‘The Acolyte’ star Amandla Stenberg reacts to Oshamir dark side romance

It’s appropriate that The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland has often referenced Breaking Bad as a major inspiration as she was writing season 1 of the latest Star Wars series, because her main protagonist just broke bad in a major way on the season finale.

After overhearing that her former Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) killed her mother and then lied about it for 16 years, Amandla Stenberg’s Osha Force-choked the life out of her former father figure, bled a kyber crystal red, and then agreed to become the apprentice of Manny Jacinto’s the Stranger (a.k.a. Qimir). It was a shocking turn, while Osha’s twin Mae (also played by Stenberg) went in the opposite direction — rejecting the Stranger and sparing Sol’s life. Mae’s memory was eventually wiped so he could not help the Jedi locate her sister, although that will apparently not stop Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) from trying.

We used Bazil the tracker to help locate Stenberg, and then asked the actress all about Osha’s big turn to the dark side, that brief lightsaber hand-holding with Qimir, and what she knows about a potential season 2.

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tell me about what it was like having to shoot the scene as Osha where you Force-choke Sol to death?

AMANDLA STENBERG: I think something that was really important for Leslye in constructing Osha, and to me as well, was that the choices that she makes are autonomous choices. She’s not manipulated into the choices she makes. They’re reactive. Of course, they’re responsive to this windfall of information that she gets about her life and the things that have shaped it.

But with that scene with Sol, it was really important that yes, she is possessed in a way by the dark side, but at the same time, she’s having a human response to trauma. And that was really important to build throughout the entire season. We were very careful and had so many discussions around where Osha comes from and where she arrives to. And something that was really important for her was that she never really had an emotional outlet or a space within which she felt understood or could truly utilize her Force use.

And that’s why she wasn’t a successful Jedi. That’s why she had difficulty in her childhood within her covenant of witches. And so all of these variables contribute to the decision that she ends up making. And even though it’s a tragic one in a way, out of empathy for her, I had to think of her as finally receiving the emotional retribution she deserves, and finally allowing her emotions to pour out. The way they pour out is surprising, I would say. But in the context of her whole life, I think it makes a lot of sense.

What was the mood on set like during filming that scene?

Very quiet. It was very quiet on set. I kept hiding in the cave that Osha comes out of before when she overhears that Mae is finally able to get Sol to confront his past and admit to his fault in front of Osha. I kept going into that cave and hiding and just saying, “Okay, no one talk to me in between takes. I’m going to just focus on this now.” Star Wars sets are so big and chaotic and there are so many elements — whether it was the kyber crystal and the special effects and the lightsaber, the props, the set cinematography. So I just made sure to kind of isolate myself during that moment.

What do you think Mae’s reaction is to that? Her chief concern has always been her sister, so what’s her take on Osha killing Sol and going down that dark path?

Something that always really appealed to me about Mae, and when I did a lot of backstory work, I thought about what compels this person to take the path that she does? And when you meet her, she’s a vigilante assassin sort of archetype. But I never actually thought of her as a very violent person. I don’t think she’s an innately violent person. I think she’s someone who is motivated by an incredibly complicated past.

And what always felt very important to me to imbue in her is this kinship and devotion to where she comes from. And she comes from a spiritual community, and so even though she’s acting out of violence throughout the season, it’s always out of a place of loyalty, and I would actually say spiritual alignment with her people and with her family. And so I think being able to see Osha become embodied in that way provides for her a lot of the release that she’s been seeking.

And it also gives her the opportunity to no longer be the sister who embodies their family and the values of their family, but rather to sort of relinquish that control and be giving and be a caretaker towards her sister. Because Osha’s emotional arc is actually so much more complicated and painful than Mae’s in many way, I really wanted her to feel like a guiding force and a source of support for Osha in those moments.

There’s that scene at the very end where the Stranger puts his hand on Osha’s hand and the lightsaber. I know you, Manny, and Leslye kind of worked it out together while filming. Tell me how that scene came together.

That was Manny’s idea. We pitched a lot of different things, and now we’re getting tons of shippers, of course, on Twitter and Tumblr and people who are now calling it Oshamir. And they really wanted to see some romantic arc take place with Qimir and Osha, which totally get it. And that was the original vision.

But as we arrived to that point in filming, again, we returned to Osha’s choices and this sense of it feeling autonomous, and we just came to the decision that we didn’t feel like a romantic resolution was quite earned yet. And we also wanted Osha’s journey to be autonomous from that arc. And so we decided, “Okay, you know what? Let’s table it for now.”

We also just felt like there was a lot of weight and significance in the political alignment that’s happening between those two characters, and Osha internally reaching this place that Qimir has been pushing her towards. We wanted to keep the focus on that, and we were like, “What’s some sort of symbol that we can utilize that connotes a political alignment between them and this union?” But also there’s a lot of intimacy in that sort of shared vision and power, and Manny came up with instead of holding hands, they’re going to hold the lightsaber together, which we just thought was awesome.

He would pitch things like that all the time. Whenever there is intimacy or physical representations of their intimacy, a lot of it was Manny’s idea, and we just leaned in.

What’s also intriguing about it is we’ve never seen a fully dark side romance before on screen.

Yeah, totally. And I think that’s just also Leslye’s sensibilities. [Laughs] Leslye is a Sith and I’m a Scorpio, and so I think that appeals to both of us. Also, because of where we exist in the timeline, it makes it more interesting to explore that kind of intimate connection because the Sith exists in the underbelly of the universe, and so they are not the dominating forces of the universe at that point, which I think is kind of more fodder for what is an underdog relationship like at this point in the timeline.

There has been no word on a season 2 yet, but have you and Leslye talked about where your characters would be going if the show does continue?

Oh yeah, totally. We’ve had so many conversations about it, both when we were brainstorming in pre-production all the way through the entire season. I think that Leslye has laid the groundwork for so much to potentially unfold. And of course there are teases at things that could potentially happen and be explored if we go forward. Again, I think we’re all really hoping that we have the opportunity to, and there’s just so much support from the fans and people watching, and there’s so much support from Kathy Kennedy at Lucasfilm, and we really hope we get to explore those things.

We just have the best time in the world surmising where these characters go. And Leslye is so fantastic at developing a complicated character arc, and to be able to both play Osha at a point where she finally has received this release and this permission to kind of be fully embodied would just be such a wonderful opportunity for me. And it would be fun to figure out: Okay, how the hell do I play a Mae that’s been memory wiped?

Speaking of teases, did you have any idea that Darth Plagueis was going to be in the show?

I knew that Darth Plagueis was going to be in the show before we started filming. And that’s just because I got really weird about the lore. I pieced it together. So I said, “Okay, Leslye, you have these twins that were created through some kind of Force magic. We know that. And Anakin is sort of a immaculately conceived through some sort of Force magic that is alluded to through the story of Darth Plagueis by Palpatine.” I was like, Darth Plagueis got to be a factor up in here somehow. And I came to her in pre-production and I said, “When is Plagueis coming in?” And she said, “Who told you that?”

And I said, “I just know in my gut that this must be where our lore is headed.” And also, it’s one of the most interesting parts of the Star Wars lore. It’s one of the most interesting parts of the canon that I think so many people have been curious about for so long, and given that it was set in the High Republic era, I just thought that this must be factored into our story somehow.

But Leslye didn’t actually fully admit to me that it was Plagueis in the moment. She kind of said nothing and winked at me. And it was sort of a secret from me as well, and from everyone, because she was trying to keep that information under wraps as much as possible. So it wasn’t until I was watching on Tuesday with everyone else that I saw him for the first time.

What was your favorite thing you shot in season 1?

The finale had to be my favorite. The stunt work and the finale really felt like a culmination of all the training that I’d done, because I had to fight myself and on both sides. I felt like everything I had learned crystallized and prepared me for the opportunity to learn the choreography on both sides and perform it. I also just think that the stunt choreography in a really beautiful way mirrors the relationship of the girls, and conceptually that there is all this rich stuff in it around confronting self-forgiving and self-reconciling.

So I felt like I had this sort of trippy opportunity to confront myself by playing a twin. And that comes to a head in the finale, both with the action work, but also with the final decisions that are made underneath the tree that is a sacred place for them from their childhood.

I could not have gotten through any of that work without the incredible stunt actors that I had the pleasure of working with who doubled me — Kellina Rutherford and Cassie Jo Craig — and also my acting double Shanice Archer, who had the very selfless job of just doing all of this work with me as my scene partner, but never being seen on the screen. And we shared very special, beautiful moments together crafting the trajectory of the girls at the end of the finale. And I’m indebted to her forever.