Ahsoka actress Ivanna Sakhno, who plays the Force-wielding Shin Hati, says that her character is “very calculated.” The Ukrainian actress plays a memorable villain on the Disney+ Star Wars series.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly that took place before the SAG-AFTRA strike began, Sakhno describes Shin's single-mindedness. “She's very calculated,” says Sakhno. “She's impatient, but she's a seeker. She's only in the beginning of finding her own voice.”
Ahsoka Is Ivanna Sakhno's Biggest Role to Date
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1997, Sakhno wanted to act after seeing the film Amélie at a young age. After perfecting her English in Vancouver, she moved to Hollywood to study acting. Before Ahsoka, 25-year-old Sakhno is most recognized as Cadet Viktoriya in Pacific Rim Uprising, the hit woman Nadejda in The Spy Who Dumped Me, and as Kat Monroe on the Hulu show High Fidelity. She also appeared in the movies Ivan the Powerful, The Body Tree, and Can't Take It Back.
Ahsoka‘s Shin Hati, a Dark Jedi and the apprentice of Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), knows her way around a red lightsaber, but she tells Entertainment Weekly that her favorite days on set are when she is in the cockpit of her ship.
“The actual ship and a lot of the aspects of the physical world were built for the show,” Sakhno says. “I do remember sitting inside of my [cockpit] and really [feeling like] my younger self as a kid, looking around. All the buttons are working, and you feel like it's your childhood dream coming true. You really feel like a pilot in a ship. And you get to do this for a living.”
Sakhno says Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni encouraged her to create a backstory for Shin and to think about how she wore her hair and what her wardrobe looks like. “He really cherishes the opinion of every person,” sasy Sakhno. “Creating Shin, I just felt like my involvement mattered. Because she's a new character, we got to create parts of her from the very beginning. With the costume and makeup, it felt like storytelling.”
Four of the eight Ahsoka episodes are available to stream on Disney+. The fifth episode premieres on Disney+ and in select theaters on September 12. The David Filoni-directed fifth episode is the first Ahsoka episode to get a theatrical release, so expect something cinematic after Hayden Christensen appeared as Anakin Skywalker at the end of “Part Four: Fallen Jedi.”