Actress Dafne Keen, who plays Jedi Master Sol’s Padawan Jecki in Star Wars: The Acolyte, confirmed that the series is promoting a queer worldview.
(L-R): Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) and Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
Meghan O’Keefe at Decider asked Keen, “Is The Acolyte continuing its wonderfully queer agenda by introducing a possible romance between Jecki and Osha??”
Keen responded, “I am so happy you asked that because this is my favorite question ever. I think, for Jeckie, it’s very confusing because as a Jedi you’re not allowed to have feelings for other people.”
Charlie Barnett, who claimed Anakin Skywalker destroyed the Death Star, corrected her, “Attachments.”
Nevertheless, Keen continued, “And I think… I think she… Hehehe, I think she does. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that, but I think she does.”
(L-R, front row): Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) and Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
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In fact, Keen informed the outlet that her character “liked” Amandla Stenberg’s character in the show’s fourth episode.
Keen elaborated, “Jeckie’s such a young character. She’s an 18-year-old, but she’s not a normal 18-year-old. Like she hasn’t gone to school and she hasn’t had interactions with other like people. So it’s her first real experience, I think, of those kinds of feelings and almost the guilt and confusion that comes with it.”
“She’s such a controlled, like self-judging, like perfect student, that I think it’s also almost self-hatred that comes from having those feelings and the kind of constriction, but also the inevitable magnetism that she has towards Osha because of that,” she added.
(L-R): Olega Padawan (Ed Kear), Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae), Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) and Osha (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Keen would also discuss the competitive nature of her character’s relationship with Osha, “There’s that kind of almost competition as well, that they’re both Sol’s Padawans. There’s that the first scene where we meet Jeckie, she’s like, ‘Is that your old Padawan?’ Like there’s this unspoken thing of the competition.”
She continued, “But also the magnetism and the friendship that they build and the camaraderie — and the fact that they become a team later — and it was really fun to play with like confusing feelings and we don’t really know ever what it is…But to me, I played it like that.”
(L-R): Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
READ: Leslye Headland Confirms ‘The Acolyte’ Is The “Gayest Star Wars,” And Claims That R2-D2 Is A Lesbian
Keen’s comments come in the wake of Leslye Headland confirming the show is the “gayest Star Wars” and positing that C-3PO is gay and that R2-D2 is a lesbian.
Headland feigned surprise that making Star Wars gay would not be a talking point. She questioned, “Is it going to be a talking point?”
We are happy to report that #TheAcolyte is “arguably the gayest #StarWars” yet. 🌈 Happy Pride Month! 😉 pic.twitter.com/3oJSykc4Kq
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) June 4, 2024
Actress Amandla Stenberg then chimed in saying, “Because nerds are gay.” When TheWrap’s interviewer stated, “Well, some nerds are very not gay and are very threatened by gay stuff.” Stenberg responded, “Well, that’s true. But in my world nerds are gay.”
When asked if this was the fun element, Headland responded, “No, I don’t think so and yet people have told me it’s the gayest Star Wars and I am frankly … into it.”
Next, Amandla Stenberg declared, “I think Star Wars is so gay already. I mean have you seen the ‘fits. We’d be like look how gay this is and send each other a reference photo.”
Headland then said, “And are you telling me with a straight face that C-3PO is straight?” TheWrap interviewer responded, “They’re a couple. That’s what I think.” Headland then declared, “I think it’s canon that R2-D2 is a lesbian.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: (L-R) Leslye Headland, Dave Filoni, Chief Creative Officer, Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm attend the launch event for Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Headland had previously confirmed she pitched the show as lesbian fan fiction with a Star Wars veneer during an interview at Star Wars Celebration in 2023. She said, “When I saw Frozen as a grown a** woman, I cried through the entire movie. There was just something about the relationship between the sisters, the like devillainization of the classic kind of fairy tale ‘bad guy,’ you know, the concept of true love being between two sisters and not a heterosexual relationship. It just destroyed me, completely.”
She continued, “And I thought, ‘Gosh, I would love to make something like this, for lack of a better term, Disney.’ Meaning something that like my parents would have allowed me to see when I was younger as a queer person, but I would have been able to understand as a queer person. And I think I would have had a completely different life. And so I really was inspired by it and was like, ‘God, I would love to make a story like this.’”
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Leslye Headland onstage during the Acolyte studio panel at the Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
Headland then shared she took this idea and pitched it as The Acolyte, “And so when I was developing this original idea to pitch to [Lucasfilm President] Kathleen [Kennedy], I thought well, ‘You know, it can’t just be that.’ When you’re pitching Star Wars you have to pull from what George [Lucas] was also interested in.”
“It can’t just be like well I’m referencing- especially if you’re gonna set something during the High Republic, end of High Republic into prequels. You don’t have the Skywalker Saga. You can’t reference a character that was created by George and/or Filoni. You have to create your own new characters,” she added.
Headland also confirmed to IMDb, “I did do a couple of, like, RPG campaigns during COVID with my friends on ZOOM and there are a couple of characters from those campaigns that may or may not be in the show. So there’s a little bit of that.”
She added, “The fan fiction that I wrote was many, many years ago, pre-internet. So it’s not quite what the kids are doing now. But I will say I was always interested in female protagonists that were leaning toward the Dark Side of the Force and being interested in that.”
“I think because when I was little and I heard Ben Kenobi say, ‘Vader was seduced by the Dark Side,’ there was just something about that, that like made my adolescent brain freak out. Like, why did he use that word ‘seduce?’ Like, why did that happen? So I think possibly some of that ended up in the show as well,” she stated.
What do you make of Dafne Keen’s comments?
All Dafne Keen is doing is just beating the dead horse, a lot more.
They do not care. They live in a bubble where everyone loves the show and every sneeze of the characters causes a real cultural revolution. Typical “bohemians” cut off from ordinary people.
Lezzies gonna lez.
So, the “implied” lesbian character previously openly mocked the male character during female gaze fanservice, but her feelings are left implied even in a gay show with gay writers? Hollywood is still Hollywood. Also, I like that the virtue signaling was so overwhelming for her that she ended up spoiling the show.