‘Andor' star Genevieve O'Reilly on Mon Mothma's big speech and wedding dance: ‘Star Wars' always reaches for ‘the universal and the intimate'
Since Andor Season 2 is split into groups of three episodes, each taking place one year after the last, viewers see the characters in several different modes and periods of their lives. In particular, Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) plays quite a spectrum of emotions. In the first arc of the season, written by Andor creator Tony Gilroy, viewers see her navigate her daughter's wedding. It involves coaching her young daughter Leida (Bronte Carmichael) through bridal feelings and making covert political decisions with her fellow rebel leader Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård).
'It's such an extraordinary thing that Tony and the writers did, to allow for such an arc this season starting with that wedding,' O'Reilly tells Gold Derby. 'There was an exploration of politics within the family home in Season 1, especially with her husband, so it's personal and political all at once, but the fact that the writers gave time to complex, nuanced mother-daughter scenes and husband-wife scenes within this massive umbrella of Star Wars allows for such an exploration of this woman.'
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Ledia's marriage to the son of oligarch Davo Sculdun (Richard Dillane) was arranged by Mon's childhood friend Tay Kolma (Ben Miles) back in Season 2, to help cover up Mon's financing of the nascent Rebellion. But Tay didn't understand the full extent of Mon's political activities, and starts to have second thoughts about getting involved with rebels as the wedding looms. Mon believes they can pay 'a number' to assuage Tay. Still, Luthen knows otherwise, and arranges to have Tay discreetly killed offscreen before he can incriminate Mon — the kind of difficult choice that revolutionaries sometimes have to make. Mon gets to process all of her emotions about that, as well as the wedding, the Rebellion, and everything else, in a kinetic, instantly meme-able dance scene in the third episode of Season 2.
'There's that scene with Luthen where she tacitly agrees to her friend being murdered. So then the chaos that is within her emerges through this big dance number,' O'Reilly says. 'I'm able to wrestle Mon Mothma out of what we've seen before, and give her all of this humanity. I feel like we all see ourselves in that dance. At different times in our lives, we've all done that dance for many different reasons. It's something we can really connect to, because I recognize her in that moment. I recognize myself in that moment.'
On the other end of the Andor spectrum, the third arc of Season 2 finally depicts a crucial moment in Star Wars lore when Mon Mothma publicly denounces the Ghorman Massacre and then flees the Senate before the Empire's stormtroopers can arrest and/or kill her. This event was hinted at in O'Reilly's previous appearance as Mon on the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Still, now viewers get to see and hear Mon's dramatic speech denouncing the Emperor and calling the Ghorman repression a 'genocide.' O'Reilly has been looking forward to playing that scene for years, and it helped her play the other aspects of Mon Mothma.
'It felt deeply important to me. I felt that that was the crux of who this woman really is within the 20-year arc that I have had within this woman,' O'Reilly says. 'I did know it was coming, so it was something I was very much looking forward to as a performer and as an actor, and for us to be able to see her voice have a massive impact and to see the courage it took to have that voice. We also see the complexity around speeches. You don't just stand and give a speech. What is the straw that breaks the camel's back before it? What happens to make you actually be willing to set fire to your life? How afraid are you in that moment? What words can you put together? Dan Gilroy wrote that episode, and I know Tony was working with him in it, but what they did to really carve an understanding of what it is to have to give a speech like that was very important to me.'
O'Reilly continues, 'As an actor, it felt like the centerpiece of that woman, and perhaps because I knew that was the centerpiece, it allowed for me to work backwards. It allows for the dance sequence and the mother-daughter scenes. You can spread your wings a bit if you know where you're going.'
Andor's depiction of the Ghorman Massacre and Mon's fiery speech denouncing it fills an essential gap in Star Wars lore. But there's more than just fictional world-building going on. By so thoroughly fleshing out Mon Mothma's character and her stakes, O'Reilly and the Gilroys help viewers see connections between her struggles and political crises in our real world.
'The narrative is really driven by the individual characters. And so when we come to that speech in episode nine, we understand her cost,' O'Reilly says. 'We understand that she's not just a senator standing and giving a speech, that she is all of these things: A wife, a mother, a friend, a confidante. You understand that there is a fragile human at the center of these stories, and it does allow for us to recognize ourselves in it.'
O'Reilly continues, 'I think Star Wars is always reaching for the universal and the intimate at once. The very first story was about starfighters, but it was also about family.'
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