‘Andor' star Genevieve O'Reilly on her unlikely two-decade Mon Mothma journey: ‘I've closed the circle on her'
The ethereal Rebel leader Mon Mothma was originally portrayed by actress Caroline Blakiston in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Though her appearance lasted less than 30 seconds, the character quickly became an iconic part of Star Wars lore. O'Reilly later stepped into the role in her 20s for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith — a brief appearance as well, but one that laid the groundwork for her deeper involvement in the franchise later on.
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Much to her surprise, O'Reilly returned to the franchise as Mon Mothma just over a decade later in a slightly more fleshed-out role for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, accompanied by turns voicing the character for the animated series Star Wars Rebels. But those brief stints were just the amuse bouche for the gourmet feast that awaited the actress as Mon Mothma moved to the head of the table for Andor. The Chandrilan senator was given a sweeping backstory loaded with all the gravitas, sacrifice and subterfuge one could expect of an emerging Rebel hero; meanwhile O'Reilly was given her own epic opus as an actress.
Attending an FYC event for the Disney+ series at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills, O'Reilly joined Gold Derby to reflect on her wildly unexpected two-decade tour of duty in the Rebellion (which has also continued forward in Ahsoka), including the challenging moments that tested her commitment as much as her character's.
Lucasfilm/Disney
Gold Derby: Is it too soon to lobby for a Mon Mothma series? From the end of this show to the end of , there's a lot of potential story still in there for her.
Genevieve O'Reilly: I bet!
Would you be excited if the right call came to pick this character up yet again?
I mean, do you know what? It's been such a gift of a surprise for me to come back — and back — and Andor has been revelatory for me in regard to this woman. So, always! If we could go further, I don't know if that's possible because of what Andor has achieved, it's just extraordinary. But yes.
You've participated in a lot of different projects. What did that mean to you to of be a part of what may be a whole new direction for a certain type of film or series?
I can only speak from my perspective to the writing, to Tony [Gilroy] and all those writers and what they achieved, in regard to a depth of character, the depth of interaction. And I think something that Season 2 really achieved was by jumping that year every three episodes it allowed for a real specificity of character, a real specificity of this moment and who this is, which allowed for kind of big swings — swings of character. So that was really interesting to me, that you didn't have to carry the audience with you from one moment to the next. You could drop in and just reveal something quite different.
Did you have any unanswered questions about Mon Mothma at the end of this, or are you pretty satisfied with what you do understand about her?
I remember something when I started this so long ago, that there was something in Caroline Blakiston's performance [in Return of the Jedi] that I was really curious about, and what that pain was at the center of her. And I was always seeking that. And I feel like at the end of Andor I've kind of closed the circle on her. I understand her pain. I understand that personal trauma and that personal relationship to sacrifice the Rebellion much more.
Tell me about when you got that very first call to pick up this character all those years ago, what your reaction was then? And now, when you're become truly the custodian of that character after all this time and really been the one who got to play the things that deepened her and filled out her mythology. Can you compare and contrast those moments?
There're three big moments for me, actually. The first one was just getting that role when I was a very young actor and just being wide-eyed and just it was so extraordinary to step onto those sets and be a tiny part of that. The real interesting moment for me was when they called me to ask me to do Rogue One, because that was 10 years later. So much had happened in that time. They didn't have to ring. They didn't have to ask me, do you know what I mean? They kind of could have reached out to anyone at that point and that felt special. So I thought, 'OK, maybe I have something to offer here.'
And then when Tony rang in regard to Andor, I mean he's such an extraordinary writer. He had such a vision for the piece and he really wanted to allow space for her to have a proper story, to have story time, narrative time, rather than just be an expositional force, which she was previously.
What was the most challenging but perhaps the most gratifying day of work on for you?
Yeah, that was the speech. Mon's speech. It took a day and it was extraordinary and that was so important to me. It was so important to me. I felt it was the fulcrum of who she is, really the center. I thought that everything else makes sense if she can land that, it was a real gift that he gave to me and trusted me with and, yeah, I brought everything I could to it.
And I'm sure, too, the dance. The dance is her transition — now she's .
There's blood in her hands at that point. And being able to release her physically was just everything, because it is a lens into character. And we'd never seen her move, we'd never really seen her outside of that calm that she has. So to be able to expose that trauma, that chaos, physically was so wonderful. Yeah, revelatory, I hope, for the audience, and also for me as an actor.
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