Silmarillion sends in this interview from this month's issue of "Black and White", an Australian magazine:
She's an acting powerhouse in a petite package and she's shooting for the top. Meet Leeanna Walsman - soon to be seen as an intergalactic bounty hunter in Star Wars Episode II.
... The campy scene may be evidence of the sort of low-wattage role an up-and-coming starlet may have to take to pay the rent, but it also speak's of Walsman's tremedous physicality. After all, it's not every ingenue who's discovered by George Lucas' spies while hanging upside down from monkey bars and going down a slippery slide head first - all while delivering her monologues.
The story goes like this. Star Wars Episode II casting director Robin Gurland was attending a performance of the Sydney Theatre Company's production of La Dispute to watch Walsman's co-star, Rose Byrne [Dorme] in action. Then she caught sight of Walsman "hanging from a bar with one arm while delivering a stunning performance. It was amazing! The bounty hunter is an extremely physically orientated role and Leeanna was just who I envisioned for the role. She had this wonderful pixyish, femme fatale look."
And so it was that, following chats with Gurland and Lucas ("he's pretty laid back"), Walsman found herself tricked out in lycra and leather, holding a Very Big Gun opposite Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin (Hayden Christensen) on the Fox Studios set. She recalls her experience acting opposite McGregor without taking a breath. "It was my first day and I did the bodgiest acting and I think he's amazing and I was really stupid and I wish I was wayyy more suave. I feel a bit stupid though, because I didn't really know what I was doing and I'm a bit worried about when it comes out. It's all too easy to say, 'Oh yeah, it was fantastic and I'm in Star Wars,' but wait till you see it..."