Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Moses Ingram has said she was forewarned of racism from Star Wars fans by creators LucasFilm.
Since 2015, and the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, LucasFilm has vowed to embrace diversity. In an IndieWire interview, Tran said: “It felt like I was just hearing the voice of my agents and my publicity team and all of these people telling me what to say and what to do and how to feel. And I needed to find that again.” I realized, I didn’t know how I felt anymore. “To me, it’s long overdue. But I think to start that change is better than never having started it.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi's Moses Ingram spoke with Collider about her inspiration for playing Reva in the new Star Wars prequel-era series.
Reva has been something of a mystery for Star Wars fans, particularly those who know that the Inquisitors — Jedi hunters working for Darth Vader — were all once Jedi themselves. With Obi-Wan Kenobi now streaming on Disney+, the curiosity of many fans will be satisfied when it comes to seeing old favorites Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) reprise their iconic roles from the Star Wars prequels. "My research started with the prequels, just to line up in the timeline with what has happened versus what's about to happen.
Complex sat down with Ingram for a brief chat about bringing a female villain to life in the 'Star Wars' universe, what she and Reva have in common, ...
This is the biggest that it gets.” Again, it’s really hard to wrap my brain around but every day I’m happy to be here. You can’t really think about what exactly it is. But any Jedi worth their lightsaber needs a Sith to face off against, and those who’ve seen trailers for the series know he’ll have quite a few foes to battle in his journey, including that of a Jedi Hunter named Reva, played by actor Moses Ingram. MI: Reva and I do not have a lot in common, but I think that is one of the things—to be in this business—you really gotta be able to withstand the winds and the [uncertain] terrain [that come with acting]. She is just fierce. She is not affected. It’s lit.
As the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series starts, the actor talks about hard graft, racist haters — and that time a guy got a tattoo of her face.
“Overall, there’s an outpouring of love and people want to love you and welcome you into the fold. She would, she says, “physically ache for opportunity,” and started taking the bus into New York City to hang around theatres, ambushing actors for advice. “My name is Moses, you know?” Having scrapped to get out of Baltimore, becoming Moses was the last phase of Ingram’s remaking of herself. Her birth name – which she doesn’t reveal – “didn’t fit anymore”. “And then I prayed. Ingram calls her “the heartbeat of this series”. It’s not the only area the Star Wars universe is making up for lost time. And I’m like, I’m gonna be the one that ruins it!” she says. So the word of mouth of that just went so far,” says Ingram. “It kind of felt like it was happening, but it also didn’t, because we were in lockdown. And they’ve certainly held true to that – throughout, I felt really safe.” And now it’s attached to so many personal memories and moments for me,” she says, diplomatically. It’s fun to be bad.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Moses Ingram Says Diversification Of Star Wars Cast 'Should Have Happened Sooner'. Gabriella Ferlita.
“At this rate, there’s a large chance that I think I know how it ends, and I don’t actually know. “But at the same time, it’s above me now. It’s theirs now, anything else doesn’t really concern me.”
Following racist campaigns against Star Wars actors John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran, Lucasfilm prepared Obi-Wan Kenobi's Moses Ingram for similar abuse.
“Obi-Wan is going to bring the most diversity I think we’ve ever seen in the galaxy before,” Ingram said. The show will, in effect, serve as a bridge between the prequel movies and the original trilogy, as the first Star Wars movie features Kenobi still on Tatooine watching over Luke. The level of toxicity and racism against Star Wars prequel actors John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran was so bad that Lucasfilm has now been forced to preempt a similar campaign against Moses Ingram, who plays an Inquisitor in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+.
Channel24 sat down with Moses Ingram, who makes her debut in the Star Wars universe as Reva Sevander a ruthless and ambitious new Inquisitor character ...
As I get further in this business, you realise your proximity to power is always shifting in the room, and I think you've got to do what you can with yours for others. What's the Inquisitor mindset when viewers meet your character and your Inquisitor cohorts? A lot of it was on the page to start with, and I think with that, really just leaning into it. In-between scenes, we spent a lot of time playing with blasters and having our own side-lightsaber fights as well, so that was a lot of fun. From hair to different choices within the story, she really made room for my voice in building her, so I'm super grateful. To what degree did you have input in Reva's design and look?