Ricky Church chats with Tiya Sircar about Star Wars Rebels…
Earlier this year, Star Wars Rebels‘s four-season run came to an end as the Ghost crew made a desperate attempt to free the planet Lothal from the Empire’s grip. The final episodes were some of the series most intense and action packed, especially for it’s two youngest characters Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren as they both took on more responsibility and leadership in their fight against Grand Admiral Thrawn and other Imperial forces.
Sabine is one character who went through quite a dramatic change throughout the series, but none moreso than in the third and fourth seasons where she reconnected with her Mandorlian family and came to terms with her past. Sabine has quickly become a fan-favourite character among Star Wars fans for her devotion to her makeshift family, snarky attitude and ever evolving style. As the fourth season is getting ready for release on blu-ray next week, Flickering Myth got the chance to chat with Tiya Sircar, the voice behind Sabine in both Star Wars Rebels and the animated micro-series Star Wars: Forces of Destiny. We talked about Sabine’s evolution into a leader, her emotional past, how Sircar transitioned from live-action to voice acting, Sircar’s time on NBC’s The Good Place and what the future may hold for the Mandolorian heroine. Check out our exclusive interview below…
Ricky Church: Sabine has become a fan-favourite character for Star Wars fans young and old and I admit I’m a big Sabine fan as well. How does that make you feel to know Sabine has such a huge following among fans?
Tiya Sircar: It’s a huge honour. I mean, I can’t say I ever anticipated being part of Star Wars as an actor early on in my career. That’s not something you sort of forecast as a possibility and so becoming a part of such a phenomenon is already incredibly humbling, but to also play a character that people have really responded to and getting to see in person and on social media, teens and adults cosplaying your character, it’s still pretty surreal even though I’ve been doing it for many years now. It’s a huge honour and feels really amazing. I myself am a fan of Sabine’s and I respect who she is and what she stands for. It’s really inspiring to me to get to play a character that I admire and that’s really exciting for me.
RC: You’ve definitely touched on that note of how she became a inspirational figure which brings me to my next question. Sabine went through quite an arc throughout the series, going from a loyal soldier but still questioning their actions to a fairly important leader of the Ghost crew and her Mandolorian clan. How did you adapt as an actor to Sabine’s evolution?
TS: That’s a good question. I think I myself didn’t know all that much about her. I think Dave Filoni kind of knew the least about Sabine when we started and found the character as we went along. I think I didn’t actually know all the information there was to know about Sabine. I kind of grew the more I learned about her and as the audience learned more about her. I feel like when we first started out I thought Sabine was so wise beyond her years and so mature. She’s a teenager but she’s so capable.
I kind of came to the realization over four seasons that even though she was strong, a warrior, highly trained and a munitions expert, she’s still a teenager and had, not insecurities, but she was not unlike me as a 16-year-old where I thought I knew everything and turns out I didn’t. So as we went along over four seasons I realized she put up a mature front, but still had a lot of things to work through. Humility and trust are some of those things. I learned more about her, especially when we finally meet her family and got more background on what transpired between them and getting to see her resolve that. It added an extra layer to who she is and getting to see her be vulnerable which is not a thing I anticipated us showing. She grew over the four seasons and I did as well.
RC: You just touched on Sabine’s vulnerability and one of my favourite moments is her emotional breakdown in the training session with Kanan (Season 3’s ‘Trials of the Darksaber’) where we finally learn about her family and what she did for the Empire. What can you tell us about getting into that emotional headspace for Sabine and what it did for her character arc going forward?
TS: That was definitely one of my favourite and toughest moments for me recording ‘Trials of the Darksaber’. Generally speaking, Dave Filoni did not give us a lot of lead time knowing what we were going to be doing next. Which is fine because we’re on a need to know basis and when you need to know you know. Beyond that we don’t need to know which is fine with me. That’s how we focus on the task at hand.
In this case which was so hugely helpful, Dave sort of pulled me aside at another recording session for a different episode and said “Listen, this is what’s going to be happening and what I need from you is going to be challenging, it’s going to be emotional” and he actually asked me since we recorded as a cast “do you want to do a duo, intimate recording session with you and Freddie?” I opted for that so it was a very intimate session. Not a lot of people in the booth, meaning on the other side Dave, a sound engineer and someone else. It was a very small session that was just Freddie and I and I found that really helpful because certainly I had to go places with Sabine that I’d never gone before and as a voice actress I’d never done before. Most of the emotional acting I’ve done on camera which is a totally different thing to do.
It was really challenging, especially to play a character who wouldn’t ever let someone see her vulnerable and then to add on top of that the physicality of the training sequence, but only being able to use your voice to do it, that’s a special kind of challenge! I feel like it was such a gift Dave Filoni gave me to take Sabine into this really vulnerable and emotional place. I just love that episode even as an audience member with the music, the animation and I think Freddie, Vanessa and everyone are just incredible in the episode. It’s definitely one of my favourite moments in Rebels.
RC: The final season really saw Sabine step up in that leadership role, both within the crew and her Mandolorian family and clan. What does that mean for you to see Sabine take that extra step to becoming a more important Rebel leader and how did you adapt from that change from soldier to leader?
TS: I think it was always part of her destiny and who she was and having such incredible role models in Kanan and Hera that that was bound to happen. She’s so strong and so smart and always had it in her. I especially love the moment in ‘Heroes of Mandalore’ where we see just how much Sabine has matured these past years, seeing her go from this teenage girl to gaining a more mature sensibility about when it is appropriate to fight and how to do it. Especially when we go see her in her Mandolorian world and see what transpired in the past. I feel it gave me and the audience why Sabine is the way she is.
I love the moment where she finds herself with the Darksaber and she is an incredibly skilled, capable warrior who is strong and smart and she could have definitely accepted that and taken on that leadership role for her world, but I think it was the ultimate example of how much she’d become and she knows she could do it and be willing to do it, but knows there’s someone better suited for this role. I think that’s a really beautiful example of her becoming the leader she could become. She’s ready and willing to serve, but if there’s someone better suited for the job she’s ready to defer to them which was a really cool moment for her.
RC: One of the aspects of Star Wars, not just of Rebels but of Star Wars overall, that I really like, and you’ve touched on it previously, is the theme of family and creating your own family. Sabine has her own familial issues of course, but she found a real family with the Ghost crew. What do you think it was about Kanan, Hera and Zeb that gave her a sense of belonging?
TS: At the time we didn’t know where or who her family was or even if she had a family still, but she was lucky enough to find this rag tag crew of likeminded people who all had histories where they found themselves ostracized and separated from their people. I think they needed each other and found people who were ready and willing to fight the good fight. I feel all those characters within our story were so lucky to have found each other.
And then of course Ezra comes in at the beginning of our story and shakes things up. Sabine, I think, was the most reluctant to accept and welcome him into the family. I think that quickly, over the course of the first season, dissipates and her bond with the Ghost crew family is just as strong, if not stronger, than her biological family. And then I’m so glad that we actually get to see her repair those bonds with her Mandolorian family. So she’s essentially lucky to have two families, biological and chosen, that love her and support her. I especially love at the end of Season 3 that she has to make this really difficult decision to stay with her biological family to see through what she started and she sees it as an obligation to do that. I love that her Ghost crew family support her in this decision and knows she has to do what she has to do. Thankfully, I wasn’t sure even what Sabine’s future held at the end of Season 3, like is she going to get to be back with the Ghost crew? I just love we got to meet her family and see that play out.
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