Ahch-To Radio recently conducted an interview with former multi-time women’s champion Sasha Banks about her role in the hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian, and how ecstatic she was to be able to bring pro-wrestling into the world of Star Wars. The Boss also discusses her pitch to give the great Boba Fett a tornado DDT in the show, a decision that director Jon Favreau absolutely loved. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says she pitched to do the Tornado DDT to Boba Fett on the set of the Mandalorian:
“They brought me in for rehearsals, they told me that they wanted me to do an arm drag or a headlock takeover. They went over and I was like, ‘Oh, first of all, that’s the wrong way that we do headlock takeovers, that’s the wrong side.’ I was just looking at the pillar of the wall. I was just looking at Boba and I was like, ‘I think I can do something better.’ So I just took the guy by the head and I’m like, ‘Just hold my hips. I’m going to run up this wall and we’re going to flip, and I’m going to DDT you.’ We rehearsed it, we did it and then Jon Favreau came out of the back, and was just like, ‘That was good. That’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we’re gonna shoot. That’s the shot.’ I just remember such excitement for when he came up behind the set and just was like, overjoyed that I brought even more to the table because I was so afraid to even speak up. This is Star Wars, they know what they want to do. They have their stunt team, they have their stunt doubles, they have their fight coordinators, and they put in so much time to create every scene and to create every fight to make sure that it’s doable, that it’s sustainable, that it can be good on that television.”
On bringing pro-wrestling into the Star Wars world:
“So me coming in, I’m just like, ‘Okay, it’s cool. An arm drag is cool, a headlock is cool, but I think fans will like this a little bit better if I can add a little bit more professional wrestling into it. So when I finally got to do that DDT it was just like, it felt so cool to bring that sense of the wrestling world to Star Wars and to see how the excitement was when it finally got to show to the world, flipping Boba, just be in my element. Like that was the one scene that I was just like,’ I got this all the fighting stuff.’ Going through the table. I’m like, that’s, that’s just my realm, my element. So I got such an adrenaline rush doing that.”
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)