Carrie-Anne Moss On The Spiritual Side Of Playing Jedi Master Indara In Star Wars: The Acolyte

Twenty five years after first playing Trinity in The Matrix, Carrie-Anne Moss is set to enter the Star Wars universe in June with a leading role in The Acolyte. Appropriately for an action star of her status, Moss is playing Jedi Master Indara, a woman who doesn’t always need to draw her lightsaber in battle. But according to Moss, portraying Indara had a spiritual component in addition to her physical performance.

“Within my soul and my spirit, to get to play this Jedi Master and train for the fight was [an] amazing experience,” Moss told Empire. “I really awakened, actually, a part of me that forgot how much I love action. I love it. I personally love being challenged. It’s a physical challenge, but it’s a mental challenge too. It helps you get into that world of the Jedi Master, with the mind-training.”

Moss also described her favorite aspects of Indara’s character.

“She’s very physically strong, she’s very mentally strong,” noted Moss. “I loved a lot of things about her. But [particularly] the containment. I love that word. I love words. And that word, ‘containment’–even just saying it, I can feel what I had to access to play her. You’re fighting against so much to keep it right here [gestures to her center], but also to have the power. When you have power through containment, that’s my sweet spot. This was, I think, one of the most contained characters I’ve ever played.”

Additionally, Moss revealed that she put a lot of pressure on herself to make her lightsaber scenes look as effortless as possible.

“The lightsaber was really important to me,” said Moss. “I felt like a little kid who just wanted to do it so right. I could have almost cried. I don’t usually feel that way. I had to say to everybody, ‘I want to get this so right, that I may have to make some mistakes first.’ The weight on my shoulders–and on my heart–that I felt to do the lightsaber well was something I didn’t expect… So I practiced a lot in my hotel with a broomstick. I think we did end up reshooting that, actually. I said to Leslye [Headland], ‘Let’s just keep shooting. It has to be great. You have to promise me that we’ll keep doing it [if it isn’t right].’ It’s much more challenging than it looks. Making it look effortless–like I could just do it in my sleep–was the most stressful moment I had in the whole thing.”

The Acolyte will have a two-episode premiere on Disney+ on June 4.