Genevieve O’Reilly Talks Playing Mon Mothma in ‘Andor’ and ‘Ahsoka’
Genevieve O’Reilly’s Star Wars fortunes have turned around of late. It seems no one is more surprised than her that she has such a central role in Star Wars live action stories right now, as one of the main characters in Andor and is set to reprise the role of Mon Mothma in the upcoming Ahsoka series.
The actress sat down with Discussing Film to talk about her journey from a deleted scene in Revenge of the Sith to significant roles in Andor and Ahsoka. She revealed that her role in Ahsoka is actually smaller than in Andor, saying that she only spent “a minute” filming for Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau (presumably meaning a short amount of time rather than a literal minute), which isn’t surprising considering that we’ve seen very little of the New Republic in the Ahsoka trailers so far. She also teases that Andor season 2 is a “juggernaut” in terms of storytelling.
It seems the opportunity to play Mon Mothma at a very different point in her life, with the drama of Andor presumably well behind her was intriguing for O’Reilly. She also mentions that she enjoyed working with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, which also makes sense as presumably Hera is still a general in the New Republic, reporting directly to Mon Mothma.
It was fascinating that they asked me and it was such a surprise. I was really thrilled that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were interested in me coming for a minute to play with them. They’re such brilliant filmmakers. It was just thrilling for me to be able to go over and play with them for a bit. I’m a huge fan of Rosario [Dawson], she’s a brilliant and formidable woman and actor. I think what they’re doing with that piece is going to be really exciting. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a wonderful actor and to get to work with her also was amazing.
It felt extraordinary for Mon to get the opportunity to enter a different world again, and perhaps that’s because I’m so invested in Andor. But when Jon and Dave rang and spoke so passionately about Mon, and made it clear that they really wanted her to be in Ahsoka, I felt humbled that they were inviting me to come and join them. They’re brilliant storytellers and filmmakers at the cutting edge. What they’re doing over there with how they use The Volume, they film in a very different way than how we filmed [Andor]. That was really exciting and informative for me to go over and learn how they do that because using that kind of cutting-edge technology to inform the piece, it’s a very different way of filming. I was grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of that.
Genevieve also spoke about Mon Mothma’s character in Andor and how she approaches the character in that point in her life. Apparently, the steer mostly comes from writer and showrunner Tony Gilroy but O’Reilly found it fun to sink her teeth into the “juicy” material.
Well, I think that’s in Tony’s writing. From my experience within Star Wars, this is the first time it’s really been humanized for me. He’s made it grittier, more complex, more human, more pedestrian. She’s a mother and she lives her life within a complicated marriage. I always knew that she would be fighting the Empire on the floor of the Senate, but I didn’t expect her to be stepping into the Empire at home as well.
What a juicy thing for an actor to discover and then get to wrestle with, those scenes in her home where she can carve out allies and speak of rebellion maybe for the first time. The idea that there’s not a formulated rebellion and you have to carve it from nothing, that you have to wade in that danger and discover that she could lose everything, the cost that this woman lives with was deeply juicy for me.
She also spoke about her relationship with Stellen Skarsgård and the nature of Mon Mothma and Luthen Rael’s relationship in Andor. She finds it fascinating that they’re approaching the same goal with polarizing ideals, which seems to be quite common at this early stage in the Rebellion.
Stellan is a dream. He and I get on famously with each other. Those two characters are fascinating because, within Tony’s world, there is nothing of the black and white that there is in the previous Star Wars installments. We’re not Empire or Rebellion, we are merely under the oppressive blanket of Empire. I can really only speak for Mon, she has to find new allies while risking some allies too.
You can see that the relationship between Mon and Luthen serves both of them in very different ways. She is using everything that she has to fund his activities, yet at its core, it also feels like these two people are really different in the way they approach things and hat there is a sense of danger there. In one of their scenes in season one, in her naivety, she calls him out on his opacity and that he hadn’t been honest with her. I think they’re a fascinating pair because they are moving in the same direction, but they’re approaching it from polarized positions.
She also admitted that she was delighted with Andor‘s impressive critical reception and teases that season 2 will be a “juggernaut of storytelling”.
It really meant so much that the fans put their arms around Andor. It feels like a very different piece of work from other Star Wars projects, so it could have been something that they didn’t enjoy. But the fans have loved it, are invested in it, and are curious about it. They’ve gone with Tony’s vision, so it felt really special to share that and for it to be received not with apathy, but with excitement and gratitude. People really, really understood what we are working towards. They really liked the textured grittiness of the show and really saw the humanity within it too. That fan base is such a special and passionate group of people. It meant so much to us that they liked it.
Now we’re filming season two, and I can’t be anything but excited for them. Oh my gosh, it’s this massive juggernaut of storytelling, and all those fans kind of know where it’s going. Andor felt like something really new when we shared it, but now everybody’s invested in that world as well as these deeper, slightly different versions of these characters. Everything is really driving to a very exciting finish. We’re in the middle of filming season two right now and I’m as desperate to share it as people are to see it, so we all have to wait 12 months!
For the full interview, head to Discussing Film.
Ahsoka is slated to release on August 23, 2023, while Andor season 2 should be arriving in late 2024.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
