Natasha Liu Bordizzo on Sabine & Ezra, Rebels Callbacks, & Working With Dave Filoni | Spacecon 2025

Recorded live at SpaceCon San Antonio on October 25, 2025. Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren in Ahsoka) answers fan questions about landing the role, stepping into Star Wars, and what it means to carry a character fans already love. She tells the full casting story: sending in an anonymous audition tape while shooting Day Shift, not even being told it was Star Wars, reading Tom Cruise lines from Top Gun for “a confidential Lucasfilm project,” and then getting a call that she’d be co-leading a series with Rosario Dawson. After that came a meeting with Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau to confirm she was their Sabine. Topics covered in the panel: Preparing to play Sabine Wren She watched all of Star Wars Rebels after being cast and treated the animated series like a memory bank for Sabine — emotions, history, trust issues, loyalty, stubbornness. She talks about how important Sabine’s early training with Kanan is for understanding who Sabine is in Ahsoka: struggling with control, fighting past trauma, wanting to be more but not always believing she deserves it. She says Filoni’s approach is freeing: “You are this character now,” meaning she’s allowed to make choices in live action rather than just imitate animation. Armor, costuming, and the “oh wow” moment The first time she went to Manhattan Beach Studios for fittings, they put her in Mandalorian armor — even Bo-Katan’s plates — just to see how it sat on her frame. She’d just binge-watched everything Star Wars, so she was already on emotional overload. She talks about the practical sets on Ahsoka: working switches that light up, working droids, physical props instead of pretending in front of a blank wall. She calls it “Disneyland every day.” Sabine in Ahsoka Sabine’s arc in season 1 is not clean or easy. Natasha loves that Sabine makes questionable calls, struggles with grief, and sometimes gives in to hurt. She points out that Sabine still receives patience, mentorship, and care from Ahsoka even when she “doesn’t deserve it,” and that this kind of unconditional bond matters. She jokes that you could make a drinking game out of how many times Sabine says “Ezra” in season 1. Chemistry with the cast Working with Iman Vellani–style? No — with Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger. She says anytime Sabine and Ezra are together it feels like a reunion instead of just another scene. She praises the whole Ahsoka crew as a tight little gang with nonstop inside jokes on set. She lights up talking about the late Ray Stevenson, describing him as pure energy who loved rave music and made every day feel like an event. Training, stunt work, and physical prep She compares Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (cast two and a half weeks before filming, thrown into deep martial arts stances immediately) with Ahsoka, where she had months of lightsaber and sword training and still practices at home with blades. She explains that stunt beats in Ahsoka are never just “look cool and spin.” Every strike has to come from character motivation — why that move at that moment. Their stunt lead on season 1 was Mei (Ming Qiu / Ming-Mei type reference from transcript context), who is Chinese, and a lot of the movement vocabulary pulls from Chinese wushu and Japanese sword work. Representation and The Force She talks about being recognized as the first on-screen Asian Jedi lead and why that matters to her personally. She connects Jedi philosophy and the Force to East Asian ideas about energy, discipline, and balance. She says it feels right that someone of Chinese heritage is bringing that physical and spiritual language to live action. Life outside the volume She laughs about being asked to doodle Sabine-style art for tattoos and says “I don’t know if I’m that good.” She’s been teaching herself practical skills — knitting, sewing, fixing things — as a personal protest against letting machines and AI do everything. She shares that sometimes fans don’t recognize her at first in public because the Sabine armor and hair color are such a big transformation, but in San Antonio someone already bought her coffee and she was delighted. Working with legends She tells a sweet story about Michelle Yeoh: she expected a serious, regal figure and instead met someone who said “hey dude,” treated her like family, and mentored her when she was 19. Looking ahead Asked to sum up Ahsoka season 2 in one word, she answers: “bigger… and better.” She’s careful not to spoil anything, but she makes it clear that Sabine’s path is far from done. Recorded and posted by Tales From The Collection. Subscribe for more Star Wars cast panels, behind-the-scenes Q&As, and convention coverage from SpaceCon, GalaxyCon, Fan Expo, and more.