Exclusive: The Armorer Actress Shares Her Thoughts On 'The Mandalorian' Season One

Much of the cast of The Mandalorian has been met with positive praise from the fans. Emily Swallow is no exception, as her character, the Armorer, became an instant-favorite to many. Culture Slate’s own Lauren Scott interviewed Swallow about her role in the first season. One of the questions that Swallow was asked was whether she had done any research for her role on The Mandalorian.

“I tried to sort of beef up my knowledge a little bit, like the Mandalorian storylines and the animated series… I was so excited when I got to talk to Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni about the character and their idea of where she fit in. ‘Cause usually, with a project that’s not quite so secretive, you can look at all the scripts, you can see what the arc is of the season of the show, you get some concept of like how it all fits together… I, at that point, I guess only had the first and third scripts ‘cause that’s what we were gonna be shooting first. I didn’t really know the arc, like where this character was gonna end up. I didn’t know where Din Djarin was gonna end up. So talking to them was really helpful… One of the...collections of images that Jon kind of gave me a doorway into that helped me so much was talking about Kurosawa films like Seven Samurai.”

The Kurosawa influence, of course, runs deeply in Star Wars, all the way back to when George Lucas worked on the original trilogy. Swallow let the movement of the characters in Kurosawa films inform her about how a warrior like The Armorer might act. Swallow did not talk with Favreau until a few days before filming, so once they had the Kurosawa discussion, she knew that she had to marathon some of those films. Some were familiar, and some were new to her. She very much enjoyed the research experience. Throughout the interview, Swallow also talked about what it was like to wear the armor, as well as how she had to learn to read the body language of the other masked characters. When there are no facial expressions, the body movements are the key to understanding the other characters.

Emily Swallow was also asked about how she developed the voice for the Armorer.

"When I did the audition, I guess they had originally been seeing British women in their fifties and sixties. And so I did the scene a couple of times, and then the casting associate, a guy named Jason Stamey, he suggested that I do it with a British dialect. So I did. But I had chosen, even without the dialect to...the breakdown, the description of her, was very minimal. It said that she was a Zen-like leader of a group of people, and that was basically it. But from the scenes that I was given, it still felt like I could see clearly in the way that Jon had written her, that she was somebody who did have this quiet confidence, who didn’t need to raise her voice a lot. And one of the audition scenes that I had was very similar to the scene in episode three where I break up the fight between Din Djarin and the other Mandalorian. And it just felt like it worked for her not to ever raise my voice, to count on the fact that I was respected by these other warriors, and that they would listen when they were ready to listen.”

Swallow has told us that her favorite quote from the show is, “This is the way.” This, of course, has become a popular saying in fandom thanks to the show. (“I have spoken” has also had the same effect.) One might argue that the best instance of this line being spoken is in the season finale, when the Armorer says it in response to Din Djarin’s realization that he has to take the Child to its people.

Swallow was also asked about her role on the upcoming final episodes of Supernatural. While she could not reveal too much, Swallow talked a little bit about her character Amara, as well as the final day of shooting, the fans, and memories on the set. You can click below for the full interview.

October sees Swallows’ return to the set of SEAL Team for the show’s fourth season. This is her second season on the show, and while she is not sure when exactly it will air, Swallow is excited to be working on the show again, given how times have been. Supernatural comes back October 8 on the CW, and The Mandalorian season 2 premieres on October 30.

Written By Steven Shinder

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