Denise Gough on Becoming Dedra Meero, Talks ‘Andor’ Season 2
Andor is a show with a whole host of standout characters, most brand-new to the Star Wars galaxy. Before etching her name into the lexicon of great Star Wars villains, Denise Gough was set to join a Game of Thrones spinoff series before it failed to come together. Now, Gough is known to everyone as Dedra Meero, and her presence has done nothing but bring the stakes in Andor to a completely different level.
Talking with Empire, Gough went into how she got brought into Star Wars, and opened up on how she was able to crack her character after some initial mental roadblocks. She also talked what to expect from the ISB supervisor in season 2. As always, this will just include the highlights, so you are encouraged to head over to Empire for the full interview.
The story Gough tells is that showrunner Tony Gilroy wanted her for the part of Dedra Meero after being wowed by her performance in People, Places and Things, a London play from 2015. She ended up winning Best Actress for her work in that year’s Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards. Looking back on that play and the nature of the character that Gilroy was trying to get her to play, Gough jokes:
“I don’t quite know what that says about me.”
However, Gough’s road to Star Wars was close to never happening at all. Empire notes that, before starring in People, Places and Things, Gough almost quit acting altogether. But she stuck with it, getting work on the pilot of the Naomi Watts-led Game of Thrones prequel spinoff. Unfortunately, that’s as far as the project went, since it never got a full series order. Fortunately though, that’s when Star Wars came knocking.
Gilroy would end up sending Gough the scripts for the first three episodes so she could get a feel for the series. Gough recalls her reaction to the scripts:
“I’ll never forget it… I was sitting at my kitchen table, and I thought, ‘This is magic.’ All the [scenes with the] kids… It was like reading a really great play. I was like, ‘Okay, yeah. I want to do that. Definitely.”
Quick reminder that Dedra Meero wouldn’t appear until episode 4 of the show.
Funnily enough, her first day wouldn’t end up being on that fourth outing. Instead, Gough was thrown into the lion’s den on day one with the season finale’s funeral scene on Ferrix being her introduction. She had this to say on what it was like to dive right in with Maarva Andor’s speech:
“My first day was Ferrix… I was given my two Death Troopers – one of whom had to be trained to run like a Death Trooper and not like a musical theatre star – and I couldn’t help myself, I just started doing the [hums the Imperial March]. Then, everyone started doing it. Fiona’s voice was over all of us. Except, at the end, she didn’t say, ‘Fight the Empire!’ She said, ‘Fuck the Empire!’ Which we were all really excited about. But we weren’t allowed to keep it, obviously.”
As filming went on and the dreams of an F-bomb faded away, Gough was still figuring out her character. One of the biggest hurdles for her was that infamous Star Wars dialogue. While Andor‘s dialogue is likely a bit more grounded than what George Lucas asked of his actors and actresses, playing in the Star Wars world was a challenge for Gough. She said:
“I had to say, ‘I need a multisector data blend going back two years.’ And I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t get my mouth around the words. Ben Caron and I sat in the corner of the set, and I was like, ‘You don’t understand, Ben, all anyone has told me for the past five years is that I’m really excellent at acting. And now I’m really not. This is terrible.’ I realised I needed muscles that I only usually use on stage. Tony says Anton Lesser [Imperial boss Partagaz] makes exposition sound like sonnets. Once I got it into my body, that language became really fun.”
After getting into the Star Wars mindset, it became easier. The villain came to life, and something Gough’s mother would tell her became a common thing again:
“My mother used to say to me, ‘You need to smile, because you can look quite sour if you don’t.’ I have a naturally downturned mouth.”
We didn’t see much smiling at all from Meero over the course of Andor, although she definitely took satisfaction in torturing Bix — Gough said she also took pleasure in performing that scene:
“By the time I got to the interrogation, I was just like, ‘Let me at it! I love this so much!’”
Denise Gough will return for Andor season 2, although her role is still a mystery. Ironically, shortly after getting the scripts for season 2, Gough said that she ran into Ian McDiarmid in an unrelated setting. While not an indication that the Emperor will make an appearance in season 2, Gough touched on her wishes for Meero. She said:
“What I’m really hoping for is Dedra out of uniform. I would look at Genevieve’s [O’Reilly, Mon Mothma] costumes like, ‘Oh my god.’ Michael [Wilkinson, costume designer] deserves a real shout-out. I did one of my fittings and I put on an outfit and said, ‘This is so Mon Mothma… I can’t wear this, can I?’ He was like, ‘No.’”
On the more serious side of things, Gough made a declaration about what she will bring to the table next season. With a more appropriate F-bomb for good measure, she had this to say:
“I am going to Dedra the fuck out of the second season.”
Again, head over to Empire for the whole interview. Andor season 2 is currently filming and aiming for a release in 2024. Season 2 will be another 12 episodes, leading directly into Rogue One.
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.
