Miami (EFE).- At 19 years old, Dafne Keen is one of the most popular Spanish actresses in Hollywood, although she confesses this Thursday in an interview with EFE that almost no one believes that she speaks Spanish perfectly and it is difficult for her to understand that She is Hispanic, a situation that makes her “angry.”
Keen is part of the cast of the new ‘Star Wars’ series ‘The Acolyte’, and is in charge of promoting the production to the Latino public in the United States, a community that she embraces with passion: “I love the Latin culture. “I am Hispanic,” she says during her visit to Miami (USA).
“I am very excited to join this community,” she says during her visit to the national headquarters of the two main Spanish-language television networks in the United States, a trip to Miami that she hopes will allow her to enjoy one of her passions, listening to salsa. .
Born and raised in Madrid, to a British father (the actor Will Keen) and a Spanish mother, Keen said that this biculturalism has been one of the points in common with Jecki Lon, her character in ‘The Acolyte’.
“In my career, especially during the first eight years, people didn’t know that I was Spanish and I had to work to embrace that identity,” she revealed.
The Rise of Dafne Keen
The confusion is explained by his young and successful career. Her first role was in 2014, starring alongside her father in the television series ‘Refugiados’, a Spanish and British co-production filmed in English.
Then came her outstanding performance as Laura, the clone girl from ‘Wolverine’, in ‘Logan’ (2017), the last film in the saga played by Hugh Jackman, and the starring role in the successful series ‘His Dark Materials’ (2019- 2020), based on the books by Philip Pullman, among other works.
Now, in the era of ‘The High Republic’ and one hundred years before ‘Episode One’ of the film saga, Keen plays a student of the Jedi order, half human and half Theelin.
“When you are born into a family that is multicultural or that speaks several languages, you learn how to adapt to different social codes. And I tried to portray that experience in her,” says Keen.
Exploit your cultures for roles
A bicultural adaptation skill that was very useful “marking how the way he behaves changes depending on the status that the other ‘jedi’ have.”
In that sense, “he does not behave the same with his teacher Sol (Lee Jung-jae – ‘The Squid Game’), as with his companions or with the leader of the Jedi in that era,” he explains.
It also helped him with his incredible ability to blend in. With complex makeup that includes a yellow wig reminiscent of David Bowie and three horns, as well as orange spots on both temples, Jecki Lon cannot go unnoticed.
Keen’s playful performance makes her unforgettable, as one of the cast that also includes Carrie-Ann Moss (The Matrix) and leading lady Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games).
Now Keen wants to be seen as a Spanish actress and is enthusiastic about the possibility of representing the Spanish-speaking world, because, she says, “that’s how it is, that’s who I am.”
