Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy (The Bourne movies, Michael Clayton) predicted in May that Mon Mothma will become a trending topic when episode four airs. That day is now upon us.
“She’s this figurehead of liberal democracy that will fail, and ultimately, she’ll go to the Rebel Alliance. We stick to the timeline and the major events. But as you can see, we’re saying, ‘You don’t really know what’s going on with her,’” Gilroy says. “Nobody has really known what’s going on with her. She’s had a much harder time than we knew.”
The revelations about Mothma are more intimate than Star Wars storytelling usually gets. Andor shows her not only struggling to hold together the nascent rebellion, but it also bears witness to her tumultuous and combative marriage to a husband named Perrin (Alastair Mackenzie). Fans have seen Han and Leia trade barbs, but they’ve never seen anything like these two.
“Just wait, just wait,” Gilroy says. “Their marriage is as complex as any marriage I’ve ever written in any show I’ve ever done, or any movie I’ve ever written. Their relationship, how they negotiate it, where it ends up, the shifting power dynamics of it…It’s as complicated as anything I’ve ever worked on.”
Part of the problem is that Mothma’s husband, Perrin, is all too comfortable living in the luxury of the Empire. “She's the boss. She’s the senator. And he’s an epicurean,” Gilroy says. “He just wants to live life, man. ‘Why can’t we have fun? Why does everything have to be boring? Why we have to do all this political sh*t? Who cares about this revolution? The revolution’s a pain in the ass, man. Let’s have fun!’”
It would be a spoiler to reveal how that relationship plays out, but Gilroy and O’Reilly are willing to describe the origin of this mismatched couple in advance. “They were married at 16. That is a very big thing in Chandrila,” Gilroy says. “She has a daughter. It was somewhat of an arranged marriage.”
If that seems shocking, it’s worth noting that 16 was also the age when Mothma became a senator. That sort of thing happens in the Star Wars universe; Padmé Amidala, Natalie Portman’s character in the prequels, was also “elected” queen of the planet Naboo when she was a child.
Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma, speaking in the Galactic Senate in Andor.
O’Reilly says Andor confronts what it’s like to live with so much responsibility for so long. In some ways, she says she and her character have grown up together.
“I have played her since I was very young and Mon Mothma was one of my first roles,” she says. “What is it to live within that orthodoxy? And what is it within that familial culture where the woman has the more powerful public role? What does that do to the balance of power within a home? How difficult or easy is that to navigate? And what if your husband has lent into the very voices that you are trying to oppose?”
For O’Reilly, it’s not just a story of good versus evil. It’s about the many sides of a conflict that can exist sometimes within a single person.
“There is a public space and then there is a private space. And with Mon Mothma, we are definitely walking that tightrope in Andor,” O’Reilly says. “What can I reveal in a private space? What is the cost to her? How dangerous is it? How dangerous is it to have a voice—or to risk having a voice—in this very volatile political climate? How costly is it to speak up against autocracy? How is it to navigate not only a public space but also your private home when your voice is very different, when you are a woman speaking in a very male-dominated, arguably aggressive world?”
O’Reilly’s hope is that Star Wars fans will realize that Mon Mothma is not such a mystery after all. There are versions of her all around us.
“You don’t have to look too far, no matter which profession you work in, to see women who are trying to effect change from within,” she says. “I looked to different female leaders around the world and sadly we don’t really have enough of them still. Often they are lonely voices, or voices that others are trying to silence. I see a correlation with those voices and with Mon’s voice. For me, I didn’t have to look too far to see the women that I believe can be reflected in Mon’s fight. I recognized her. I recognized her fights. I want to stand up for her as a character because I think we can all recognize her.”
