With Tony Gilroy’s Andor now streaming on Disney+, I recently got to speak with Kyle Soller (Syril Karn) and Denise Gough (Dedra Meero) about making the fantastic Star Wars series. During the interview, they talked about how Andor was not the Star Wars series they expected, how it’s an all-new section of the universe, who they each play, and how much fun it is to play a character you disagree with.
Andor is a two-season event that starts five years before the events of Rogue One. The first season will cover a year, while the second season will cover the next four years in 3-episode blocks. Meaning episodes one through three will be year two, episodes four through six is year three, seven through nine is year four, and the final episodes will be year five and the plan is to end episode twelve right before Rogue One starts.
The series features the return of Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma and Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera. Newcomers to the series include Stellan Skårsgard, Adria Arjona, and Robert Emms. The 12-episode first season will feature episodes directed by Toby Haynes, Ben Caron, and Susanna White.
Watch what Kyle Soller and Denise Gough had to say above, or you can read our conversation below.
COLLIDER: I'm going to jump in and just say that I've seen the first four episodes. I can't express to you how much I loved them. They're so good. It's what I've been waiting for, and I think that it's because there's no Jedis, lightsabers, Skywalkers, or desert planets. It's other stuff that's happening in the Star Wars universe. Can you sort talk about that aspect of the show?
KYLE SOLLER: Yeah, man. I mean, I think that's what attracted us, I mean, well, me to it who knew about the Star Wars universe.
DENISE GOUGH: Yeah, me too.
SOLLER: But the writing was so different to what I ever expected. And he's created a whole new section of the universe. It's expanding in an intricate way, and all of these characters are so fully developed, and they're all really messy and real and gritty and relatable, and they're all intersecting and interweaving in an amazing way. I certainly hadn't ever seen anything like that in Star Wars before.
GOUGH: Yeah, same. And I didn't really have anything to compare it to because I hadn't seen any. I have never been a Star Wars... Not that I wasn't a fan. It never really was my thing. So when I was in talks about being in it, Tony let me read the first three episodes to get a flavor of what it was because I was like, "I don't know. I'm a theater actress. I'm not sure this is what I want to walk into. What if it's all just in space with green screens? And I don't know how I'll feel about that." Then I read these three episodes, and I was like, "Hold on. This is not what I expected it to be. This is like a dance."
There's so many characters, and because I wasn't in those first three episodes, the fact that I was so into it was such a good sign, because I wasn't reading it from a, well, what's my character's arc through this? I was just like, “Oh, my God.” How has he done this? And then he told me what Dedra would come in and do. And I thought, any party you want me to dance at, Tony, I will be there.
SOLLER: The fact that it's a sociopolitical thriller as well as a business comedy almost as well as-
GOUGH: Workplace drama, kitchen sink drama.
SOLLER: Kitchen sink, and then a love story, and it's Star Wars?
There's not a lot known about your characters, and I hate asking the generic question. What are you allowed to say about your characters?
GOUGH: So I'm playing Dedra Meero, and she works for the ISB, and she is an incredibly ambitious woman in this man's world. She's sort of seeking to get to a place of power within this regime so that she can feel in control, and yet everywhere she looks, she sees people not taking things seriously. It's like in the trailer, Andor says, "They're so fat and" something. "They couldn't imagine that we would get-"
SOLLER: Full of themselves.
GOUGH: "Full of themselves." She sees that. She sees that, too. She's looking around and going, they're fat and full of themselves.
SOLLER: Lazy.
GOUGH: Lazy. And so she's razor-sharp, and in order to get to where she wants to go, she's prepared to go to any lengths to do that, because as far as she's concerned, she's saving the Empire. She's going to go into the Empire and tell them, "This thing is happening, and unless you do something about it, we're all in danger." So, yeah. It's kind of dangerous to be in a fascist regime when you're somebody who wants ultimate power, because you do some pretty horrendous things to ... Yeah. But she's super sweet and nice, and ... She dates, she-
SOLLER: She bakes.
GOUGH: Yeah, she bakes. She crafts.
SOLLER: And that's really where Dedra and Cyril kind of connect.
GOUGH: Yeah. They're crafting.
SOLLER: Crafting. Mainly tailoring.
GOUGH: Yeah, they both ... Their uniforms have to be tailored to look really perfect. And when I heard that was like what's Cyril? I asked her that in my fitting and the designer was like, "You know that's what Cyril does. He needs everything tailored." And I was like, "Oh, we are going to be great together."
What can you actually say about your character?
GOUGH: So Cyril Karn is working for the corporate security sector at the outer reaches of the galaxy and where there's not much Imperial presence at all. And he's desperate for Imperial presence. He is ... As he is with Cassian Andor, he is a dog with a bone to get into the Empire's good books. He would be a perfect little SS officer for them. But he really has a strong moral core, which is just misguided. He's drunk the wrong Kool-Aid, and all the freedom and the messiness and the kind of complexity that Cassian represents, just fills him with such anger that he can't exist within that within his own world. So he is desperate to transcend his own station, at any cost, which makes him a kind of perfect match for Dedra when they wind up crossing paths.
I have to ask you guys, is it fun playing a character doing and saying things that you completely disagree with?
GOUGH: Yeah. And who says I disagree with them?
SOLLER: Yeah. Because I can understand why they both do what they do. Which is the amazing thing about Tony's writing.
GOUGH: It's so good.
SOLLER: It's so three-dimensional that you're like, oh, yeah, I get why he would do that, or she would do that. It's pretty fucked up, but I get it.
GOUGH: It's so fucked up. I have this scene where I'm doing, it's just horrific. And I thought I finished, and one of the guys that was in the scene, he was like, "Man, that was really something." And I was like, "I know, right? So good." And I could see him going, "Wow, she really enjoyed doing that." Yeah. I mean, where else do you get to do this stuff? And playing this sort of baddy is always so much better. I do a lot of-
SOLLER: Yeah, it's so much more fun.
GOUGH: Yeah. To not have to have compassion or empathy. My life is spent constantly crying and feeling so much for everybody that to play a part where I don't have to feel anything, it's quite a nice change.
Andor is now streaming on Disney+.