BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) â Mon Mothma was first introduced to fans as the rebel leader who appears only long enough to move the plot forward by delivering battle plans in hushed tones.
But in the last moments of the most recent episodes on Disney+ (spoilers for already released episodes ahead) she is a patrician senator who, soaked in high-end space booze and potent emotions, tears up the dance floor to a bass-and-drums rave-up at her daughter's wedding. The scene would play as comic if it weren't tragic. None of her fellow revelers know that she has just taken a major step in her rise â or descent â into radicalism by washing her hands of an old friend who may be a threat to the burgeoning Rebel Alliance.
The size of the scene â and its subtleties â shows off the new levels of depth and breadth given to actors , and other central women in the second season of âAndorâ; three new episodes drop on Tuesday.
âItâs a techno-galactic dance moment, but itâs also this moment of internal chaos for this woman,â OâReilly said in an interview with The Associated Press. âSheâs tacitly agreed to have her friend murdered. Sheâs dancing to stop herself from screaming. Itâs deeply painful. It is that one moment where we can actually see Mon Mothma wrestle out of this straitjacket and dance with terrified abandon.â
Making Mon Mothma into a real character
Mothmaâs conflict is in some ways even more central to the showâs premise â what does it take to make a revolution? â than that of the title character, played by . Like many real-life figures past and present, she is trying to maintain a facade of respectful, and respectable, opposition to tyranny while feeling the pull of open rebellion.
âIf she drops that mask of diplomacy, sheâs useless," O'Reilly said. âSheâs only effective if she maintains composure.â
âAndorâ creator Tony Gilroy told the AP that Mothma's âjourney is the hardest, I think. Because she has to do everything, and has to be observed. She canât move.â
The character originated as a brief-but-memorable role for Caroline Blakiston in 1983âs âReturn of the Jedi.â The 48-year-old Ireland-born OâReilly, who has lived much of her adult life in Australia, was first cast in the role of the young senator when the 2005 prequel âRevenge of the Sithâ was shooting there, because, she says with a laugh, she was the âpalest person in Sydney.â
All of her âSithâ scenes were relegated to DVD extras. But she would reprise the role in 2016âs âRogue One," to which âAndorâ is a prequel, and has played the part in the Lucasfilm properties âStar Wars: Rebels" and âAhsoka.â
But it's in âAndor," especially Season 2, where the origin story of the leader from the planet Chandrila is truly told.
âYou really feel that sheâs of value to this world that is created,â OâReilly said. âThatâs the gift that every actor wants.â
Gilroy wrote the first three episodes of Season 2, and says he insisted on including the elaborate and difficult-to-produce three-day wedding ceremony that ends with the scene set to a chaotic dance-club remix of composer âNiamos!â from Season 1.
Gilroy says the expanded roles for his show's women came in part from him learning the talents of the performers.
âYou get a big show like this where time is really your friend in a way," he said, "and you watch who rises.â
Gilroy knew OâReilly from âRogue One,â which he also wrote, but said sheâs basically âa piece of furnitureâ in that movie.
He brought her to âAndorâ as a legacy character without giving it much thought. But then he got to see her work.
âIt was like, âMy God, look what she can do, she can do anything,â Gilroy said. âSheâs a freaking Steinway. Let's go for it.â
Kleya: Stepping out of the shadows in âAndorâ Season 2
He had a similar experience of discovery with Elizabeth Dulau, whose character Kleya had an intriguing but small part in Season 1 as the lieutenant of violent revolutionary Luthen Rael (Stellan SkarsgÄrd).
Gilroy remembers thinking, âShe could be the sorcererâs apprentice, or she could be one of the greatest actresses Iâve ever worked with in my life."
He chose to treat her as the latter, and this season Kleya gets a real arc and a detailed backstory.
Bix Caleen: Bringing new dimensions to Star Wars
Arjona, who plays Bix Caleen, the partner in romance and rebellion to Luna's Cassian Andor, was âanother person itâs easy to underestimate.â
She gets to travel the greatest dramatic distances of any character in Season 2, after limited time in Season 1.
She begins as a communal rural farmer in hiding with fellow rebels then becomes an urban dweller with Andor. She moves from trauma into traumatic stress, and from struggle with addiction into explosive action.
âThis season I just felt so cushioned,â she told the AP. âIâve never done a Season 2 of anything. I was able to go to places that Iâve never sort of dabbled in in my career, because I felt so safe at every twist and turn.â
In the most recently released episode, she is the target of an attempted sexual assault from an imperial officer, which Arjona said shows âthe abuse of power, but in a galaxy far far away.â
And she called her forthcoming final lines on the series âthe scariest moment that Iâve ever been presented with. I didnât know how to tackle it as an actress.â
âI was a mess!â she added. "It took me takes and takes of me absolutely just bawling through that scene until finally it gets to what I believe they used."
The work of his fellow actors leaves the star almost embarrassed by the project's title.
âItâs a paradox that this show is called âAndorâ because itâs about community, itâs an ensemble,â Luna said. âThe complexity of that is what makes this show interesting.â
Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press
