I was like, “I don’t know if I can breathe.” It’s just weird little details you don’t really think about, but, you know, I’m going to wear anything that they want me to wear as a Jedi.
Keen: You want me to wear a trash bag? I will work that trash bag like it’s Armani Privé. I will work it.
With the robes being 14 pounds of wool, they must keep the sets pretty cold?
Barnett: When you’re in the middle of Wales in a snowstorm, it’s like, ‘I like this costume. Brilliant!’
Keen: Without saying too much, I take my robe off at one point because I’m fighting. And then I wanted to shoot myself because it was freezing. It wasn’t that they kept it cold. It’s all practical. We were in like this freezing forest, which was a soundstage, but it was a freezing cold forest.
OK, so Dafne, you have a green lightsaber?
And Charlie, yours is yellow?
Barnett: Yes, and they give it to us. I was given green first and then they were like, “No, no, no, no, no. You’re yellow, sorry.”
Keen: They gave it to me. It’s purely aesthetic.
Barnett: Totally aesthetic. It kind of broke my heart. Because I fight specific people, they were like, “We don’t want the same colors hitting.” You know what I’m saying?
Keen: But if we’re in a fight together, if we both had green, it would be weird.
Barnett: But we would never fight each other. We love each other.
Keen: I said together, not each other.
Barnett: Just fighting alongside each other.
Keen: Why are you making it weird?
Well, all of that stems from my original question: Did you have any say in your lightsaber colors? But it sounds like it was just, “you’re yellow, you’re green.”
Barnett: After doing the research of whether it’s canon, I was really happy to have yellow because, learning what people do think of that [color], it is the balance of you have a little bit of the force wielding, you’re a really good saber wielder. I love that idea for him.
Keen: I was very happy with green. It’s pretty cool.
How do you convince yourself as an actor that you’re in the Star Wars galaxy?
Keen: It’s very personal for every actor. For me, I come from a creative family of theater people. I’m someone who likes to build on character arcs and development and background and where they’ve come from. I’m someone who likes to build a backstory. I had a little notebook where I wrote down all of my notes on the Jedi, the Force and her life, and when she went into the Jedi Order and who her parents were. I also had a little Jecki playlist.
Keen: It was “Alice” from “Bodies Bodies Bodies.” It was a lot of David Bowie. It was “Space Oddity,” “Starman.” She’s cool. She has some cool music.
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