Ahsoka
Summary
Ahsokabrought a slew of characters from creator Dave Filoni ’s animated seriesStar Wars Rebelsto live - action and featured the return of some ofStar war ’ most iconic characters . Ahsoka Tano , Grand Admiral Thrawn , and even Anakin Skywalker were brought to life through a compounding of VFX wizardry and pragmatic costuming and makeup . Ahsoka ’s five Emmy Award nods reflect that , with VFX , prosthetic makeup , and costuming all nominated
When it comes to costumes , the honor goes to the previous Shawna Trpcic and her team , which included adjunct costume designer Elissa Alcala and costume executive program Devon Patterson . Ahsokawasn’t the first project on which Trpcic and her team collaborate with Filoni — they also work onThe Mandalorianseasons 2 and 3 andThe Book of Boba Fett . ForAhsoka , Trpcic and company built off of the work they did for those serial while also breaking raw footing in the form of kintsugi - inspiredNight Troopersand bouncy - action Nightsisters .
The 2023 live - action Star Wars series Ahsoka has been recognized by the Emmy Awards for its many accomplishment , let in costume and visuals .
Screen Rantspoke with Alcala and Patterson about their oeuvre onAhsoka . The pair reflected on what it was like working with Trpcic , revealed the aspiration behind the enigmatic case Enoch , and detail the monolithic undertaking of handcraft Thrawn ’s portion of theImperial Remnant . The pair also discussed the emotional aspect of working onStar Wars , and what it was like to see player get in costume for the first fourth dimension .
Elissa Alcala & Devon Patterson On Being Emmy-Nominated For Ahsoka
Screen blah : Congratulations on the Emmy nominating address . I envisage that ’s bittersweet , but how are you feeling about all your work being recognise in this means ?
Elissa Alcala : I recall it ’s absolutely amazing , something that Shawna would be so proud of , and something that I know our squad is also really proud of . We worked so hard on this task and we put so much thinking and passion into it . To be realize for something that we were also passionate about and would ’ve work our butt off for no matter what is a immense purity . That not just fan but also our own peer see the hard work and dedication that pass away into it is a very bountiful laurels .
Alcala & Patterson Detail Working With Dave Filoni To Bring Animated Characters To Live-Action
I watched all ofStar Wars Rebels , so I was very excited to see all of this come to life . How did you all go about adapting that artistic manner into the wardrobe for this show , peculiarly with the type that got brought over from life ?
Devon Patterson : There was a great deal of research involved . Shawna had some ideas in terms of which material might function for certain fictional character , but it literally was a inquiry unconscious process . It was also get out to shop for various fabric to see what would work on . A lot of things that you see on camera , we dyed . We bought white or off - white versions of textile and dyed it to get the plangency of the animation because we could n’t find the accurate thing that we were looking for . But Shawna was really like , “ Let ’s compute out how to make this work . We owe it to the buff , because they ’re unrestrained to see it . ” She was excited for the fans ' answer .
Elissa Alcala : Also , we had to deal that something that is enliven is n’t needs sound to translate into being wearable on an actual human being . It was really of import for us , as fans also , to keep as much of the animated costume represented in the resilient legal action , but then make sense of why it ’s on a living human being . That was really important for Dave as well . He did n’t need us to just regurgitate the liven . He wanted us to be breathe in by it , but then take it and build something that an actual homo being could tire out . It was [ about ] figure out how we were expire to operate the two and do it in a way that was both respectful and also made sense for an actor .
And you went even farther back thanRebels — you hadThe Clone Warspeople pop up up with Nightsisters . Was that a interchangeable process ? Because that animation is even a small more abstract .
Elissa Alcala : For Anakin ’s costume — and Ahsoka ’s costume , even — there was a lot of meeting with Dave talking about facial expression he definitely wanted us to keep from that and figuring out how to transform it . We looked at everything . We had to look into the archive and we get 360 [ degree models ] of the revivify persona so we could see them from every individual angle and consider the piece that pass away into it .
We also depend at how other hoi polloi then film it and did it . We look at the toy that have been made from it — Sideshow has done some really sound ones — and we looked at how people tackled it themselves . From there , we were able to project out how we wanted to tackle it and bring it to life . Again , it was a collaboration between our customs - made people , our seamster , Shawna , and Dave , and also Doug [ Chiang ] was involve . Everyone was involved in this process , but it was a lot of playfulness . [ We had to view ] the actors as well : “ This armor piece that is on Anakin — how will Hayden be capable to move in it ? ” Everyone had to be involved in the unconscious process .
Rosario Dawson and Natasha Liu Bordizzo in Ahsoka
How did your department — you two , Shawna , and everyone else — study ? How were things handed off , and what did each of you dive into the most ?
Devon Patterson : Once you had an idea of where you were run , depending on what you were doing , you would go source cloth . Shawna did a lot of testing with dyeing . Some of the fabrics did n’t always start off the coloring material that you see them on projection screen , so they would go to the ager / dyer . Shawna would say , “ I want it to be like this colour , ” and then they would do several trial run dye until they got the people of colour that Shawna desire . Once she got the perfect dye , Shawna would move that over to the tailor and say , “ This is what I involve you to make , ” and ordinarily that was given to them as a sketch . But then , even sometimes as they were creating it , she would say , “ I ’m not trusted I ’m felicitous with the way that ’s going . Can you conform this ? ”
Then , if there was any armor that needed to be put on top of that , it would go to our specialty custom - made armorers , and we would put it on a dress shape . The next whole tone would be assign it on the actor , and at that gunpoint it ’s like , “ Well , we need to adjust the armour this path , ” or , “ We need to take in or let out , ” or , “ We need to move this up here because it accentuates their eubstance well . ” That is the process that we go through , in general , for just about anything that we do .
Elissa Alcala : We ’ve both been using the word “ quislingism ” , but Shawna was an literal collaborator . She did n’t just go up to people and go , “ This is what I require , this is how you require to do it , and this is how it needs to be done . ” Shawna understood that the people she had engage know what they were doing and they were the expert . She wanted to collaborate with them . She wanted to recoil idea off them . She require our tailors and our specialness impost - made and our ager / dyer to have idea and represent them to her , and she actually loved that unconscious process . She loved being capable to babble out to all of us and jounce off ideas , and she wanted it to feel like it was a material artists ' residential area .
Alcala & Patterson Detail The Creation Of Enoch & A Night Trooper Army
One of my favorite part of this whole series is Thrawn and his the great unwashed . Enoch the stormtrooper is unlike anything you ’ve ever seen in Star Wars . Can you sing about how that fictional character specifically came together and why he looks the means that he does ?
Elissa Alcala : We had that outline pretty much from Clarence Day one of starting production . He was pretty thought out between Dave and Doug , but Dave also always liked it to come to us . He understood that it was a sketch , and you have to regard the mortal that ’s going to have to wear it and how it ’s pass to be worn . Dave and Doug both were always really good about being like , “ Here ’s our study . Where are you guys go to go from here ? ” Shawna , especially with anything that she did with Star Wars , like us to take everything and look at how it would ’ve been made when Star Wars was in the beginning made . For Enoch specifically , she sleep with she wanted him sculpted from Clarence Shepard Day Jr. one . She wanted to have our sculptor making it from scratch with clay .
There was no 3D printing process necessitate . There were no estimator involved in making that costume . We did n’t do vivification on the computing equipment . We had Marcus Napuri come in and start sculpting him , and Dave was constantly coming to our warehouse and make adjustments to the sculpt before we even started determine it . From there , we molded it , and then we had to fiddle around with the color and the Au leafing and how to get it just right . Through that process , we had a lot of people require . It was Shawna and Dave , our Sculptor , and our seamster . They had to calculate out how his armour bit were going to go . He is inspired by a stormtrooper , but he ’s also different because he ’s the loss leader . We had to estimate out how we wanted to build his piano good and make them unique to him , but at the same clip , [ we want ] people to recognize that he come from the stormtroopers .
Devon Patterson : There was a picayune act of Grecian mythology in his character too . In term of his facial structure and his body type , that was one of the inspirations for his character .
Elissa Alcala : Dave was always really skillful with coming in and yield backstory to not just Shawna , but our whole team . He would take the time to sit there with the team and excuse the backstory of a costume or where the inspiration came from so that our team understood what this costume need to look like .
What was the hard part of arrange costumes together for this series ?
Elissa Alcala : The vaporous volume of costumes we had to make . For our Night Troopers , I feel like we were working fairly much until the hour on the hour to have those hombre done . Yes , they have the basis of being stormtroopers , but we literally went in with all [ of them]—I think we had 56 , 46 , somewhere in there — and our team had to go in and do all of the break lines and kintsugi them back together . They had to do all the gold leafing , they had to do the break , we had to wrap up them in the red-faced cloth , and [ before all of that ] , we had to amount in with scraps that Shawna had us burn and age , and then we had to add more on top of that . It was a constant [ battle ] until it was on screen , and then our set costumers had to maintain what we plant .
Our warehouse and the seat that we shot all of this were two freestanding places , so in between dressing the player in these costumes , we had to backpack all of this stuff . We had boxes for all of these stormtroopers that had to be loaded onto transpo , taken over , and unload and unpacked . [ There ’s a lot of ] stuff that you do n’t think about goes into these costumes . I ’m pretty certain I remember backpack all of the clobber and being like , “ Okay , I ’ve got to be back here in 10 hours , and then we ’ve catch to do all of it again . ” So it was half-baked , but a lot of playfulness . run into it on leg , I probably cried . Shawna probably cried . We all probably cry at some gunpoint with relief , but also it just appear really , really cool .
Devon Patterson : For people to understand , we really make these costume . It ’s not like we go to a memory and buy them . With a couple of pieces that we may have purchase , we fundamentally rip them apart and redo them . Everything is custom for Star Wars . And you do n’t see how anything closes in Star Wars , so you also have to turn over that . You do n’t see buttons , you do n’t see zippers , you do n’t see any of that because that ’s not how Star Wars works . So , when you also consider everything that ’s done , it ’s also like , “ How do we rent them get in and out of this without you seeing how they get in and out of it ? ” I would say that ’s also a affair that you have to weigh when you attend at the whole universe .
When you ’re on a sentence crunch as you ’re describing with the Night Troopers , is the guy in the very back of the legion ever in sweat pants ? Are you ever able to chouse any of it ?
Elissa Alcala : No . Shawna would never . We always plan for the bad - case scenario . That is something that myself , Devin , and our squad would always consider . Worst case scenario , someone ’s costume is going to break , so you may have only seen 40 to 56 cavalryman on screen door at a time , but the reality is that we had 10 more made that we could pull pieces from just in display case something broke . By the time they made it to the phase and were being film , we had already think of bad case scenarios and had backup plans .
“They Would Start Crying”: Alcala & Patterson On People’s Reactions To Dressing For Star Wars
I reckon for any actor that ’s stepping into this world , it must be crazy to put on the wardrobe of a Jedi , stormtrooper , or whoever . You ’re consider the actors put all this poppycock on . Do you have any memorable mo of seeing Hayden , Rosario , or anyone have an emotional response to your work ?
Elissa Alcala : I think back one of our first fittings with Mary Elizabeth . Most people do fittings with mockups . We still did that , but Shawna wanted our mockups to pretty much look like the actual costume when we got to fit the actor . She roll in the hay that the actor needed to have this aha moment of being like , “ I ’m this character . ” With Mary Elizabeth , we had a good mockup of what her costume was actually move to look like . We had pulled stuff , we had thing made , and we had put it on her , and she look in the mirror and was like , “ I ’m Hera ” . She ’s like , “ This is it . I do n’t even need to see the makeup . This is me . This is what I ’m go to be . This is really cool . ” She got really excited .
[ It was the ] same thing with Natasha . For her first meet , we plainly did n’t have a full Mandalorian exercise set , but [ she ] offend up order on one of our extra Bo Katans so she could find the weightiness of what the costume would be . She was like , “ Okay . ” So , I think we did have these “ aha ” moment , but some of my preferent import in fitting were actually with screen background .
Rosario Dawson and Natasha Liu Bordizzo in Ahsoka
The background actors came in for these fitting not know what they were come in in for . They would come into our storage warehouse space and our fundamental costumers and our background fitters would be putting material on , and I would number into the room and I ’d just stand there . All of a sudden , this person would have this realisation of being like , “ Am I on Star Wars ? ” Some of them would be really big fans , and they would start crying because they had no idea , because secrecy . It was always really fun .
Devon Patterson : I would say the aha second for me was when I was on set when we did the Clone Wars segment . The response of the crew when everybody was there on readiness was awe-inspiring . That was an aha moment for them .
Alcala & Patterson Reflect On Working With Shawna Trpcic
Do you each have a favorite memory board of work with Shawna on this series ?
Devon Patterson : I would say my favorite memory of working with Shawna was doing the spacesuit for Ahsoka . Shawna like collaboration , she had something so specific in mind , and the back and forth between the two of us in copulation to that costume is what I will always recollect most .
Elissa Alcala : Ahsoka was my third project working with Shawna , and my third Star Wars series with Shawna . What I appreciated most about Shawna was her power to look at something , get so excited , and be ready to go at it a thousand per centum . Shawna would always say yes to everything . Any request was always a yes . Devon and I would be standing there , like , “ No , we ca n’t keep taking poppycock on , ” but she was so passionate and believe so much in our squad that she knew we could do it . There was no incertitude in her mind that we could do it . For me , that was something where , at the time , I would want to shake her and be like , “ What are you doing to us ? ” But now , attend back on it , I really appreciate it . It just show the belief that she had in our team and in our power to be able to pull everything off .
About Ahsoka
Ahsoka keep abreast Ahsoka Tano , former padawan of Anakin Skywalker as she investigates a develop scourge to the New Republic , Grand Admiral Thrawn . With aid from her allies from the twenty-four hours of the Rebellion , Ghost crew members Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla , they will hunt for this familiar threat while also searching for their booster , the lose Jedi Ezra Bridger .
Ahsokais streaming now on Disney+ .
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Cast
Ahsoka come after the journeying of former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy . Released in 2023 , this serial publication takes spot within the Star Wars universe and features Ahsoka navigating through a complex political and cosmic landscape .
