Fiona Shaw Signed On to ‘Andor’ Because of the Family Drama
In the new Andor series, we’ve had the chance to meet a plethora of character’s inside Cassian’s world, including his on-and-off girlfriend Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), or his adoptive mother, Maarva Andor (Fiona Shaw). In a new interview with StarWars.com, Shaw discussed what it was like playing Maarva in the new series and what attracted her to the project.
For starters, she explained her view of the current political landscape the galaxy is going through as follows:
“I can tell you everything I know about Maarva, but I’m not sure I should. It’s very interesting to play an older character because you play somebody who has sort of boiled down their values to just what they think matters. Maarva is beginning to view the world [differently], including the oppression that she’s absorbed, because the Empire does keep them all down and they’re not proud of that. People get ashamed of being kept down and Maarva’s husband has been killed by the very same Empire and hanged in the town square. So she’s had to swallow a lot of pride over the years. And we meet her at a point where maybe that’s becoming really untenable.”
About her position within the Ferrix community and how that has evolved over time, Shaw said the following:
“She’s an unusual person, but also a very practical person. People there work very hard, but they are full of community and I think the value of community becomes more and more important as the series goes on. I think that’s very interesting. It’s not about showing off or doing well or capitalism. It’s really about the sharing of what little wealth exists in that community. And she, of course, becomes revered in the town. She’s not small minded, and she is a big-hearted person, but by the time you meet her, she’s very old and very sick.”
Early on in the series, we learn that it was Maarva who adopted Kassa, later known as Cassian, rescuing him from Kenari. But her relationship with her adopted son was a big change for her as much as it was for him:
“It was great to play those scenes in Kenari. Like all these relationships, you get a feeling that Maarva may have saved the boy, but the boy may also have saved Maarva. It’s given her purpose. It’s given her love. It’s given her someone to love and to worry about for the next 10 or 20 years while he grew up.”
Shaw also explained that it was the family drama that her character goes through that pulled her into the show, beginning with her relationship with the “family dog”, the droid B2-EMO:
“It’s full of all the complexity of family life. I think that’s a very enriching thing to live. I have no experience with droids, but I think most people who’ve got dogs have a similar relationship to their dogs. Particularly an old dog, which is what this droid is. B2 is quite old. But, you know, the droid has got old with Maarva and I think that’s a lovely thing. She kept the same droid. You get a feeling that by then the droids are able to harness the information they got and therefore have a thing similar to affection. They have affection for their masters. They should be just computers, but actually they’re not. And they develop or disintegrate in the same way as humans and that’s what makes it charming, I think.”
However, as important as B2 is to her, the most important relationship for her is Maarva and Cassian:
“That is a very complicated relationship and a really good relationship. Diego has a wonderful open-hearted relationship to the world. We met mainly masked, but he was always so kind. We had this very difficult scene, a huge rousing with which to begin, not just our relationship, but our shooting relationship. It’s fantastic that actors who don’t know each other can jump in and do these very difficult things because you can only do it if you trust the person. And, of course, Diego’s a very easy person to trust.”
Diego Luna also weighed in about his character’s relationship with her adoptive mother, saying:
“One thing that we [didn’t] know about Cassian is how important his relationship with his mom is and what she means and what she stands for,” Luna says. “It’s a beautiful thing to say that those examples are what shape you. They can save you. And for him, it’s her. I think it’s what she’s willing to do. She decides to stay [on Ferrix], she decides to be part of a community. She decides to join the fight where she feels useful. She decides that there is no other priority that matters, you know, but freedom and justice. And I think that means a lot in the arc of Cassian.”
Andor will be back next Wednesday with the ninth episode, which Haynes will direct with a script by Beau Willimon once again. You can check out Miguel’s review of episode 8 here, and The Resistance Broadcast’s discussion on TRB Live! from last week here.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
