Warning: ThisEntertainment Weeklycover story contains spoilers for episode 5 ofThe Acolyte.
Manny Jacintohas been keeping a big secret.
“I’ve been lying to people for the last two years to their faces,” he confesses.
Charlie Barnett on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
Some of them believe me.
“I mean, right now I’m tingling,” he says, smiling.
“Just because this is the first time that I’m actually able to talk about it.”
Charlie Barnett on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
Don’t you think the audience will tune out at some point?'"
Thevery first sceneofThe Acolyteset the tone asCarrie-Anne Moss' Indara was literally stabbed in the heart.
Adding injury to insult, poorJoonas Suotamohad to play dead in a Wookiee suit forwaytoo long.
Amandla Stenberg on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
(Damn space chairs.)
But none of that could have prepared fans for the carnage to come in episode 5.
We hid it so well that you didn’t see this!'"
Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, and Charlie Barnett of ‘The Acolyte’ at Star Wars Celebration 2023.Rachell Smith
Okay, I’m listening.'"
“I just figured someone would stop me and nobody did,” she says with a laugh.
“I figured someone would say, ‘This is too far!’
Charlie Barnett and Amandla Stenberg on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
But they didn’t.”
The cast was certainly taken aback by the savagery.
“‘What the hell?
Dafne Keen on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
What kind of sick, twisted masochist are you?'”
“And I really like that she was actually killing people.
Because if you’re not making it dangerous, then why are we even here?
Manny Jacinto on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
Why are we concerned by the story?
Why do we care?
Well, those who were still alive, anyway.
Lee Jung-jae, Amandla Stenberg, and Leslye Headland of ‘The Acolyte’ at Star Wars Celebration 2023.Rachell Smith
“Honestly, that’s what really sold me,” says Keen.
“That was the first thing she said to me in our meeting.
I love playing dead!'”
Amandla Stenberg of ‘The Acolyte’ at Star Wars Celebration 2023.Rachell Smith
Barnett used the knowledge to help inform his performance.
“No one ever wants to be cut out of a show,” he explains.
If it’s a surprise to you and your job is gone next week, it sucks.
Lee Jung-jae on ‘The Acolyte’.Lucasfilm Ltd
And I tried to find the lemonade through the lemons.”
The two partners-in-death bonded over their (duel of the) fates.
Even Lee Jung-jae got into the fun at the expense of his onscreen Padawan.
Manny Jacinto of ‘The Acolyte’ at Star Wars Celebration 2023.Rachell Smith
“And JJ just looks at me and went, ‘I wish.’
Everyone was in on the joke that me and Charlie were so excited to die.”
I don’t want to see her die four times over.
It’s just visceral and f—ed up and sad.
No, I don’t need all that.'"
The person doing the dying in that scene had a somewhat rosier take on filming Jeckis final breaths.
“That was something really exciting to me.”
And exciting to Jacinto, who had been patiently waiting to strut his stuff as the lightsaber-wielding menace.
However, Headland wanted to flip the script, making her ruse character a force of evil.
It seemed like a natural match.
But it was actually his role on another series that caught Headland’s attention.
How do I know him?’
And then I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Manny Jacinto!
What the f—?’
So confident, it turns out, that Jacinto did not even have to audition for the part.
Of course, pulling those strings and pulling no punches took a lot of behind-the-scenes work.
“I had almost four months to train for that flight scene,” says Jacinto.
We worked on everything.
We did boxing, we worked on kicks, we worked on all the choreography.
They conditioned my body so that I could get through this five-person fight scene."
He didn’t just get through it, he owned it.
“He had been waiting for this moment the whole shoot,” says Stenberg.
“Manny put in so much preparation, he completely transformed physically.
He became incredibly skilled at lightsaber work.
He put in months of prep in the time that he wasn’t filming his other character.
Even if that meant killing almost everything and everyone that moved.
But there is another element to the Stranger beyond mere force… and Force.
It’s the concept of the uncanny.
It can be a stumble in a person’s walk or a twitch in somebody’s eye.
That disturbance extends to the Stranger’s outfit, and even the way he enters the screen.
“His helmet’s not that different from a [classic]Star Warsvillain,” notes Headland.
It’s not that they’re afraid of him, it’s that they find him unsettling.
Even in the revelation of our triumph, we see the depth of our despair.”
What does it even mean?
“I think it’s essentially our introduction into the third act,” says Jacinto.
“It’s basically summing up everything that you thought you knew in these first episodes.
Now we’re going into completely different territory.
That means it needs to be done with the saber.
How can we create two hairstyles where if chopped by a saber it would fall into the other hairstyle?
And are we going to do it at this angle?
Oh my God, so many conversations!”
Everything that they both have believed to be true has been challenged in some way.
And so now the question is: What do they do with that information?"
That could lead to a reckoning for Lee Jung-jae’s Sol.
“Mae says, ‘They’ve brainwashed you,” Headland notes.
“Part of her mission is not just to finish her kill list.
That information could be coming from different directions as well.
Clearly, there are still answers as to what actually happened on Brendok that need to be answered.
Why did Torbin willingly take the poison and ask for forgiveness?
Why did Kelnacca go into hiding and scribble those coven symbols all over his walls?
And what was Sol going to tell Osha when they returned to the ship?
(So much for our Jedi mind tricks.)
“It’s going to be interesting if we get to look at the past,” says Suotamo.
“The Jedi are these powerful people, but what do they do when faced with difficult choices?
The whole series reflects that, and is asking that question.
Those choices have plainly haunted Sol.
“And also a very strong determination to never let something like that repeat itself.
The question that he has struggled with was: How much sacrifice is needed to protect peace?”
Whatever happens in the last three episodes, do not expect Headland to slow her Boonta Eve Classic pace.
I threw everything into season 1, because who knows what’s going to happen?”
I need to do this,'” recalls Jacinto.
“And that passion just fueled me all the way through until the end of filming.
I don’t really know how I can do anything else after this.
I think I should just retire because I think this is it.”
What else would you expect him to say?
After all, only a Sith deals in absolutes.
