{"id":166734,"date":"2025-05-07T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T03:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/07\/for-genevieve-oreilly-mon-mothmas-explosive-andor-speech-was-20-years-in-the-making\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T03:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T03:30:00","slug":"for-genevieve-oreilly-mon-mothmas-explosive-andor-speech-was-20-years-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/07\/for-genevieve-oreilly-mon-mothmas-explosive-andor-speech-was-20-years-in-the-making\/","title":{"rendered":"For Genevieve O\u2019Reilly, Mon Mothma\u2019s Explosive \u2018Andor\u2019 Speech Was 20 Years in the Making"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>This story contains spoilers for episodes one through nine of<\/em> Andor\u2019<em>s second season.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-dropcap\"><em>Star Wars<\/em> fans knew this moment was coming. With the Ghorman Massacre imminent, lore had it that Mon Mothma\u2014the politician from Chandrila fighting for peace and democracy, while secretly serving as an informant for the Rebellion\u2014would give an explosive speech before the Senate that would officially end her double life and turbocharge resistance to the Empire. In the ninth episode of <em>Andor<\/em>\u2019s second and final season, we reach that point. An elaborate plan comes together to allow Mon Mothma (<strong>Genevieve O\u2019Reilly<\/strong>) to speak from the dais, against the wishes of her colleagues and the Empire\u2019s leadership\u2014and more surprisingly, we hear her unshakable remarks in full.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cI believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. For all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous,\u201d she says. \u201cThe death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us\u2014when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands\u2014we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>Andor<\/em> has been profoundly resonant this season, perhaps never more than with that rousing, devastating polemic. It\u2019s delivered with exacting delicacy by O\u2019Reilly, who\u2019s been waiting 20 years to deliver this very speech.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><strong>Caroline Blakiston<\/strong> originated the role of Mon Mothma in 1983\u2019s <em>Return of the Jedi.<\/em> O\u2019Reilly, fresh out of drama school at the time, was eventually cast as a younger version of the senator in 2005\u2019s <em>Revenge of the Sith.<\/em> O\u2019Reilly\u2019s scenes were largely cut from that prequel, and she left the <em>Star Wars<\/em> films for a decade, until <em>Rogue One<\/em>\u2014the movie cowritten by <strong>Tony Gilroy,<\/strong> the mastermind behind <em>Andor,<\/em> and whose events lead right into <em>A New Hope.<\/em> Her role then expanded in <em>Andor.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">This speech gives us our richest insight yet into Mon Mothma. \u201cIt\u2019s the fulcrum, the crux of who she is,\u201d O\u2019Reilly tells <em>Vanity Fair.<\/em> \u201cThe opportunity to get to do that as an actor was everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed\">\n<div class=\"AssetEmbedAssetContainer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-container\"><span class=\"SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset\"><picture class=\"ResponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"CaptionWrapper-jSZdqE cmter caption AssetEmbedCaption-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__caption\" data-testid=\"caption-wrapper\"><span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionText-bHjzlu iUEiRd jSwmTa iXWezO caption__text\"><\/p>\n<p>Genevieve O&#8217;Reilly with Ben Miles in <em>Andor<\/em> Season 2.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><span class=\"BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptionCredit-ejegDm iUEiRd cvffOM fNaHcW caption__credit\">Lucasfilm Ltd.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><strong><em>Vanity Fair:<\/em> I know Tony likes to outline storylines for actors as much as he can. When did you know you would be getting to make that speech?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><strong>Genevieve O\u2019Reilly:<\/strong> I knew from the very beginning\u2014from the very early stages, even when we were talking about [the show] being five seasons\u2014that the escape from the Senate, that threshold that she had to cross, was always part of her story. Tony said to me that the weight of her emotional work and her value as a character would really be in episodes seven, eight, and nine. I knew that we were heading for that. I was desperate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><strong>What was it like when you got that script?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">I\u2019ll tell you something unique about how it landed. Tony is quite engaged as a showrunner. When scripts would land, he would ring; he was often in New York and we were in London. But when <em>that<\/em> script landed, episode nine in particular, he was in London and he came into my trailer. <strong>Dan [Gilroy]<\/strong>, his brother, wrote that script. But the speech wasn\u2019t the speech we have now. The speech was moments of the speech. So they create this within the architecture of <em>Andor:<\/em> There are these big moments, but there are multiple things going on. The <strong>Diego [Luna]<\/strong> storyline, the dissident groups, there\u2019s all happening around her speech.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">In the initial script, you only heard the odd line of her speech. It was peppered with bits. But Tony came in and he said, \u201cWhat do you think of the script?\u201d I said, \u201cI love where you\u2019re going. I love the dexterity of it and I can\u2019t wait to get into it.\u201d And then I leant forward and took a breath, and he said, \u201cYou want me to write the whole speech, don\u2019t you?\u201d And I said, \u201cYeah, I do. I want you to write the whole speech.\u201d It was a real mark of him understanding me as an actor: how I like to work, and what I was reaching for, and also what I really wanted for the character.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/story\/genevieve-oreilly-andor-season-2-awards-insider\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story contains spoilers for episodes one through nine of Andor\u2019s second season. Star Wars fans knew this moment was coming. With the Ghorman Massacre imminent, lore had it that Mon Mothma\u2014the politician from Chandrila fighting for peace and democracy, while secretly serving as an informant for the Rebellion\u2014would give an explosive speech before the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11398,27,219,11399],"class_list":{"0":"post-166734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrity","8":"tag-andor","9":"tag-awards","10":"tag-star-wars","11":"tag-star-wars-prequel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}