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Star Wars fans can be passionate. They pour tons of time and money into creating screen accurate costumes, they write fanfiction and create fanart and find passionate ways to celebrate their fandom.

It can be intense for new Star Wars actors, but Emily Swallow had some practice. Before she played the Armorer on The Mandalorian, Swallow played the Darkness on Supernatural. According to Swallow, the passion she saw from Supernatural’s fandom helped prepare her for life as a Star Wars actress.

“Supernatural was the first show for which I did conventions, and I didn’t know what to expect because I had never attended conventions,” Swallow says during a panel at Dragon Con. “I started in theater, and so you always have the audience right there. And so, to me getting to do conventions, now the story and the experience have come full circle, because you get to interact with the audience. And I was just amazed at every turn at the community, and the passion, and all the theories, and the incredible charity work that gets done by the fandom.”

“That’s massive in Supernatural. And then I feel like, by virtue of the fact that Star Wars has been around for multiple decades and is an even bigger fandom, that just supersized, kind of Jabba the Hutt-sized it. Both fandoms are just so incredibly creative, so loving and giving, and it’s incredible how much good work gets done. When I first discovered the 501^st, I was told I was getting inducted into something. I was like, ‘What is this weird cult.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a weird cult where people make amazing costumes and then go hang out with kids at hospitals.’ The work that gets done is amazing. And I love that we can be a part of that.”

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