'Andor' star Genevieve O'Reilly on Leida's 'pretty brutal' response to Mon Mothma before wedding
But there's an incredibly impactful moment in the second episode of Season 2, with Mon Mothma, played by Genevieve O'Reilly, as her daughter, Leida (Bronte Carmichael), is about the get married, that we can't stop thinking about. In a scene described by O'Reilly as a "special" filming day, just as the ceremony is about to happen, Mon, alone with Leida, gives her an out.
Mon shares with Leida that on her wedding day, he mother was drunk, and she couldn't understand why she would do that, until now.
"We can walk out there right now, tell them all to have a lovely afternoon, but it's not yet time for a marriage," Mon says.
"I wish you were drunk," Leida bites back.
What's so exceptional about this scene, in addition to the real humanity of the moment, is that we learn so much about this family, and different generations of women in this family, in such a short period of time.
As O'Reilly explained to Yahoo Canada while in Toronto, she thought the character's choices in the show would be more believable if she did offer her daughter an escape route from her upcoming marriage.
"I remember speaking to Tony about that actually and saying, I believe she'd give her an out, ... and I could have never imagined that it would have been as potent as he wrote it," O'Reilly said. "Just at that threshold that she's just about to step over and get married, and Mon offers her an out, and Mon brings her mother and her history into the room."
"So within the dialogue you have three generations of women, and it's such a clear moment for me about what Mon has willfully stepped away from, and she's offering her daughter a chance not to have to do it. And then the dynamic, the power dynamic, just shifts, and that young woman just takes that agency of her own and steps up against her mother. She's pretty brutal. ... And then you could feel that influenced, well for me anyway, the rest of the wedding. Because then later on, you have Mon drinking and then you realize what her mother was like. It's this really interconnected, intergenerational story."
Another particularly interesting development in Andor Season 2 is Luthen Rael's (Stellan Skarsgård) relationship with Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau), his assistant. There's a compelling development in the second season where we understand he has a sort of responsibility to her.
"When we started filming Season 1 we didn't know about Season 2, and Tony had some vague ideas about flashbacks, and he had some shitty ideas too," Stellan Skarsgård said. "But we sort of winged a relationship in Season 1 and Elizabeth Dulau mainly did it, because she holds her space."
"She was boss in those scenes and I was a little flimsy guy. ... So the way she held her place in those scenes made me sort of say OK, I've got to back off, but at the same time, it made a very strange kind of affectionate thing. I honestly don't know what it is, but it's more about feelings."
Even before we get to these relationships, to begin Andor Season 2 there are a number of critical, but secretive, conversations Mon and Luthen have throughout Leida's wedding events, with Luthen expressing concerns about banker Tay Kolma, who helped Mon hide the evidence that she was funding the Rebellion.
Interestingly, the actors had some logistical challenges filming those moment.
"In the script there's all these scenes where they find a corner of a room and have ... these really clandestine, threat-filled conversations, but it was a circular space," O'Reilly said. "We kept being like, where are we going to have this one? So we found ourselves lurking behind pillars."
But through Gilroy's work on Andor, there really isn't another show, even within the Star Wars franchise, that balances entertainment with a constructive exploration of fascism and the history of empires.
"It is masterful writing," Skarsgård said. "It's one thing to do a piece about fascism for 500 people, and that's easier, but to do it for a broad audience, that's difficult, ... and it's more important."
"I think Tony and his team are just very interested in history," O'Reilly added. "I think Tony has spoken himself about this being a platform for him to mine everything that he studied about history and revolution, and what's interesting about it."
"And I think what's special about it is that he's telling that story from the perspective of the characters, rather than imposing a historical pastiche on top of it. ... He's really exploring our humanity."
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