Tony Gilroy on the ‘spooky' real-life parallels with Emmy nominee ‘Andor'
The filmmaker spent over five years steeped in the world of the 'Star Wars' prequel series, which follows resistance fighter Cassian Andor (portrayed by Diego Luna) during the nascent days of the Rebellion. On Tuesday, 'Andor' earned 14 Emmy nominations for its second and final season, including in the marquee race for drama series.
'It's hard to imagine that I'll ever be as deeply invested with as much and so submerged with so many people in such a huge endeavor,' Gilroy said via Zoom after the nominations announcement. 'It's a life experience as much as anything else. Everybody on this show really came away with a deeper sense of community and affection than they went in with.'
In addition to drama series, 'Andor' was nominated for its directing, writing, cinematography, production design, costume, editing, score, original music, sound editing, sound mixing and special effects. Performances by Forest Whitaker (guest actor) and Alan Tudyk (character voice-over) were also recognized.
A grounded, political spy thriller, 'Andor' is set during the five years leading up to the events of 'Rogue One: A Star Wars story,' the 2016 film on which Gilroy is credited as one of the writers. The series has been hailed by critics and audiences since its 2022 debut, captivating both longtime 'Star Wars' fans as well as those who don't know an Ewok from a Wookiee.
The show's second season, which unfolds over the span of four years, provided key glimpses into the Galactic Empire's operations as well as the origins of the Rebel Alliance. And while the show is inspired by revolutions past, Gilroy admits it has been 'spooky' to see current events parallel moments from the show.
In an interview with The Times, Gilroy discussed 'Andor's' nominations, real-life parallels and more. The conversation edited for length and clarity.
Congratulations on the 14 nominations! How are you feeling?
I'm trying to find a word that everybody you're calling doesn't use. I feel affirmed. It's very exciting, obviously.
Where were you and what were you doing when you heard the news?
I waited and I took a ride and took a shower and got out and saw my phone was hot. I waited to see if my phone was hot.
Is there an 'Andor' group chat where you all can chat in a thread together?
No. Well, maybe there is and I'm not on it. It's more text mania. Then you have to figure out who's on WhatsApp, who's on this, who's on that. Everybody's on different s—. It's actually really f— complicated, to be honest. Now I've got emails to answer, WhatsApps to answer.
What has it been like for you to be on this ride with this show as real-life events start to parallel what happened on the show? It feels like we're living through so much of it now.
It's been spooky. We had to do a very interesting thing, I think, and figure out how to sell the show while this was all happening without us getting confused, or the world getting confused, or anything else. So I'm really proud. We went all around the world and really sold it really hard. It's hard to get a large audience to watch 'Star Wars' — it's strange, but it's really difficult. Along the way I think we managed through the relevancy and the politics of it as successfully as we could. I think now things are a little bit looser. We're a little bit more free with how we want to speak now so that's a little bit liberating.
How hard is it to hold some of that in while you're trying to appeal to an audience?
There wasn't anything really cynical about it. Everything we said was legit. The historical model is truly what we were doing, and we're not espousing an ideology in the show or anything like that. But we were also quite taken aback as things went along, at the amount of things that started rhyming with what was going on. Watching Sen. [Alex] Padilla get [handcuffed] while we're watching the Ghorman senate — there's things we did not expect to see lining up. It's really tough and it should be obvious what people think about it.
One of the show's nominations was writing for Episode 9.
Dan Gilroy, nominated!
How does it feel to be able to share this moment with your brother?
All three Gilroy brothers were nominated today! It's very pleasing to see that. There's so many things on here that really, really, really, make me smile. It's really great that [production designer] Luke [Hull] and [costume designer] Michael Wilkinson [were nominated]. All the technical things that came in for us today were really satisfying. All these awards are community property no matter how people talk about it. You know how many people it takes to stand behind every one of these episodes. They're just epic, the amount of people that are involved.
As you're picking these individual episodes, how did Episode 9 stand out? What made it special for you?
We were really torn about what to [submit]. We had three candidates that we really were really interested in. In the end, people felt — direction wise — that the Ghorman massacre, Episode 8, was such a powerhouse. It's such a strong flavor and so memorable that we could not have that beat for direction. And we also felt that [Episode] 9, it's just so sophisticated. The spy writing and the sleekness of the politics and the sleekness of the storytelling in there and the scale of the issues for the characters that came up. That was always the favorite for script.
Since you mention Ghorman, what was memorable about working on that episode for you?
It's always an experiment to see if you're going to get the power out of things that you think you're going to get. [So,] to watch that expand beyond where we thought it was going to be, and to have it affect us, the people making it, more than we expected. To have the extras walk off the set on the final day of shooting, when they were finally released, all the people in that square after months and they went off singing the Ghorman national anthem on their own on the way out of Pinewood [Studios]. I'm very proud of it.
That anthem is also nominated.
That's really all I care about, Tracy. I've written a national anthem and it's been nominated for an Emmy. [Laughs.]
Your time with 'Star Wars' is pretty much wrapped up. What has it been like for you, being steeped in this world for so long?
'Rogue [One]' aside, just being on this show the last five and a half, six years, this is the seminal creative experience, I'm imagining, of my life. It's hard to imagine that I'll ever be as deeply invested with as much and so submerged with so many people in such a huge endeavor. I can't imagine that will ever happen again. It's a life experience as much as anything else. Everybody on this show really came away with a deeper sense of community and affection than they went in with. To make a great show, and we're really proud of it, and to come away feeling the way that we feel about each other and what everybody did, I'm as proud of that as anything.
How are you going to celebrate?
I'm going to roll these calls and I'm going to go back to prepping the movie that I'm supposed to start shooting. I've got homework to do. I'm going to try and get an hour or two of work done before I go out for dinner with my wife. But I'll have an extra cherry in my old fashioned tonight.
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