How Star Wars Ahsoka's Diana Lee Inosanto Embodied Morgan Elsbeth in For Animated Tales of the Empire
We talked to Diana Lee Inosanto about going from live-action to animation.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is hitting Disney+ tomorrow in honor of May 4th AKA Star Wars Day, and the new show is a character-focused animated anthology series that follows Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger). Inosanto first played Morgan Elsbeth in live-action in Star Wars: The Mandalorian before playing the villain again in Star Wars: Ahoksa. Recently, ComicBook had the chance to chat with Inosanto about the new series, and she talked about playing the character in animation.
"You know, it's interesting because I was watching Pedro Pascal behind the scenes when he was doing the recordings for Mandalorian, so I go, 'Oh, that's probably gonna be what I would do.' It is. I mean, I don't know how you can arrive in a booth and not do those things to physically prep you, or at least that's my process," Inosanto explained.
"I do all the breathing. I sometimes, if I knew the fight scene was right, I will jump in place," she added with a laugh. "I'm literally in my own actress bubble, pulling creatively from my imagination and seeing in the space and time, whatever is happening in the scene. So, yeah, I don't see that much of a difference, you know, other than I'm in a recording booth."
"I love doing animation. I love it," Inosanto added.
What Is Star Wars: Tales of the Empire About?
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is a six-episode journey into the fearsome Galactic Empire through the eyes of two warriors on divergent paths, set during different eras. After losing everything, young Morgan Elsbeth navigates the expanding Imperial world toward a path of vengeance, while former Jedi Barriss Offee does what she must to survive a rapidly changing galaxy. The choices they make will define their destinies.
The voice cast of Star Wars: Tales of the Empire includes Diana Lee Inosanto (Morgan Elsbeth), Meredith Salenger (Barriss Offee), Rya Kihlstedt (Lyn aka Fourth Sister), Wing T. Chao (Wing), Lars Mikkelsen (Thrawn), Jason Isaacs (Grand Inquisitor) and Matthew Wood (General Grievous). Dave Filoni created the series and is the supervising director. He is also an executive producer along with Athena Yvette Portillo and Carrie Beck. Josh Rimes serves as co-executive producer and Alex Spotswood is the senior producer.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire launches exclusively on Disney+ on Star Wars Day, May 4th.