Moses Ingram

Moses Ingram (born 1994) is an American actress who played the Third Sister in the 2022 television series Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Biography

Moses Ingram was born in 1994 and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America. She knew she wanted to act since she was a preteen. She went straight from community college to Yale Drama School. After graduating, her first role was in "The Queen's Gambit." Ingram was not a Star Wars fan before landing her role in the Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi television series.^[1] She knew the cultural pinpoints of Star Wars,^[2] but had not seen any of the movies until she got the part.^[1]

Director Deborah Chow wanted Reva to be played by a young woman that the audience would believe could take on Darth Vader. Chow liked Ingram's strength, intelligence, and charisma, so she was excited when she and the crew casted her in the part of Reva.^[3] After Ingram spent a week auditioning, Chow told her that she got the part in a Zoom call.^[2] Ingram then watched the prequel trilogy for the first time and became a Star Wars fan.^[4] The role required more athleticism than anything Ingram had done before and she spent about four months training before she started acting.^[2] Ingram said her character "is a boss" and "a full-on athlete." She added that her physically-demanding character is "pretty badass" and could accomplish her mission "at all costs when given the opportunity."^[5] She thought it was cool seeing herself as a villain.^[3] Every single piece of Ingram's costume started out as sketches from costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb. The workshop made the costume pieces feel like a second skin to Ingram.^[6] The costume made her stand in a certain way, and she felt bold and strong.^[2] Ingram enjoyed wearing a cape while playing Reva and said it was "super dope" and a dream-come-true. Ingram hoped that her look for Reva's hair would allow Black children with kinky hair to wear their natural hair in Halloween costumes. Ingram said that Chow was very great with moving from the initial vision to what they ended up with.^[5] Chow said that Ingram did a fantastic job portraying her character.^[7] Despite this, Ingram was scared of hearing fans' opinions on the series.^[2]

Reva's lightsaber was a completely original design and Ingram received it as a gift from Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.^[7] The weapon was customized to fit Ingram's hands.^[8] The actress spent a lot of time icing her hands before she learned how to wield her lightsaber.^[4] Ingram said that lifting the lightsaber required a lot of forearm strength, but she eventually got the hang of it.^[9] Ingram received fight training from actor Ewan McGregor whom she described as "a graceful little butterfly." He showed her encouragement as she fumbled through rookie mistakes.^[5] During training, Ingram learned what needed to change with the lightsaber, so it went through several processes. Depending on the scene that was being shot, Ingram used three different lightsabers: a full length prop, a medium prop, and a very small prop. Ingram also had a practice lightsaber that she was sent home with.^[8]

She was welcomed into Star Wars by Hayden Christensen,^[9] the actor who played Darth Vader in the series.^[10] The first scene that was shot with Ingram was her and the other Inquisitors stepping off of their ship on Tatooine. She thought that being on the set was huge and she focused on not messing up.^[2] In the beginning of filming, Ingram felt like she could do her job without going through "a period of demystifying" a deep love for the franchise, which made playing her character easier for her.^[1] She also liked that she did not have to live up to the same expectations as McGregor and Christensen. She felt like no one was looking for her to be something specific,^[2] so she did not look at other Star Wars lore^[8] and she had free reign to be who she thought Reva is. Ingram said that^[2] the virtual LED set^[5] known as the Volume, was one of her favorite things about working on the series.^[2] During reshoots, the crew celebrated Ingram's birthday by showing images of her on the Volume.^[4] She felt like the show felt more real as it got closer to belonging to the people.^[8]

On March 29, 2021, Lucasfilm confirmed Ingram as a cast member of the live-action Disney+ television series Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi.^[11] Ingram's character was first pictured and fully revealed as Inquisitor Reva by an article published by Entertainment Weekly magazine on March 9, 2022, providing a first look at the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Ingram said that "it's all heart" that makes her character stand out from The Grand Inquisitor and Darth Vader.^[12]

In late May 2022, Ingram received hundreds of racist messages including death threats on her Instagram account by those objecting to her Star Wars character, Reva.^[13] In response, The Walt Disney Company, Kenobi co-star Ewan McGregor, and StarWars.com issued statements defending Ingram and condemning the abusive messages.^{[14][15][16][17]} Ingram tries not to concern herself with reactions to the series and instead just trusts the work she's put out. She has also been on social media less.^[1] Ingram was interviewed for Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return, a documentary about the making of Obi-Wan Kenobi.^[3]

Works

Filmography

Sources

Notes and references

External links

• Moses Ingram (@_mosesingram) on Instagram (backup link needs confirmation)
• Moses Ingram on Wikipedia
• Moses Ingram at the Internet Movie Database