‘Andor’: Andy Serkis Talks Returning to ‘Star Wars’ as a Different Character
The hits keep coming in Andor. This week’s episode 8 picked up the threads from last week, which saw Cassian sentenced to six years in an Imperial prison. When he got there, he was eventually greeted by a surprising face, fan favorite Andy Serkis, making his return to the franchise in a new role.
Yes, Andy Serkis is back in Star Wars! After first playing Supreme Leader Snoke of the First Order in the sequel trilogy, Serkis is back in Andor. He is playing a brand-new character known as Kino Loy, the floor manager for the section of the prison Cassian was placed in. The character is just trying to ride some goodwill through the rest of his sentence, which is within a year.
Vanity Fair spoke with Serkis about returning to Star Wars in a brand-new role. Of course, he can’t escape the question regarding the Internet and a fresh batch of Snoke theories. On the decision to come back to Star Wars despite that, he said:
“It’s a difficult one because I’m sure that’s exactly what people will think. And why would they think other? I was a bit confused as to whether to do it or not, but it was purely because I love Rogue One. I truly loved the grounding of that film in a world which felt both real and yet still felt epic. Also, I’m getting to play a character at the opposite end of the spectrum of a highly powerful Supreme Leader. [Kino Loy] is someone who is a real person in this world.”
The talk immediately shifted towards Kino Loy. Serkis mentioned he never saw the character as a bad guy, more just a guy trying to get through the day:
What I imagined of Kino’s backstory, before he was in prison, was that he was a union leader. He’s used to working as a foreman. I wanted him to come from a place where he was put in prison for, perhaps, standing up for workers’ rights, and then put into a position of authority because that’s what he does. He is a natural leader. But he really just wants to serve his time. He’s got a family. He wants to get out and get back, and assumes that that’s going to happen after his incarceration.
It becomes clear throughout the episode that the prison he and Cassian are in isn’t the best of places. It has a rewards-based system that if you do well, you might get some better tasting “food.” Do poorly for the day, and you get lightly tortured by way of electrocution. Serkis said his character, Loy, uses that as his motivation, but he talked about how there’s something else Loy has forgotten about that Cassian brings out when he arrives. He said:
“He’s been brainwashed into believing that—even though he probably knows deep down that he’s been imprisoned unfairly. He sort of cut that part of himself off. He just wants to do time and get out. They act almost like robots. Andor is questioning that. Obviously, he wants to escape, he wants to get out as quickly as possible, so these two are opposing forces.”
Serkis then touched on what it was like shooting and how it felt like the cast were in their own prison:
“When you’re on that set for weeks and weeks, everyone started to think as one and you could feel people losing their will. Once you were in there, there was no comfort. And it did leave you at the end of the day thinking, “Oh my God, get me out of here.” [Laughs.] It really was intense. We were literally barefooted. And that’s such an interesting choice of Tony [Gilroy’s]… To take shoes away from you, to make you have bare feet, is a really weird sensation. Your feet on metal plates for days and days and days and days, does something to your energy. It just saps you.”
The prison seems like it will be a fixture during this arc of three episodes (8-10), so there will probably be at least two more episodes with Andy Serkis to come. Head over to Vanity Fair for the full conversation.
Also, don’t forget to read our written review of the episode and to check out The Resistance Broadcast‘s discussion on TRB Live.
Nate uses his love for Star Wars and movies in general as a way to cope with the pain of being a Minnesota sports fan. When he's not at the theater, you can usually find Nate reading a comic, listening to an audiobook, or playing a Mario video game for the 1,000th time.
