Star Wars: Dafne Keen Is Completely Unrecognizable On The Acolyte
After kicking butt as Laura, aka X-23, in 2017's "Logan," it was clear Dafne Keen could do great things within the action genre. So it may not come as a surprise to see the actor leap to a galaxy far, far away in the upcoming "The Acolyte," which arrives on Disney+ on June 4. The first trailer for "The Acolyte" teased the rise of the Sith and offered a first look into Keen's character — Jecki Lon who's a mix of human and an alien species known as the Theelin. Keen provided more insight into her character to Entertainment Weekly, including how she became unrecognizable under all of that makeup.
While VFX and motion capture are all the rage these days, it was old-school makeup and prosthetics that helped bring Jecki to life. Keen described going in extremely early in the morning to begin the process. "[I]'d get airbrushed white, and then I'd get freckles airbrushed on me, and I'd get horns stuck on me," she explained. "And my wig and my hands had to be painted, my nails had to be painted — if any parts of my body were revealed, they had to be air brushed."
While it was certainly an extensive process, Keen enjoyed it all the same. "It was really freeing not having my face. It was really nice to just show up at work and be in someone else's face." That commitment to the process, combined with "The Acolyte" cast teasing some epic lightsaber battles, means there are plenty of reasons for Star Wars fans to get excited.
The makeup changed how Dafne Keen played Jecki on The Acolyte
"The Acolyte" steps away from the main timeline of the Skywalker Saga, offering a story entrenched within the High Republic era. Dafne Keen gets to embody a brand new character, a Padawan to Jedi Master Sol, played by "Squid Game" star Lee Jung-jae. Together, they embark on an investigation with sinister machinations at its center involving a powerful figure from Sol's past, Mae (Amandla Stenberg). And the makeup and prosthetics Keen had to wear actually informed the direction in which she took the character.
The actor elaborated, "I thought she was going to be really methodical and cold and calculated, and then as soon as I was in that makeup, she became much more still methodical and a perfectionist and high achiever, but with much more of an ingenuity and a curiosity and a true love for the craft that is being a Jedi." On top of that, Keen mentioned not having as much free rein with her eyebrows, which altered the expressions she could do and provided a "sweeter appearance."
It sounds like Keen had a lot of leeway to flesh out the character in ways she saw fit. She also spoke with Entertainment Weekly about collaborating with "The Acolyte" showrunner Leslye Headland about what the role required: "Ultimately [Headland] was very good at being like, 'This is what I know for a fact, and then I'm going to give you space to think about what you want for your character.'" With an intriguing plot and amazing actors like Keen in the cast, it's no wonder "The Acolyte" will likely be a 2024 TV show that blows everyone away.