Mary Elizabeth Winstead on bringing Hera from animated Rebels to live-action Ahsoka

Dalton Ross
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It's fair to assume that Mary Elizabeth Winstead has never played a green alien with giant appendages called lekku protruding from her skull before. But slipping into such a role for an upcoming Star Wars series was not quite as foreign as it might have been had Winstead not had a wealth of material on the character to help guide her journey.

Winstead will be playing Hera Syndulla, the Twi'lek resistance leader turned general, when Ahsoka premieres this August on Disney+, but the character already has a deep history from having been a main element of the animated series Star Wars Rebels. For four seasons, fans watched the Ghost crew fight as insurgents on the Imperial-occupied planet of Lothal and beyond, with Hera as the team's steadying influence and respected captain. She also was at the heart of a Rebels love story, eventually having a son with slain Jedi Kanan Jarrus.

For Winstead — who recently joined costars Rosario Dawson and Natasha Liu Bordizzo on EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast — having that established background on the ace pilot and military leader was key as she brought the character to life in live action.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla on 'Ahsoka'
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla on 'Ahsoka'

Lucasfilm Ltd. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla on 'Ahsoka'

"Having a character who's already existed and has such a rich history on something like Rebels, as an actor, it's incredible," Winstead told Dagobah Dispatch. "Because sometimes we're tasked with creating our own backstories or trying to flesh out a character that doesn't really have that much on the page. And so to play a character that has season after season of storylines and complex histories with everyone in their life and relationships and experiences was really something I've never experienced quite like that."

It was a resource Winstead took advantage of throughout filming on Ahsoka. "To have Rebels to refer to, and to have [Rebels and Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni] to speak to about it every day on set, was a real luxury for sure."

So who is the Hera viewers will meet on Ahsoka, and is she any different from the one we saw on Rebels? "I see Hera as an incredibly strong but complicated person," Winstead sats. "She is very maternal, but also she's this leader of this crew. And as we see, she continues and becomes a general. And so she's leading quite a lot of people and she's become something of a legend in her own right."

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla on 'Ahsoka'
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla on 'Ahsoka'

Disney+ Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla on 'Ahsoka'

But Winstead is also careful to point out how that military leadership and expertise are just one facet of the character. "She's also very soft and warm, and people come to her for advice and solace and comfort," Winstead explains. "Seeing those things combined is very unusual, and something that I really wanted to play on screen, because that's such a aspirational thing, I think, as a woman — or just a person — to be able to be all of those things in one."

However, that doesn't mean Hera doesn't have any flaws or is not subject to the occasional mistake, says the woman playing her: "She's certainly not perfect, but she does have all of those qualities that make her somebody that you can really look up to in a way. And I like to try to be that on film. I don't know that I quite live up to it in reality, but it's someone to try and try and reach for."

And that reaching will begin this August.

To listen to EW's full interview with Winstead, Dawson, and Bordizzo, check out the latest episode of Dagobah Dispatch.

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