Dafne Keen, first Spanish ‘Jedi’ from ‘Star Wars’: “Why don’t we accept that just because you have a platform, you don’t need to share everything you think?”

Dafne Keen (Madrid, 19 years old) returns to her hometown with time marked by the promotional tour. And she has returned with stripes: she has been crowned the first jedi spanish from Star Wars. But despite the power of the force, she is exhausted. These days, in addition to work, she has become an improvised tourist guide for the team of her series. Tonight he takes them to a flamenco tablao. Not a single classic can be left out: “Will we be finished by 10:00 p.m.?” he asks the Disney team around three in the afternoon. He is not even 20 years old, but he has already mastered this part of his work. “It always makes me a little angry not to see my people. In reality, I’m a disaster at managing time, but they have me to the letter,” he jokes.

Keen is a professional because, despite her youth, she is already experienced in large productions. Her career began at nine, when she starred with her father, the British actor living in Spain Will Keen, in the Spanish series Refugees. And by 2017 it already achieved global fame. Her mutant rage was chosen to embody Wolverine’s little clone in logan. That was followed by his own HBO series, dark matter, based on another children’s literary saga with a great following. During filming… he grew.

Now he literally does a triple somersault perfected in 12 years of circus education with the series Star Wars: The Acolyte, with which this Wednesday he travels to a galaxy far, far away located on Disney+. “It’s scary to be in sagas with so many fans, but it’s also cool that people care about what you do,” explains this actress who, with only four works, has already been in front of three major science fiction franchises. “I always knew I wanted to be an actress, but little by little, I realized that this is a job, that it is my profession. At the beginning, I was playing and my life remained the same when I returned to Madrid.” She now has another level of maturity, and she shows it.

The new series of the galactic universe created by George Lucas begins with the murder of a jedi. It happens long before the movies we know, and therefore these powerful samurai monks maintain their influence in the galaxy. It is an era unknown to the public, more accessible to the sacrilegious, but, deep down, it is another story about power, laser swords and feuding families. Keen wallows in alien makeup and wields his saber like padawan serious and responsible (a cross between David Bowie and Mr. Spock) of Master Sol, played by Lee Jung-jae, protagonist of The squid game. The actor played the role of him phonetically. He only speaks Korean, Keen recalls: “I was a bit like a fish out of water. As a person who has lived with foreign parents [su madre, la actriz María Fernández Ache, es española, y su padre es inglés], I know how isolating it is not to speak the language, and I was trying to connect. “There was a lot of non-verbal language and I tried to learn Korean words.”

That double identity he talks about, that living in two worlds, is part of Keen’s inherent personality: “It creates a fractured self for you, and at the same time it makes you have a broader social understanding. My Spanish self and my English self are completely different. And understanding both Hispanic and Saxon cultures opens you up to understanding a wide range.” Of course, if you have to stick with breakfast, stick with churros, and if you have to opt for a singer, with Rosalía.

The actress is delighted with the chemistry she has achieved with the actor she calls JJ, because at this point she is already aware that it is not always easy: “When I started with Hugh Jackman, I didn’t realize how special he was. that we had. I thought he would have a creative connection with everyone, because it was natural. The more I have worked, I have realized that no”, she thus recalls that superheroic childhood experience for which her eyes light up: “Hugh is a sweetheart, generosity personified”. His future at Marvel, now that he’s back in Deadpool? : “I hope, but I’m not going to tell you more,” she laughs.

For now, he has enough to deal with the galactic fans. The series is the first Star Wars series led by a female writer, Leslye Headland (responsible for Russian doll); It has a black protagonist and queer in Amandla Sternberg and a very diverse cast in bathrobes jedi. Criticism from the most angry public on the internet, of course, did not take long to arrive after the trailer. Some called her The Wokelyte: “I receive many projects that say: ’empowered woman.’ One of the things I liked about The Acolyte It’s just that the script didn’t define them that way. They just were. I don’t like the term. A man would never say: ‘it’s an honor to be able to play an empowered man.’

But why is there such angry criticism against women in Star Wars? “I think it’s very easy without having seen anything of the series, to see a lot of women and people of color and criticize, but the characters have not been written for one skin color or personality. It just turns out that Amandla is a great actress. It has nothing to do with race, gender or sexual identity… it is what they are”, she reflects and adds about the use of social networks: “Mobile phones generate a lack of empathy and disconnection. We see so much content about so many problems in the world that we forget that there is someone behind it. What we see in Palestine, in Congo, in Sudan, in Ukraine… are atrocities that we see on the phone and then you say: ‘what a shame’ and on to the next video.”

Therefore, reaching that maturity today in front of the cameras, dealing with being public 24 hours a day, is eve
n more difficult. But Keen has a very seasoned speech, one of those well worked on in privacy to protect himself: “As a person from Generation Z, I have a strange relationship with the networks. On the one hand, they are crucial to our daily lives, but if you think about it, they are so, so irrelevant. I would love to delete them, but because of my job I can’t,” he emphasizes without hiding the fact that she also looks at the criticism. She’s curious, like anyone in her place.

Of course, he maintains the hope that when he sees The Acolyte, someone changes their mind. “People are very comfortable saying ugly things online. It makes me sad, because I think it’s something that stains your soul. Feeling that need to throw out opinions that are neither helpful nor constructive. It’s hating for the sake of hating. Why don’t we accept that just because you have a platform, you don’t have to share everything you think? What do you contribute, what do you gain by insulting someone you don’t know? “Says the actress who has stepped on red carpets since she was young, although in a very controlled manner:” For a small person it is very uncomfortable. That moment when you try to discover who you are and thousands of people say things about your physique. There is a very easy line to cross of confusion, you think: ‘I might have to do this or that’.

But that mettle that comes from home helped him maintain himself: “Many people with talent when they were young, then rest on their laurels because they think that they are good at this naturally. But you have to learn. I have never been comfortable. Imagine if I train now, I will be able to improve a lot. I am a great believer in teachers, my grandmother was teacher of History and I love being on set in front of teachers that they teach me I think that in my generation a lot of respect for elders and their wisdom has been lost. I’m 19, I have no fucking idea and I’m waiting to see them coming. I love seeing Leslye and knowing if she will ever be able to direct.”

At the moment most have learned it from their parents. In life, and in cinema. At the age of eight he saw for the first time Star Wars with them. They left him until she became violent. “I fell in love with cinema with musicals like Singing under the rain, Guys and Dolls and Oklahoma!. I don’t think there are bad movies, but every time my parents thought I was watching something bad, they showed me Tarkovsky, Bergman or Cassavetes. I saw a blockbusterand they told me, now you’re going to see Going“Movies, of course,” she says, delighted and laughing. Now she dreams, perhaps, of also doing a musical. With writing. With directing. Or with whatever comes. She wants to eat the galaxy.

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