How Playing Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Ahsoka Tano Changed Ashley Eckstein's Career

you could definitely say that I grew up Disney my dad got a job with Disneyworld he was a meat and seafood buyer and his claim to fame was that he was part of the team that brought the turkey legs into Disney my parents used kind of the influence and inspiration of Disney to teach us life lessons we would often go to the Magic Kingdom only to watch the fireworks for the night my mom she would tell me to look into the night sky when the fireworks were going off and to make a wish and they said okay all of those wishes that you've been making upon all of those stars now you need to be it you have to do it but with Disney World in my backyard they also made opportunities tangible I remember sitting in the audience of a taping of the Mickey Mouse Club and seeing the kids and thinking oh my gosh like they're just like me if they can do it I can do it too growing up around Disney and in Orlando definitely prepared me for Hollywood there was a lot of filming and production going on there I actually started auditioning a lot and that's where I really learned you know rejection when I moved to LA I mostly did on-camera it was my dream to be on the Disney Channel I was able to be a recurring role on that'sa Raven kalana feels that if he had a hand you should put it you know growing up with the Disney Princesses I had a fascination with voiceover and I so badly wanted to be just like Jodi Benson from The Little Mermaid so quickly when I moved to LA I asked my agent if they would send me out on voiceover auditions to I didn't have any experience in voiceover but I thought hey okay voice acting is acting you know hopefully they'll give me a try and they started sending me out right away and I booked a couple of commercials and I was like okay wow this is great this is gonna be easy not so much I auditioned for four solid years hundreds of auditions and didn't get anything at this point I was pretty discouraged and my agent called and said that you have an audition for the new Star Wars show and you know for me I was shocked cuz that was the dream that I didn't even think to dream because George Lucas was actually done making Star Wars they said it was a new Star Wars animated show and they wanted me to audition for Padme and I was instantly excited and then instantly bummed because I knew I sounded nothing like Natalie Portman and so I remember my agent said you know you never know what could happen just go in anyway I'm glad I listened to him because they were also auditioning for this brand new character that nobody knew about called ahsoka tano she was a 14 year old girl and after four long years of auditioning I finally was cast as the voice of an animated character I'm ahsoka Master Yoda sent me ahsoka tano was the first female Jedi that was a lead in the Star Wars universe and that was groundbreaking at the time I remember just how shocked people were they had no idea that Anakin Skywalker had a Padawan much less that his Padawan was a fourteen-year-old girl I definitely had to deal with my fair share of of hate and and negative comments and and definitely cyber bullying when when ahsoka first came out I remember at first I was crushed because I had to keep the secret for two years literally I recorded the voice of ahsoka for two years before it came out and then it comes out and everyone hates her what became fascinating about ahsoka was how she earned her credibility she had to fight for it with the fans one thing the fans did not know was that she was almost already through season two and the way Dave Filoni had written the character the way the development of where she was going to grow to and that was the one thing as a please just give it time give it time I promise you you're gonna like the route that dave has put a soak on that was really a small subset of fans and I started hearing from fans all over the world accepting the soca and welcoming Asoka and meeting all these little girls who loved ahsoka and no I am NOT going to let the negative comments or the hate ruin the legacy that this character was going to leave it was 2009 and my husband was a baseball player at the time and he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays so his career took us to Canada it was very selfless of her you know because in LA if you're not here every day people don't come knocking down your doors like come please come back an audition and so it was a role that she kind of stepped back to be with me I was going through a lot of injuries with baseball thankfully I was still recording Star Wars and actively being a part of the Star Wars universe but all of my agents and managers actually dropped me they said if you're not in LA and you're not making us any money then you're no good to us and I remember sitting in Canada because of work permits and visas I really even couldn't work there so remember sitting back thinking okay well I still have this massive platform for Star Wars I want to do good with it I wanted to make the Star Wars community a more accepting community for everyone to like Star Wars and kinda is where the idea for her universe came out her universe is a fashion and lifestyle brand for fangirls because half of all sci-fi and fantasy fans are women and girls I didn't realize I was hiding my fandom until later on when I became the voice of ahsoka and I wanted more Star Wars clothes made for me they didn't exist so that's kind of where the seed of her universe began more importantly than the need for merchandise was the need for a community because female fans were being bullied and they were being bullied terribly for just liking what we do liking these properties this is no way to live your life being a Star Wars fan or being a a sci-fi and fantasy fan it's not a trend it's literally a part of who you are one of my mentors is Lynn Hale she works at Lucasfilm and I was sitting in Lynn's office and I said Lynn I have a secret to tell you I would like to apply for a license for Lucasfilm and at that moment Howard Rothman who ran all of consumer products for Lucasfilm happened to walk by her office she was like Ashley stay right there and she ran down the hallway after Howard and all of a sudden Linds assistant came in and said Ashley Lynn would like you to join her down in Howard's office and I walk in and there's Howard sitting at his desk and Lynn sitting you know in one of the chairs and she said okay Ashley Howard is willing to listen to your pitch you have 10 minutes go and I had nothing prepared like I didn't have a presentation I literally had to just cram 9 months of research and hard work into a 10 minute pitch on the spot Howard said you know what you've done everything we told you to do and yes we'll give you the opportunity when starrer stands up and recognizes their female fans you know everyone else was I calm okay well maybe maybe we should start paying attention to our female fans too I've been going to San Diego comic-con ever since 2007 I love watching all of the people and all of the fans and I had just started her universe and I remember watching fan girls walk up and down the hallways of San Diego comic-con practically using the hallways as their runway but not just in cosplay they were using the hallways as their runway for original fashion I knew that I had to give these fans an actual runway to walk on I went to the comic-con international team I said look you know you have this incredible convention but you're not doing anything specifically to celebrate the fangirl culture at comic-con and I said I have an idea for you I said what if we put on a geek couture fashion show at comic-con and I'm talking big like it has to be straight from Fashion Week like go big or go home they were just like okay yeah let's do it and and then fear set in I wanted to provide a platform and provide an opportunity for these designers to have a professional design experience so we turned it into a competition and the winners actually won the opportunity to design a her universe collection for Hot Topic I have gone a little boys section to try to find like t-shirts that are the ones that I want so it's so exciting what you guys are doing with her universe they actually get a royalty for each piece souls they're involved in every step of the process having merchandise made for women has definitely changed the community female fans have always been there we just didn't always feel comfortable showing off our fandom because society had deemed that this world was just for the men and the boys these properties are for everyone now I just think it's more accepted because there's so much merchandise for female fans to show off their fandom [Music] it's a feeling I never get used to to see somebody just roaming the hallways in her universe or you know dresses ahsoka I'm the one that actually would be like oh can I please take your picture my wife plays that character it is just is very humbling it's always that feeling of excitement and you know just being so grateful I mean I've been going to conventions now with the fan since Clone Wars came out in 2008 I've met thousands upon thousands of fans and I think the thing that just means so much to me is that I've had 10 years of following people's lives because I see a lot of the same fans over and over again I've had the opportunity to follow people on their journey of making their dreams come true and so when when they follow up and tell me what's going on it really makes my day I genuinely want to just see all of the amazing things happening for them and so I think that's what I'm most grateful for and so it's not just one story it's it's all of the stories because all of the fans have made an impact on me [Music] you

Channel: TV Guide News

Views: 404,035

Keywords: star wars clone wars, the clone wars, star wars, star wars the clone wars, darth maul, ahsoka tano, clone wars, clone wars season 7, star wars: the clone wars, lucasfilm, lucasfilm animation, obi-wan kenobi, anakin skywalker, the clone wars season 7, disney plus, lightsaber, ashley eckstein, her universe, star wars rebels, star wars celebration, ashley eckstein ahsoka, ashley eckstein interview, star wars show, comic-con, sdcc

Id: AMhNW5a2hrE

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 24 2020