‘The Acolyte’ Star Lee Jung-Jae on Being a Jedi, Leslye Headland

At the Monte-Carlo TV Festival on Saturday, Lee Jung-Jae, one of the stars of the new Disney+ series “Star Wars: The Acolyte”, spoke with Variety about how he prepared for his role as Jedi Master Sol, the show’s creator Leslye Headland’s strengths as showrunner, and the relationship between Sol and Amandla Stenberg’s characters.

Lee, who won a Primetime Emmy for “Squid Game,” says that for 50% of the role of “The Acolyte” he drew inspiration from previous portrayals of the Jedi Masters, and “for the other 50% I tried to find something that was suitable. to Sol – something that would only incarnate him.” He also consulted with an expert in “Star Wars” lore at Lucasfilm.

In “The Acolyte” the Jedi Masters are shown to be flawed. How does the show present this? “What it’s trying to say in ‘The Acolyte’ is that anyone can make mistakes, but you have to accept the mistakes you make and make an effort to correct them or develop yourself, because every human being has an unstable way of thinking has,” says Lee. “So we all make mistakes, but you have to accept them, and if you make really good efforts, you can move towards something good.”

Lee says of Headland that she is someone who “just thinks that every person is precious, so therefore she also has an approach to each character that makes them very important and precious.”

He adds: “Each of the characters has their own past and their own reasons [for doing what they do]. She is really committed to the characters, and you can feel that when you read the screenplay.

Lee apologized for not being able to go into detail about Sol’s relationship with twins Mae and Osha, both played by Stenberg, because that would be a spoiler, but he did say that “the mystery [of their relationship with Sol] is revealed episode by episode, so following all these mysterious things is one of the things you’ll enjoy watching in this series.

However, he added that Sol gives each girl equal attention and “gives them the same opportunities”, although he ultimately chooses Mae as his Padawan, an apprentice Jedi.