Star Wars: Ashley Eckstein Reveals the Tales of the Jedi Scene That Made Her Cry, Possibility of Return in The Bad Batch (Exclusive)

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi debuted last week on Disney+, offering six new brilliant Star Wars animated shorts. The series has proven a hit, earning near-universal acclaim. Half of those shorts focused on Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s beloved padawan first introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Ashley Eckstein voiced Ahsoka then and returned to the character in Star Wars Rebels. She’s back again for two episodes of Tales of the Jedi, including one that sheds new light on her Jedi training under Anakin, and that offers a glimpse of what happened to her after she survived Order 66.

ComicBook.com had the opportunity to speak to Eckstein about her return as the voice of Ahsoka. We discussed what surprised her about Tales of the Jedi, including a scene that made her break down in teasers, as well as the possibility of her returning in Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Here’s what she had to say:

You’re back as Ahsoka Tano in Tales of the Jedi.  You’ve played this character for a long time. What was your first reaction when they approached you about these shorts?

Ashley Eckstein: Oh, gosh. I was so excited because I had heard that these might be a possibility literally right at the beginning of COVID, right when the world shut down. And then as COVID dragged on, and I think we all wondered, “Is life ever going to get back to what it was before, I didn’t know if these would still be a possibility because we were all working from home, so we would have to record the show all from different places. I don’t know what their animation process was like, but I know in large part, a lot of people were still working from home. So when I eventually got the call that it was happening, I was just in disbelief and so excited. We did get to record together, but it was just via Zoom, but it was still so special to get the cast and crew back together.

I didn’t realize that this had been in the works for as long as it had been. How much did you know about what the project was when you first found out about it? Did you know it’d be a kind of flashback series, or did they just say, “Hey, we’re doing some shorts,” and that was it?

Oh, no. I only knew that Dave [Filoni] was writing a couple of shorts, so I didn’t know what it was going to be about. I didn’t know about the flashbacks and how it would tie in with the overall story. I just knew that he was writing a couple of shorts and that Ahsoka was a part of them. So that was all I knew, and that’s usually how he operates. He works on a need-to-know basis, so he only tells you what you need to know to get the job done. And then that’s it. Because with all the stories being told today, there’s so much confidentiality. It’s also good for us too, so we don’t spoil anything.

You’ve played Ahsoka in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. What’s different about these Ahsoka stories compared to what we got in those series?

What’s different about these shorts is that they’re snippets of time. They’re moments of time. They’re very important. If you look at it on the surface and just see like, “Oh, well this is just a short, this is a training exercise.” Oh no, it’s not that. I think fans are going to need to watch these episodes a couple of times, and they’re going to need to unpack them because they’re so many Easter eggs and hidden meanings and tie back to episodes that we’ve seen already. These shorts fill in the blanks for moments that we’ve previously seen and maybe wondered, “Oh, did that happen?” Or, “Where did she learn that?” These shorts are going to answer some questions.

I think the episode that you’re referring to “Practice Makes Perfect,” and it’s a great episode. I love the way it ties into the final season in the end. I feel like that’s one where fans may end up starting some discourse about the relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka based on Anakin’s teaching style. What are your thoughts on that relationship and what that episode and Tales of the Jedi reveal about it that maybe fans haven’t seen before, or may need to digest?

I think one of the things that people love about Ahsoka is just how skilled she is with her lightsabers. Some of the fans, their favorite moments are what we saw in “The Siege of Mandalore” and her fight with Darth Maul and how she escaped Order 66 and the Clones. People love those moments, but we’ve never explored how she became so good, how she became so skilled. And in fact, in the beginning, in the early days — and I feel like luckily people got off of this a little bit because what I really applauded that Dave and his team did was they showed her fail. They showed her make mistakes, which is really important. She wasn’t always perfect — but on the flip side, we did get some complaints in the beginning of, “Well, how is she so good? How is she saving Anakin?”

So I hope what fans will take away from the training exercise episode is they’ll see why she was so good. Because when you train like that, obviously that hones her skills. But also, Anakin is coming from a place of love. I mean, she was a 14-year-old girl when she first came into the Clone Wars. He was trying to save her. He knew that if he didn’t prepare her for war — I mean they were fighting a war. It was the Clone Wars — so if he didn’t prepare her for war, she would’ve died. And Anakin loves Ahsoka like a little sister. 

I think it’s so funny, I didn’t think about it how you’re saying that it might cause some discourse, and I can see that now. I didn’t take it that way when I recorded it. It was very much like, “Oh wow. Yeah, Anakin was going to do everything possible to keep Ahsoka safe and put her in the best position possible.”

For what it’s worth, my reading of it is, like a lot of Ahsoka stories, it makes you question, not necessarily Anakin, but the Jedi and their way of doing things. Considering, as you said, this is a 14-year-old girl that they’ve turned into a wartime commander. It’s complicated.

Oh yeah, 100%.I think it’s so funny. I didn’t look at the episode this way but now talking to you, I think that it’s going to be a reminder of, wow, they’re actually in a war.

As you said, that episode reaches back into the Clone Wars. Was there any challenge for you as a performer in recapturing that younger Ahsoka voice after playing in Rebels? Or has her voice been consistent enough throughout that it was natural to go back to that?

It was a lot of fun. I like to say that whenever I get to record as Ahsoka again that I’m stepping into Ahsoka’s boots, and they’re the best kind of boots. They’re the boots that you’ve already worn in, so they fit your feet. They’ve come apart a couple of times and you take them to go get fixed and sew them back together because you love them so much. When it comes to Ahsoka’s voice, what a lot of people might not realize is that I was cast as Ahsoka to be myself and to use my own voice. So Ahsoka, especially in the early days of Clone Wars, Ahsoka’s just me.

I feel very fortunate that I got to collaborate with Dave Filoni and help create Ahsoka because he would just ask me — I didn’t do any of the writing, I want to be very clear about that, but he would ask me. He’d say, “Well, how would you say this? How would you laugh at that? Or How would you be sarcastic with that? How would you say this nickname?” He’s like, “How would you be snippy but not bratty?” And so I got to bring a lot of my myself to the character. 

Before every season of Clone Wars and then Rebels too, and then Forces of Destiny, and then Tales of the Jedi, Dave Filoni and I would always talk about, “Okay, how old is Ahsoka? So based upon her age and then also her experience, what has she been through? So where would my voice be in the early days of Clone Wars, it’s still my voice, but it’s in the higher register.” So it’s like, I know that I’m doing, [in young Ahsoka’s voice] “You’re stuck with me Sky Guy,” which still when I get excited, I usually talk in that level and I get really excited and [in a similar pitch], “Oh my gosh, I can’t wait for Tales of the Jedi,” so I can easily just go into that higher pitch.

But now that I’m older, my voice has dropped a little bit, and so in the second episode with Ahsoka, she’s been through so much. Even though she’s really at that age probably only about 16-and-a-half, she’s been through a war. She survived Order 66. She was framed and walked away from the Jedi order. She’s just been through so much, so she’s more beaten down and I’m in my lower register. It was a very conscious choice at the beginning of each project of, “Where is she at and how should she sound?” But it is very comfortable. I can just slip into whatever age she is. I can pretty quickly slip into that voice.

Since you mentioned putting so much of yourself into the character, I’m curious, is there any particular turn of phrase or anything in particular that you look at as being a signature Ahsoka thing that you particularly feel is you coming through in Ahsoka? Or is it kind of low-key the whole thing on a more subtle level?

Definitely the “you’re stuck with me Sky Guy.” I think it’s funny because I once asked Dave, “Why me? Why did you cast me?” And he said, “Well, you seemed very genuine and Ahsoka’s genuine,” and he said, “I really wanted to find someone that could say these snippy lines and have this witty attitude, but not be bratty.” And I don’t know, my parents raised me to be kind, to treat others as you would want to be treated. I like to joke around with people. I like to say, “Oh, you’re stuck with me,” or “Why’d do that? Let me do that.” I like to be sarcastic and witty, but I’m always too scared. I never want to hurt someone’s feelings, so I don’t want to be bratty. I don’t ever want to be mean or have that sarcasm become mean. That just so happened to be what Dave was looking for.

I would say two things: If Ahsoka’s just given Anakin a hard time, I would do that. I would give Dave Filoni a hard time, or my husband a hard time. But then I think the moments that are most like me, I’m definitely an empath, and when she’s truly trying to help people and really caring, when Trace said to Ahsoka, “Why are you helping us? You don’t know us. Why are you helping us?” and Ahsoka says, “In my life, when you find people who need your help, you help them no matter what. I guess it’s just who I am,” I’m very much that person where when I get together with my friends, I’m like, “Well, how are you? I want to know how are you doing? How can I help? What can I do for you?” That’s probably more quintessential for me, but I love a good laugh.

Did anything in Tales of the Jedi surprise you or take you unaware? Or do you feel like your understanding of this character is so solid at this point that it’s more just highlighting what you already know about the character?

I’ve never felt like I know everything with Ahsoka. There are always surprises. Even I was surprised by the training episode. I knew, obviously, because there were always allusions alluding to how much Anakin had trained Ahsoka. At the end of season three, when she survived the island with the kids where they were kidnapped by the Trandoshans, she told Anakin, “I survived because of what you taught me.”

I was surprised to see how intense the training was, but I wasn’t surprised that that training existed. I was pleasantly surprised that Ahsoka was at Padme’s funeral because I’d never thought about it before, whether she was there, but it makes sense that she was there because Ahsoka and Padme had such a deep friendship, one that I wish we could have explored more. Ahsoka really, really looked up to Padme like a sister, almost. I was very pleasantly surprised and happy to see that Ahsoka was there at her funeral and that she would honor Padme in that way. 

The emotion in that episode, I only recorded that scene maybe three times. I was sobbing as I was recording it. The emotion just hit me, not only because of the moment and the realization that Ahsoka was there, and also what then was going through Ahsoka’s mind at that moment but then also, for me, I don’t ever take this for granted. It’s not like I finish one project and say, “Well what’s next?” I don’t look at it that way. I look at it rather with a sense of gratitude, of “Wow, I feel so grateful that I got to step into her boots again.”

But there’s always that twinge of sadness, like, “Well this could be goodbye to this character because I don’t expect to get to do it again.” I didn’t expect to be here from 2008 to 2022, still talking about new Ahsoka. So just like I think Ahsoka was saying goodbye to Padme and saying goodbye to her life, I was saying goodbye to Ahsoka. 

I hope it’s just for now. Dave Filoni promised me I’d always be the voice of Ahsoka in animation, so you never know. I always hope it’s just for now, but I never expect that. So it was saying goodbye to Ahsoka and it was real tears. I mean, I was sobbing. It was the ugly cry with snot going everywhere. I’m anxious to hear the episode and see if you can hear the fact that I was an absolute mess in the recording studio.

Ahsoka is a character that means a lot to a lot of fans. She’s gone from Jedi padawan to laying down her lightsabers to picking them up again to join the Rebellion. Do you see a unifying theme through all of that? Has your understanding of who the character is shifted through all fo that time?

Ahsoka, this character, it’s astounding. She is literally changing and saving lives. I get at least one story a day on social media and then when I do an event or a convention, I get multiple, multiple stories of people coming up, and I try and I tell everyone when they come up to my autograph table or any sort of event that that’s a safe space, And I try to take those couple of moments and really, really focus on each and every fan and listen. Because Ahsoka has transcended just this character that people like and she’s become a part of them, a part of their hearts and a part of their souls. That’s why I say Ahsoka lives in all of us now because we’ve grown up with her, an entire generation of fans has literally grown up with her, and it’s like we’ve taken a piece of Ahsoka into our hearts and into our souls, out into our everyday and we ask ourselves, “What would Ahsoka do? So I see how much she means to people and how she’s changing and saving lives. And she’s changed my life as well. I think she’s always been that way.

Obviously, certain things have happened in her storyline. This is just me as a fan, I have no intel on this whatsoever, so please do not attribute this to any kind of story because it has no truth, this is just me, as a fan, watching the episode, but the Daughter from Mortis died and gave up her life for Ahsoka. Well, the daughter was the Light Side of the Force, so in my mind, Ahsoka very much represents the light side of the force and she is that to people. She’s a light, she represents hope, and she’s kind. And the line that I previously shared with you about helping others no matter what, Dave Filoni taught me that kindness is powerful and it’s one of the most powerful things that you can do. That opened up my eyes, that Ahsoka’s power is not how skilled she is with her lightsabers, it’s not how agile she is and how high she can jump and how well she can use the Force, it’s her kindness that is her greatest power. 

I think it’s really, truly astounding how she has become a lifestyle for people and how everyone associates with Ahsoka: men, women, they, them, every sort of race. Because Ahsoka, let’s face it, is an orange-skinned alien from outer space with lekku. She is not a race on this planet, so everyone identifies as Ahsoka. And it’s such a beautiful thing when we do Ahsoka meetups. You see all different races and genders cosplaying Ahsoka because everyone sees themself in her. 

Ahsoka was the eyes of the audience for Clone Wars. You were meant to experience The Clone Wars through Ahsoka’s eyes, and we never really pointed out her gender, so she was just Anakin Skywalker’s padawan, and she was the best padawan for the job, and so everyone could see themselves in her. I think it’s such a beautiful, beautiful thing to see how everyone identifies as Ahsoka.

Is there a specific Ahsoka story that you’re still hoping to tell? Maybe something focusing on a specific relationship with another character or putting her into a certain genre?

Oh, gosh, I leave the writing to Dave and his writing staff, because they always just write the most incredible stories. So I don’t have any specific story ideas. However, that chunk of time between Clone Wars and Rebels, that’s a huge, huge chunk of time. A lot happened there. I mean, look what we were able to do in just two and a half years of The Clone Wars. There’s like, what, 15 years in between Clone Wars and Rebels? There’s a lot to explore there. I would love to continue, if I ever had the chance, to explore that timeframe. 

I joke that Ahsoka went off and ran a pony farm, but we know she didn’t. She helped start a rebellion and did some incredible things. Some of my favorite moments with Ahsoka are how she inspires people and how she helps people. I can only imagine how many people she helped and inspired in between where we leave off with Tales of the Jedi and Star Wars Rebels.

Well, there is a Star Wars animated series taking place during that period right now. What would you say are the odds of Ahsoka showing up in Star Wars: The Bad Batch?

Well, as I mentioned to you, Dave Filoni promised me I’d always be the voice of Ahsoka in animation, so I can say I haven’t recorded anything for The Bad Batch, but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen. I talk about throwing your dreams out into the universe. So that would be absolutely incredible if Ahsoka ever made an appearance on Bad Batch. But I haven’t recorded anything.

Thank you for your time. Are there any last things you’d like to mention to readers?

I wrote an official Star Wars book called Star Wars Everyday. I worked with Lucasfilm Publishing, and it’s a year’s worth of Star Wars activities, crafts, recipes, and mindfulness exercises. It’s how to live your best Star Wars life all year long, and there’s something in it for all ages and it’s a really good gift. So with the holidays coming up, if you know a Star Wars fan, it’s a good gift for a Star Wars fan.

Tales of the Jedi is streaming now on Disney+.