A Star Wars Actor Caused A Hotel Evacuation With A Lightsaber Stunt Gone Wrong
A new live-action “Star Wars” series is on its way to Disney+, bringing drama, action, and mystery to the galaxy far, far away. “Star Wars: The Acolyte” takes audiences to a time long before the Skywalker saga, one of peace and prosperity in the Galactic Republic. However, when mysterious forces begin threatening this tranquility, the Jedi Order must step in. Along the way, these peacekeepers will ignite their lightsabers — those weapons with rules that don’t make sense – against the galaxy’s evil entities. After all, they’re no joke in the “Star Wars” universe, and, as it turns out, they can cause some chaos in real life as well.
In-universe, lightsabers can do myriad painful things to the body, while in the real world, training to use one can cause hotel evacuations. Actor Dafne Keen, who’s completely unrecognizable as Jedi Jecki Lon, shared as much with Entertainment Weekly, recalling a major mishap during her lightsaber training while staying at a hotel. “I would go train in the hotel gym …The hotel gym was quite low. It didn’t have high ceilings, and I was doing this thing that you do over your head, and I hit a fire alarm,” she said. Within seconds, the hotel was filled with the sound of beeping and the entire building had to clear out. Staff checked the security cameras after the fact, saw Keen’s lightsaber accident, and, thankfully, let her off with a warning and the request that she be a bit more careful.
Despite this embarrassing incident, Keen clarified that she loved the lightsaber work on “The Acolyte.”
Keen loves the physical work that comes with being a Jedi
Lucasfilm/Disney+
When working on a “Star Wars” production, there are loads of fun things actors get to do. From interacting with droids and aliens to piloting space-faring vessels, surely the set can feel like more of a playground than a work environment. On the other hand, while lightsaber use might sound fun, it can get intense, and the training can be strenuous. Look no further than the work Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen put in for their “Star Wars” prequel lightsaber scenes. For Dafne Keen, though, lightsaber work and general stunts aren’t chores by any means.
She told Entertainment Weekly, “I love doing stunts. Any job that includes stunts, I’m like, ‘Sign me on!’ And the fact that I got to be a Jedi and have a saber and do saber fights was really enjoyable.” Keen noted that one scene in particular was sprung on her on short notice, but, thanks to her consistent practice, getting the choreography down wasn’t much of a challenge. “I think when you’re training every day, you don’t really realize how far you’ve come. And that was the moment when I was like, ‘Oh, wait, I now know how to do this,'” she added.
“Star Wars” fans will get to see what Dafne Keen trained — and tripped a fire alarm — for when “Star Wars: The Acolyte” premieres on June 4.