Andor Showrunner Tony Gilroy Explains The 'Big Galactic Hit' & The Wedding Scene Disco Droid [Exclusive Interview]

There is only one way out. This article contains minor spoilers for the first three episodes of "Andor" season 2.

Ever since the moment "Andor" first arrived on streaming, "Star Wars" has simply never been the same — and there's more than one artist responsible for that. Season 2 is even darker, bolder, and better than ever, maintaining all the grown-up themes and unabashed political commentary that writer, showrunner, and creator Tony Gilroy injected into this prequel/spin-off series to "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." But as much as this brilliant franchise offering owes its existence to Diego Luna's gritty title character, a very different kind of hero has emerged from the background as a fan favorite: Genevieve O'Reilly's Senator Mon Mothma. After initially appearing in "Revenge of the Sith" (or, more accurately, in scenes left on the cutting room floor), the actor's "Star Wars" arc has closely paralleled Gilroy's. Both played large roles in "Rogue One," and now they've reunited once again for another go-around, three years after portraying the future Rebellion leader like we've never seen her before.

And, boy, was that nothing compared to where O'Reilly and Gilroy take Mon Mothma in season 2. Episodes 1-3 of the series, all of which dropped at once as part of Disney's unusual new release strategy, cover a whole lot of new ground, but perhaps no subplot stands out quite like the Chandrilan wedding sequence that plays out over the course of this early part of the season. Under fire from supposed ally Tay Kolma (Ben Miles), relentlessly pressured by the shadowy Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), and now confronted with the continued rejection of her own husband Perrin (Alastair Mackenzie) and young daughter Leida (Bronte Carmichael), Mon Mothma has hit her breaking point. Naturally, "Andor" depicts this with as much complexity, thoughtfulness, and grace as it always has.

I recently had the chance to sit down for a Zoom interview with both Gilroy and O'Reilly, where we discussed everything from the creative freedom Gilroy enjoyed on the series, why both agree that Mon Mothma's emotional journey is "the most difficult one in the whole show," and, most importantly of all, everything you could possibly want to know about that scene-stealing disco droid (and the origins of that absolute bop of an EDM song) during Mon's drunken wedding dance.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

I remember when the first trailer for season 2 dropped, my first reaction in our /Film work chat was, "I can't believe this show got me emotionally invested in Mon Mothma, of all characters," and I mean that as the highest compliment possible. It's my go-to example of everything this show does so well. It takes these pillars of the franchise, all this iconography, and kind of brings them back down to earth in the best possible way. Tony, is that the kind of reaction you're looking for in this upcoming season, from both casual viewers and die-hard "Star Wars" fans alike?

Tony Gilroy: Totally. If you were me, that's exactly what you want. What do I want? I want connection, I want to break your heart, I want you to feel that you understand these people, I want you to be asking questions, "What would I do?" Yeah, I want everything. I want it all. Yeah, absolutely. The answer is yes [laughs].

Genevieve, I can't even imagine what a whirlwind journey this has been for you, going from "Episode III" to your grand return in "Rogue One," and now you're sort of headlining this show with some of the greatest moments so far, I would say. Going into season 2, what unexplored aspects of Mon Mothma's character did you still feel we needed to learn more about?

Genevieve O'Reilly: Well, first of all, I think I need to say, it doesn't feel like a whirlwind. It feels like it's a hike up a mountain. But I think "Andor" helps me, as an actor, really feel like we've reached the summit with this character. I feel so grateful for the story, space, the character development, the interest in this woman that Tony and the writing team have allowed for and written for — not just for me as an actor, but for her as a character. I feel like at the end of this season, it's not just a pillar or a skeleton. We've got muscles and sinew and texture and blood and heartbeat, and I really understand the rhythm of this woman in a way that we didn't really examine before.

Tony Gilroy: Just the marriage alone, just the [parenting] of it all.

Genevieve O'Reilly: Yeah.

Tony Gilroy: If people left at the first season, then they're like, "Oh, this guy [Perrin] is this..." But it's so much more complicated, isn't it, their relationship?

To follow up on that: How much personal input, Genevieve, did you have in crafting this character along with Tony, whether it was individual scenes or even her overall arc this season?

Genevieve O'Reilly: No, I think Tony and his team do all the heavy lifting. They do all the work. Us, as actors, receive it when it's pretty pristine. The piece is very beautifully detailed. Tony is an instinctively collaborative person. He's a high communicator. So he would ring and after the scripts — or actually even in the middle of seasons, and he would talk about things, ideas — and he would really allow for me to be able to say, "Hang on a second. What about that?" or "What about that?" It was great. Once we arrive on set, we have a finished, beautifully architectured piece, and that allows for a freedom of performance, actually. Because no one's complaining or trying to whittle something down. There's a real freedom in understanding that we all have a shared piece to work from. So I think the work comes before that. He is curious about character, so he's interested in our perspectives.

Tony, I'm so curious about your experience these last five years working on the show and how it compares to other studio projects that you've been on before. Did you feel like you had free rein to redefine the backstories of established characters like Mon Mothma or even with other characters, kind of inventing it from whole cloth?

Tony Gilroy: Yeah, I've never — in my entire career, even as a final cut director, I've never had the freedom that we've had on ["Andor"]. I know it's hard for people to understand, but we were given complete creative freedom all the way through. Everybody knows we changed one line for Fiona Shaw [as Cassian's mother Maarva in the season 1 finale]. Now, we've had plenty of conversations that have had creative impact about economics. There are things that we can't afford to do, things that are too complicated, things that have been interrupted by Covid or by strikes. Things have been affected. So there are conversations and problem solving.

But, look, my personal experience is I feel like, for my whole career — I was a short story writer and [now] I've been offered the chance to be a novelist, and not just a novelist, but like, "Okay, go write an epic novel." And if you're asking me how it feels, to me, that's the difference. You live in a sort of 130-page ghetto your whole life, and then all of a sudden you have 1,500 pages and this huge canvas and this huge topic. The liberating aspects of that and the liberating aspects of the freedom and the confidence that Disney and Lucasfilm put in us, that's how we got here.

Genevieve, what draws me to your performance the most, I think, is the way you play this character as having to put on all these masks in her day-to-to-day life, both in public and in private. And I'm just watching this and imagining the kind of toll that must take on you and [Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael] especially. Here you have actors playing characters who are putting on performances themselves, as well. And that extra layer, to me, it's incredibly compelling and it also just feels mentally exhausting [laughs]. What was your experience like, from a performance standpoint?

Genevieve O'Reilly: That's the dream as an actor, to be able to get to play many facets of character and to hopefully, maybe achieve some of that within a moment. It's kind of fine detailed work that you hope to be given the opportunity to do. But as a character, she can only be successful if she maintains that. So what's great is to hear you say that you understand, perhaps, what that is to carry — emotionally, how under fire that woman is at any given moment and that risk of exposure.

Tony Gilroy: I think her journey is the most difficult one in the whole show, because she has to do everything under glass. Everything is being observed. I remember in the very beginning, when you said you were jealous of [Faye Marsay as Vel].

Genevieve O'Reilly: [Laughs]

Tony Gilroy: She gets to go out and shoot guns and do all this stuff and jump off cliffs, and there's a physical outpouring. [Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma] has none of that. She can't do anything. She has to just be constantly not be screaming out loud. Yeah. No, I think it's a very difficult path.

Genevieve O'Reilly: And it's really great within the relationship that Tony's created to have those scenes with Luthen, because then you see how both of those multi-dimensional characters really have to cross and bang up against each other.

This entire wedding arc stretched over these first three episodes is just incredible. It feels bold, it feels risky. But there's one thing in particular I have to ask you guys about ... and it's the disco droid [laughs] from that dance sequence. Who thought of that? What inspired that? Was it a practical effect? Literally anything else you could tell me about that would be great [laughs].

Tony Gilroy: [Visibly animated] The song is "Niamos." So "Niamos" came up the first time in season 1 when we went to [the planet] Niamos. We really liked that song a lot. And then, it's very difficult to do source music in the show. So [season 1 composer Nicholas Brittell] took that Niamos theme and, if you listen very carefully, it's back in the brothel in the very beginning [of the season 1 premiere], played weirdly. It's also in [Mon Mothma's Chandrilan Embassy on Coruscant] played sort of backwards. So we sort of said, "What if it's a galactic hit? What if that's a really big galactic hit?" So we're like, "We're going to do the wedding."

So when we came time for that, Brandon Roberts, who sort of tag-teamed into our music on the second season, I said, "Brandon, we need a massive EDM mix for the wedding." So we had that. I don't know who thought of the disco droid. I don't know if it's [episode director Ariel Kleiman]. I don't know if it's [production designer Luke Hull]. I really don't know the answer. I remember hearing about it — I know that I was involved, maybe, prior to that. I wanted the paparazzi flashbulbs [droid] in the party. But no, the disco droid, I can't take any credit for that. I don't know where it came from, but I saw it and was like [skeptically], "Okay, maybe." But it's really cool. It's really cool [laughs].

*****

You can hear the full interview with Tony Gilroy and Genevieve O'Reilly on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast:

You can subscribe to /Film Daily on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and send your feedback, questions, comments, concerns, and mailbag topics to us at bpearson@slashfilm.com. Please leave your name and general geographic location in case we mention your e-mail on the air.

New episodes of "Andor" season 2 stream on Disney+ every Tuesday.