The ‘Andor’ Cast Talks Bringing a Bold Vision of ‘Star Wars’ to Life

Image via Disney

Gilroy’s talent as a collaborator is something Genevieve O’Reilly, who plays Mon Mothma, noted. “He’s someone that you lean into because he’s passionate about the story. He’s passionate about the work,” O’Reilly tells Complex. “He allows for a character perspective from me.” O’Reilly mentioned how she asked him some questions about Mon’s story and how considerate he was in his approach. “He really thought on it,” she added. “It’s not lip service. He engages with the character.”

Engaging with a character like Mon Mothma serves to better and broaden the scope of Andor. In Rogue One, we see Andor taking orders from Mon, as the former politician is now a seasoned general—a role the character continues to grow into throughout George Lucas’ original trilogy of films. In Andor, she’s leveraging her role in the Imperial-controlled Senate while secretly recruiting assets for the Rebel Alliance. 

For O’Reilly, it’s the first real chance to dig deep into the character; her Rogue One appearance came after her scene in Revenge of the Sith didn’t make the final cut. Now, it’s a chance—after playing the character in fits and starts for almost two decades—for her to have Gilroy “invest in this woman, taking the time and narrative space for her to be a part of this story and to learn about her as a character.” 

Part of that learning involves the reveal she holds a key place within Coruscant High Society. The juxtaposition of these two spheres makes Mon deeply compelling and keys into the idea of how resistance can be found in the most unlikely of places. How would her fellow socialites feel if she were to disclose her true motivations? “She has to be careful because that’s a dangerous environment,” O’Reilly says. “What’s great about Mon is that she’s a very effective diplomat. So she’s a politician, and politicians are great at being able to be something different to who might be in front of them.”

When you imagine what Andor is, the Rebellion aspects make sense. Less readily apparent from the outside looking in is how the show frames members of the Empire. Menacing Imperial officers are a long-standing part of Star Wars, but those roles were historically male-dominated. Not in the case of Andor, where two-time Olivier Award winner (basically the British equivalent of a Tony) Denise Gough as Dedra Meero is the window into how the series is presenting the Empire. “As soon as I read the scripts and saw what my role would be, I thought, ‘Oh my god. It’s everything to get to play this kind of character,’” Gough tells Complex. “It’s not lost on me that to be a woman wearing this uniform, it hasn’t really been done.” 

Meero is relentless in her job at the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB), described in the show as a “healthcare provider” responsible for “locating germs.” Those germs? Any sort of resistance that seeks to challenge the Empire’s rule. Clad in their crisp white uniforms and equally sterile office interiors, it’s an apt and specific comparison. That specificity is reflective of Gilroy’s vision. “Everyone he hired, he knew,” she says. “Either he told me, or somebody from Disney told me that when he watched a play that I did, he wrote Dedra thinking of me. It was a big [showy] performance, but in his mind, he turned that into: ‘This is what I can see her doing.’ A lot of the time, when you’ve got a situation like this, in which he’s working on behalf of what he calls ‘The Vatican,’ it becomes micromanaging, trying to fit people into things they’re not meant to be in. He went, ‘No. I want this, this, this, this, and this. They can all do the thing I’ve written.’”

Kyle Soller is another actor who will likely feel like a fresh face to audiences. An American native who’s made his career in the British theater system like Gough (and another Olivier Award winner on the cast), Soller’s Syril Karn is Andor’s primary antagonist in the first three episodes. His grievances with Andor drive a lot of the tension in the early episodes, and the way Karn clashes with him might as well mark the very first time the Empire takes on the Rebel Alliance. As the show continues into the fourth episode, Gilroy manages to fill in Karn’s world with some surprising dimensionality, indicating there’s elasticity in every single part of the show. After Karn is discharged, he ends up living at home with his mother. The series shifts again here, becoming a domestic drama. “That’s new territory,” Soller says. “I’m like, ‘Wait. Are we still—is this still Star Wars? It’s expanding, and yet, it’s still really intimate and human.”

Soller’s word choice rings true. Part of what makes Star Wars appealing is how expansive the galaxy is—the thought that so many different stories could happen all throughout it. For decades, the franchise’s primary narrative was singular in its gaze. Now, with a show like Andor and its wide tapestry, there’s ample room to have the space and pace to dig into these characters in a way that gives them a sense of reality, of humanity. Given the recent Star Wars output, it’s an action that feels as rebellious as Andor himself.

Check out new episodes of Andor on Disney+ every Wednesday.