Rosario Dawson explains how the makeup process improved from The Mandalorian to her new series Ahsoka… cutting it in half from three hours to 90 minutes
While fans get ready for the highly-anticipated Disney Plus Star Wars series Ahsoka to debut this week – with the streaming service pushing the premiere up by one day – star Rosario Dawson is enlightening fans on the intricate makeup process.
Her title character was introduced as a 14-year-old Padawan learner of Anakin Skywalker in the 2008 film Star Wars: The Clone Wars before appearing in the animated series of the same name and the follow-up series Star Wars Rebels, voiced by Ashley Eckstein.
Dawson came aboard to portray the character in live-action in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, ahead of this new limited series, debuting with a two-episode premiere on August 22.
The 44-year-old actress’ character is a species known as togruta in the Star Wars universe, chiefly distinguished by their unique ‘head tails’ known as montrals.
She revealed in a new interview with EW that they were able to cut the makeup process down from over three hours on The Mandalorian to 90 minutes on Ahsoka.
Premiere: While fans get ready for the highly-anticipated Disney Plus Star Wars series Ahsoka to debut this week – with the streaming service pushing the premiere up by one day – star Rosario Dawson is enlightening fans on the intricate makeup process
Makeup: She revealed in a new interview with EW that they were able to cut the makeup process down from over three hours on The Mandalorian to 90 minutes on Ahsoka
‘We were very proud! We timed ourselves every single day. Depending on how much skin was showing, sometimes it would go up to two hours,’ she said.
‘And that’s tough: We were going in at 4 in the morning every day so that we could be ready when the crew is there at 6,’ Dawson added.
‘We’d have a full day, and then it would still take at least half an hour to take it all off,’ she continued.
The makeup process included installing custom-fitted head tails and having her face painted, as the crew noticed how shades of paint looked different in sunlight and in the, ‘Volume,’ described as, ‘the groundbreaking LED technology used to project realistic backgrounds on set.’
‘It was like, “Okay, I look really good in the light, but I’m neon now,”‘ she joked, resulting in the color being adjusted for each scene.
‘The montrals are longer. It’s all 3D-printed, and it moves completely differently. It’s lighter,’ she added.
‘That technology literally didn’t exist when we were first doing the character in The Mandalorian, so it’s been really cool to see how it keeps evolving,’ she continued.
Proud: ‘We were very proud! We timed ourselves every single day. Depending on how much skin was showing, sometimes it would go up to two hours,’ she said
Tough: ‘And that’s tough: We were going in at 4 in the morning every day so that we could be ready when the crew is there at 6,’ Dawson added
Longer: ‘The montrals are longer. It’s all 3D-printed, and it moves completely differently. It’s lighter,’ she added
Technology: ‘That technology literally didn’t exist when we were first doing the character in The Mandalorian, so it’s been really cool to see how it keeps evolving,’ she continued
The popular epic space opera multimedia franchise announced in a tweet that the premiere date of Ahsoka would be pushed up by one day on Disney+, the popular subscription streaming service, and that new episodes would be available in primetime.
‘Thank you to all the fans who celebrated with us at our @AhsokaOfficial fan events around the world last night!,’ the Star Wars Twitter account stated in its lengthy post.
‘We’re excited to announce that new episodes of #Ahsoka will now launch Tuesdays at 6PM PT, starting with our two-episode premiere on August 22, only on @DisneyPlus.’
A one minute and four seconds long video clip was posted along with the tweet, featuring enthusiastic Star Wars fans attending several promo events and also sfeatured from the soon-to-be released limited series.
