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Rosario Dawsonmay have hailed from one of the world’s cultural epicenters, New York City, but tracing the roots of her move into acting shows an unlikely rise from her chance discovery as a teenager to becoming a leading actress in Hollywood. Dawson had, as a young child in the 1980s,appeared onSesame Street,which was shot at Kauffman Astoria Studios in the quiet neighborhood of Astoria, in the borough of Queens – but she wasn’t a product of showbiz parents nor a beneficiary of any nepotistic luck.
She was a normal teenager save for a baptism by fire growing up in the East Village of Manhattan. The neighborhood was, back in the mid-’90s, more notorious as a collection of run-down tenement buildings and street-side heroin dealers, long before gentrification brought luxury high rises and NYU satellite buildings.
Her parents lived on East 15th Street, where a chance encounter with two upstart indie filmmakers,Harmony Korine and Larry Clark,set into motion a meteoric rise to Hollywood stardom. Since then, the actor has gradually climbed from small supporting roles to regular appearances in some of the MCU’s most widely viewed TV series as Claire Temple. But since the onset of the Pandemic,Dawson has found outright superstardomthanks to her role as Ahsoka Tano in three differentStar Warsseries.
Dawson Caused a Stir in Kids and Then Made an Appearance in Spike Lee’s Masterpiece
In 1995, while sitting on her parents' Manhattan stoop, teenage screenwriter Harmony Korine and arthouse director Larry Clark came across the then-15-year-old Dawson. The two were developing their controversial indie feature,Kids, and Korine thought Dawson would be perfect for the role of Ruby. When itpremiered at the Cannes Film Festival,Kidscaused an enormous stir with a plot about teenage skateboarders who hang around Washington Square Park, drink 40s, and prey on young women.
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Two actors in the film stood out above the others, Chloë Sevigny and Dawson. While Sevigny has largely stuck to her indie roots since then, Dawson’s career went a different route.Spike Lee had noted her natural ability inKidsand cast her inHe Got Gameas the girlfriend of Jesus Shuttlesworth (played by NBA star Ray Allen). Again, Dawson used herauthentic New York Citypersonality to impress in a small, supporting role. She now had a name for herself, but it would take over two decades to consistently find her name at the top of the call sheet.
Dawson Got Her First Blockbuster Role in Men in Black II
After some subsequent roles in largely forgettable films likeJosie and the Pussycats,Dawson had a big year in 2002, with the release ofMen in Black IIand another standoutSpike Lee Joint,The 25th Hour. The sequel toMen in Blackraised Dawson’s profile tremendously, playing Laura Vasquez, a young woman who turns out to be a long-lost alien princess from the planet Zartha. It hinted at her ability to later play an intergalactic science fiction character (which she now has in threeStar Warsseries), andMiB IIearned nearly half a billion dollars and brought her further into the mainstream.
Still, her subsequent role inThe 25th Hourshowed the depth of her acting abilities. Again, she found herself in a New York-centric role as Naturelle Riviera, whichGame of Thronesco-creator David Benioff had written specifically for her in adapting his own novel. Dawson impressed, critically, as a woman of enormous conviction but potentially dubious morals as Monty Brogan’s (Edward Norton) love interest, and thepost-9/11 epicreturned both Spike Lee and Dawson to artistic prominence.
Dawson Experienced Some Career Stalls
The aughts saw ups and downs for Rosario Dawson. While she had gained more name recognition, her work with auteur directors like Kevin Smith (Clerks II) and Quentin Tarantino (Death Proof)ironically produced surprisingly unsuccessful films. Where her career began to shine was in more mainstream films, like the enormously profitable action filmsEagle EyeandUnstoppableand the DVD-and-TV-hit Frank Millercomic adaptationSin City.
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Dawson’s role as Gail inSin Citywas crucial to her career trajectory, making her a proven commodity in the quickly expanding world of comic book movies. A decade later, that resume entry helped her secure a recurrent role in the vastly expanding Marvel Universe, as her role as Claire Temple saw her act in 5 different television series as the same character. Dawsonbecame more politically activeduring the late-2010s, even entering a high-profile relationship with Senator Cory Booker. She had become a bona fide star, andstratosphericsuperstardom was soon to follow.
Dawson Has Joined Pedro Pascal as Star Wars' Brightest Star
As Rosario Dawson enters her mid-40s, her career has coalesced in a galaxy far, far away – thanks toher role as Ahsoka Tanoin theStar Warsfranchise. The character, a Togruta Padawan Jedi, was introduced in animated form in the 2000s. In live-action, Dawson first appeared as Ahsoka in Season 2 ofThe Mandalorian, years after George Lucas and Dave Filoni conceived the Jedi character’s animated version. With Lucas and Filoni eager to craft a female-driven series at the scale ofThe Mandalorian, the Ahsoka character was a perfect candidate for expansion.
Thanks to Dawson’s preternatural acting talent, penchant for all things science fiction (she’s a self-professed Trekkie), and perfect projection of calm to fit the Jedi character,anAhsokaseries was a no-brainer. She has joined Pedro Pascal as the biggest star in the recentStar Warstelevision universe, with her career finally coming to full fruition after over two decades of peaks and valleys. Thinking back to her discovery on her parent’s brownstone stoop so many years ago, her rise to fame and artistic repute can be described as nothing less than meteoric.StreamAhsoka, The Mandalorian,andThe Book of Boba FettonDisney+.
