Denise Gough and Kyle Soller, the stars behind the roles of Dedra Meero and Syril Karn onStar Wars: Andor, sat down to discuss the series in a recent web featurette, including the nature of their portrayals and how they manage to bring such complexity in roles and archetypes that are usually one-dimensional.
Star Wars: Andoris a precursor to the 2016 filmRogue One,which chronicles the exploits of one Cassian Andor, a Rebel espionage agent tasked with stealing the plans for the first Death Star, an Imperial weapon the likes of which the wider Galaxy has never seen before, alongside a team of other Rebel operatives.Andorpicks up five years before the events depicted in the film, serving as a prequel and exploring the backstories of several key figures, with a weighed focus on Diego Luna’s Cassian, who many considera Luke Skywalker for the modern age.
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Andor has also been a great success, keeping many of the positively received elements ofRogue Onewhile also improving on some of the criticism. Notably, the show delivers a compelling narrative and conflict as well as a dark tone that’sexactly what theStar Warsfranchise needed, and a lot of that rests on the portrayals of the show’s antagonists. In a recent interview made available on the officialStar Warswebsite, Gough and Soller, who portray the vastly different antagonists Dedra Meero and Syril Karn, respectively, discuss the intentions that went into their well-lauded portrayals.
Gough, whose role as Dedra Meero hasgivenAndorthe best female antagonist in the series(and arguably the entire franchise), had a lot to say about what made the character stick for her as well as the fans. “I want you to be very conflicted about your feelings about her. The great thing about Dedra, and what I love about playing her, is that…when I first started playing her, I was sitting in this room surrounded by these men — a lot of men who weren’t doing their jobs properly," Gough said. “And so I was really rooting for Dedra. You’re really on her side. And then she does certain things that you just think, ‘Okay, so maybe I can’t support that.’… For people watching, initially you really want her to succeed, because you just see a woman really striving for success. But then what you have to sit with is, once you get on board with her at the beginning just because she’s a woman in a man’s world…[she is] just as capable of doing the most heinous things for power.”
Going further, Gough also expressed her opinion on a possible redemption of the character, saying, “Somebody said to me the other day, ‘Please don’t redeem her.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s so good.’ Don’t apologize. Let her be just as ambitious as the most villainous of men and color in all the shades so that everyone’s conflicted when they’re watching.” Soller agreed with his co-star’s musings, building on that to highlight his own attitude towards playing Karn. “Oh my gosh, there’s another person like me! And she looks amazing doing it and she does it really well,” Soller says. “This hunger for filling that void, this hunger for power and order in a fascistic realm, is quite dangerous, but so seductive. That was the gift that Tony gave us. They’re not two-dimensional…you really get the lighter shade and the gray areas of these people being people, within the structure and limits of this system.” Fans of the show will agree with the analysis and are likely thankful that the powerful performances were able tobreak the streak of mid-tierStar Warsshows.
Despite its success, the show’s risk-taking might be on the verge of upsetting some who don’t take too well to experimenting and branching out within the franchise. While theAndorshowrunner promised thatAndorwould challenge fans’ understanding ofStar Warscanon, it is unlikely that those who resist such changes will take any comfort in the forewarning.
Star Wars: Andoris streaming now on Disney Plus.
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