‘Han Solo vibe’: ‘Ahsoka’ star dishes on lightsaber training, and how she nabbed the role of Sabine Wren

In the upcoming Ahsoka series, fans will finally get to see Sabine Wren come to life, thanks to actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who recently explained what realization she made that likely landed her the role.

Sabine has been thus far limited to an animated character as seen in Star Wars Rebels where she is part of the crew that hops around the universe in The Ghost, a ship that’s mostly undetectable by the Empire.

Existing in the timeline just before Episode IV: A New Hope (the very first Star Wars film), the story of Star Wars Rebels can connect to a grown up Ahsoka who was a young padawan during the Clone Wars. As a result, Ahsoka shows up in Rebels with a guest role.

Natasha Liu Bordizzo, born in Australia to a Chinese mother and an Italian father, tells Entertainment Weekly that she originally had no idea that she was auditioning for a Star Wars role. Coincidentally, when she rehearsed for the role with her friend, they both mentioned that the character has a “Han Solo vibe.” Bordizzo then sent in her tape, featuring her Han Solo vibe, and she eventually received a call back. That’s when she learned that she not only got the part but it’s also for the character of Sabine Wren from Star Wars Rebels.

Anyone who has watched Rebels may perhaps recognize a certain aspect of Wren’s personality as a female version of Han Solo. However — and I know this could be considered sacrilegious in some Star Wars circles — but Sabine Wren is a little bit cooler than Han Solo when you also consider that she’s a graffiti artist. She’s painted entire ships before, tagged a ton of other ships across the galaxy, and is always creating art thanks to her obsession with color, hence her multi-colored hair.

It’s no surprise that this woman is the object of Ezra Bridger’s crush in Rebels.

Bridger, a young Jedi (or more accurately, a strong force-sensitive dude with a lightsaber), looks up to Sabine and the others in The Ghost crew, but the Rebels series ended with a major cliffhanger as he and top villain Thrawn were thrust into outer space together. 

Ahsoka made appearances in that series, and now she’s trying to find out what happened to Ezra in this spin-off of the The Mandalorian. Ahsoka re-connects with Sabine, who now wields Ezra’s lightsaber, on their journey to find him. 

Bordizzo, playing the character with a Han Solo vibe, expressed to Entertainment Weekly the fun she had while filming but also how exhausting it could be, though she was quick to point out that Rosario Dawson — who plays Ahsoka — never seemed to get tired at all.

Bordizzo also shared that the show’s creators are very specific as to what moves the characters can execute. She explained that she trained for months how to wield the lightsaber, but certain natural movements weren’t allowed.

“Sometimes you do stunts in projects, it feels performative or more like it’s for the fun of the action, which is fine, but every action scene in our show is very, very parallel to the story. Every move is thought out to where they would comment that a certain move did or didn’t feel like Sabine.”

For Bordizzo, the lightsaber-wielding likely came more naturally, since she trained at length with legendary martial arts film choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping when preparing for her role in the 2016 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny.

The realization of her intense training for the role of Sabine Wren suggests that she will be using the lightsaber quite a lot in this series. That alone should make hardcore Star Wars fans — and even mild Star Wars fans — much more excited to see Ahsoka, which premieres August 23 on Disney Plus.