Dafne Keen almost missed her “Star Wars: The Acolyte” job interview

Coming clean about why it happened ended up landing her the part of Jecki Lon.

Star Wars: The Acolyte will tell a story of when the Jedi were strong in both the force and in number. But one of the actors playing a Jedi came close to not getting the role due to almost missing her interview for the part. Or perhaps she got it because she almost missed her interview… and didn’t lie about the reason why.

The actor in question is Dafne Keen, who will be playing Padawan Jecki Lon when the series debuts June 4 on Disney+, and Keen’s journey to a galaxy far, far away began — like so many others — with an audition.

“They sent me some sides," Keen tells Entertainment Weekly, and they told my agent, ‘It's Star Wars, but you can't tell Daphne it's Star Wars.’ And my agent, she was like, ‘You can't say anything, but it's Star Wars.’”

Props to Keen’s agent for keeping it real. As for what she had to do during her audition: “It was these sides of my character flying a spaceship, and it was basically me yelling coordinates, which is the hardest thing to learn because it doesn't make narrative sense. When you forget a line, you can always kind of think: Oh, what would be my natural answer to this? But you can't learn a number sequence if you're not good with numbers.”

The emphasis on coordinates slowed down Keen’s usually speedy process. “I'm usually really good at learning lines," she says. "It took me a good day to learn these lines, which is so rare for me. I can learn lines within five minutes. I had one of my best friends help me learn them, and then I recorded it in my sitting room in my house and I was like, 'Oh, well, probably won't get it, but at least I got to audition for Star Wars.'"

Keen then put the entire matter out of her mind, until an impending date with Doctor Strange. “I was going to go into the cinema with my friends to watch Multiverse of Madness, and as I was going in, I got a call from producer Colin Wilson. I was like: Oh, weird. Star Wars producer calling.”

After being told that showrunner Leslye Headland liked Keen’s audition, a call was set up between the pair to talk more about both the role and the show. “We organized this call, and I am the most chaotic human being ever,” says Keen. “It was summertime, and I was living in Spain at the time, and I was going to my friend's pool because it's boiling in Spain in the summertime. I was on this bus halfway to the countryside in the middle of nowhere in the mountains in Spain and I get this email from Leslye being like, ‘I'm on the call, you can hop on whenever.’”

That’s when the panic set it. “I was like: Oh my God, I've completely lost track of time! I pressed the emergency exit button on the bus and walked for 10 minutes to a gas station. And then I went into the cafe at the gas station and propped my phone up on a Fanta. And then I picked up, and Leslye was like, ‘Where are you?’”

It was in that moment that Keen had a choice to make: a choice between the light side and the dark. “I had a moment of: Do I lie to her and do I say, ‘I've gone to a cafe for better wifi.’ Or do I just fess up and say that I'm absolute chaos and I lost track of time?”

Keen chose the latter. “I fessed up and I was like, ‘I'm so sorry. I completely lost track of time. I am in the squelching heat in Spain in summer, and I was going to my friend's house and I thought I'd make it in time and I didn't. I'm so sorry.’”

It was an admission that could have lost the actor a part in one of the world’s biggest pop culture franchises. Instead, it sealed the deal. “She literally laughed out loud and she was like, ‘I was thinking about giving you the part, and the fact that you just told me that shows me you’re the one. You could have lied to me.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but it just felt wrong.’” So I think I got cast because she thought it was hilarious that I did not lie to her about being complete and absolute chaos. And then we spoke about the show and I was completely in love with Leslye’s concept.’”

So, in the end, the very Jedi like move of being honest about being at fault ended up landing Keen the role of a Jedi. “I went Jedi. I was perfect for the role.”

Star Wars: The Acolyte premieres June 4 on Disney+.

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• How The Acolyte brought the Jedi Wookiee Kelnacca to life on screen

• The Acolyte is a Star Wars show 'with no war in it'

• Amandla Stenberg on how The Acolyte has made sci-fi safe for Black nerds

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.