How Eman Esfandi Became Ezra Bridger
On the most recent installment of Katee Sackhoff’s podcast, The Sackhoff Show, Eman Esfandi discussed the process of being cast as Ezra Bridger in Ahsoka. Bridger was the lead character in Star Wars Rebels, evolving from a thieving youth to a selfless Jedi. Ahsoka is a sequel to Rebels and follows Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren’s mission to find and rescue Ezra. Esfandi had this to say to Sackhoff regarding his (lack of) experience with the character:
“I didn’t know Clone Wars or Rebels and I had only ever really seen Revenge of the Sith, the Star Wars film, and I was online and something came up about someone playing Space Aladdin and I saw that, and I was like, ‘What? I should play Space Aladdin…’
Didn’t know what that meant or anything, but just off of that, and I look it up and it’s Ezra, so they’re talking about who should play Ezra. I’m like, ‘What is this? Ezra?’ And then there’s a picture of him by Pandora Young art, and it’s this older version she made of what Ezra would look like when he came back from being cast away in Peridea. And it looked like me, kind of …”
And on his kinship with Ezra upon some research:
“So I go look it up, I watch a little bit of Rebels, and then I get this interesting, intuitive feeling, kind of have this dialogue it feels like, with a Force Ghost version of Ezra in my living room. I’m kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’ Ezra’s like, ‘What’s up man! I’d love to come through you and be in your world.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright, this is so weird. But I’m down! You’re a Jedi. I’m down.’ So I say yes to Ezra.”
“The intuition then tells me to send these photos of me and Ezra side-by-side, and send it to my agents and managers. I told them, like, ‘Hey, when this is casting I’m gonna play this character, so use these photos.’ And they’re all kinda like, ‘What are you talking about? Are you talking about Star Wars? Is this an animation, are you gonna be on live-action, what is this?’ And I don’t really explain anything, except my manager calls me up, and I go, ‘This is one of those spiritual things and we’ll just have to see how it plays out.’ And he’s like, ‘Alright, man, I trust you, and also I hope it happens,’ because he grew up on Star Wars.
And, so, six months later, I get the anonymous audition while I’m doing a different film, and within a couple of days, I was offered the role. I definitely felt connected to Ezra when that audition came back again. I was like ‘Oh Ezra! What’s up? You’re back.’”
I’m glad Esfandi got to know the character before being cast as him. I love to hear about new fans getting into things I love, especially if they get involved with the creative process. That must be such an amazing experience. And it’s so cool that Katee Sackhoff interviewed him, an actress who plays her character, Bo-Katan, in both animation and live-action. I loved Esfandi’s take on the character, as it felt extremely faithful to his animated counterpart without being overblown. Ahsoka and Hera actresses Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead could learn a lot from Esfandi, as well as Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays Sabine. I still think Winstead was a nepo hire, being Ewan McGregor’s wife and not suited to the role of Hera at all. Anyway, I found Eman Esfandi to be a believable take on older Ezra while keeping some of his wide-eyed goofiness intact. I absolutely believe he watched the show to prepare, as anyone should when there is existing source material. Ahsoka is a mess overall, especially in the last couple of episodes. A few excellent performances are the only real highlight.
As for all that about Ezra’s Force Ghost, yeah, okay, it’s cute, I guess. I find this portion of the interview to be a little goofy and overplayed, especially coming from someone relatively new to Star Wars. I think Esfandi was likely just trying to keep it light and lean into the fandom, which may work better visually than in text form. The “Space Aladdin” bit made me giggle, and I look forward to Ahsoka season 2, which is hopefully a lot better. I’m not betting on that, though; before it aired, I was sure season 1 would be great.
Let us know what you think of Eman Esfandi’s performance as Ezra Bridger on Ahsoka in the comments!
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