Actor Rory Ross has been a Star Wars fan since he was six years old, when he spent a month in Iowa Children’s Hospital, battling a rare fungal condition. He tells ABC Audio he calls it “crazy” his life has “come full circle,” with parts in both The Book of Boba Fett, and the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

“That first day [in the hospital] my mom [brought me] Star Wars: A New Hope,” he explains. “It was my first introduction into Star Wars. And then as I stayed in the hospital…seeing Luke’s journey, it gave me the hope and inspiration…that I was going to be OK.”

He adds, “And…even at such a young age, I was sort of like, ‘I don’t know what to do with my life, but whatever it is, I want to bring hope and inspiration to people just like Luke did for me.'”

In The Book of Boba Fett, Ross played one of the desert planet Tatooine’s Tusken Raiders, who save Temuera Morrison‘s Fett, and allow him to join their tribe. It showed a different side of the Sand People — after all, in the movies, they mug Luke Skywalker in A New Hope, and murder Anakin’s mother in Attack of the Clones. 

“When we saw The Tuskens in A New Hope, we just unfortunately saw them as kind of beasts, we thought like, you know, that’s all they are,” Ross says.

“But with The Book of Boba Fett, it really does humanize Tuskens. It really…shows their society, their culture and how, just like with humans, each tribe or each person, even from that tribe, can be very different.” 

Unfortunately, the tribe that rescued Boba meets a grisly end in the third episode, setting the former bounty hunter on a mission of revenge. However, before he does, he mourns his new family.

“That was sad,” Ross says of seeing the aftermath of his tribe’s slaughter at the hands of a speeder bike gang. “I wish they would have let that draw out a little bit more in terms of the emotional connection there. But man, yeah, seeing Boba crying, it’s a heartfelt moment.”

He adds, “It was really cool to be able to live that.”

A new episode of The Book of Boba Fett dropped today on Disney+. 

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