Getting to Know ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Star Moses Ingram
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Moses Ingram’s credits thus far are a tidy, short list, but already include projects most would dream of over the course of a much longer career.
The 28-year-old Baltimore native began with “The Queen’s Gambit,” her first role out of drama school, which would earn her an Emmy nomination for best supporting actress. Up next was “The Tragedy of Macbeth” with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, before she went on to earn a role in a small little franchise called “Star Wars,” starring as Inquisitor Reva/Third Sister in the new Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
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Hitting the ground running in such epic fashion was not at all what she was prepared for when she graduated from Yale Drama School.
“I definitely expected to have to hit the pavement. The thing is, you’re so prepared for ‘no.’ I feel like that’s part of the training, is knowing how often you’re going to hear ‘no,’” she says. “They’ve got to let you know how often you’re going to hear ‘no’ that they rarely prepare you for the idea that you might hear ‘yes.’ And so it was definitely a surprise, but a welcomed one.”
Ingram wasn’t at all a fan of “Star Wars” before she landed the “Obi-Wan” role, which helped her focus on the task at hand, she says.
“I knew what it was, I knew Obi-Wan, I knew Darth Vader but I hadn’t seen any of the movies until I got this job. In the beginning when we were filming, because I didn’t know so much about Star Wars, it made it easier for me,” she says. “I feel like sometimes when you have true deep love for something you have to go through a period of demystifying it. And because I wasn’t a Star Wars fan before, I didn’t have to go through that process. I felt like I could just do my job. That part didn’t really come into play until people were about to see it.”
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As for fan reactions to the series, she tries not to concern herself with it all too much and just trust in the work she’s put out.
“I think it’s always nerve-wracking handing your work over to the people. You make it in your own bubble. But there comes a point where you got to give it away,” she says. “It’s so funny, it’s out but it really doesn’t exist in my life. It only exists on the socials and I’m not really doing that these days. This is definitely the first time that I’ve had people be like ‘do I know you? I know you.’ But when I wear a mask that doesn’t even happen, so it’s been pretty chill.”
Ingram went straight from community college to Yale Drama School, having known she wanted to act since she was a preteen.
“We had this performance at school, and it wasn’t like I had this crazy audience response, it was more like, when I finished, the audience was just silent and just wrapped in what I’d done. And all I did was allow myself to just have fun for a period of time, and really lean in,” she says. “And so, after that, I did a lot of Googling. I did a lot of reading, all kinds of stuff to just get closer to doing this.”
Up next, Ingram will appear in “Lady in the Lake” opposite Natalie Portman, in a role she took over as Lupita Nyong’o vacated.
Of her career pattern, she likes to be surprised, she says.
“I like not really having an idea. And then someone presents me with one, and it’s like, ‘Oh. You know what? You’re right. That could be pretty cool. Let’s try it,’” she says. “I think that’s a real privilege, to be able to drop into as many different things as one can.”
Dan Doperalski/WWD
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