The Politician
Genevieve O’reilly plays Mon Mothma
Genevieve O’reilly first played Mon Mothma in scenes (mostly deleted for running time) in Revenge Of The Sith. Having reprised the role in Star Wars Rebels and Rogue One, she’s back in Andor as the honourable senator for Chandrila.
Although Mon Mothma features (very briefly) in Return Of The Jedi, we don’t know much about her. Has it been fun to fill in her backstory?
I always go back to Caroline Blakiston’s performance in that piece. I think what she did with a very small amount of screen time was to evoke a character of great grace, humility and nobility. And yet for me, there was something quite painful at the centre of it, like I could see a weight she was carrying. She has that very famous line that people say a lot, that many Bothans died to bring us this information, so you could see she was carrying a lot of pain. I have always been curious about that. What has she personally sacrificed to get to this moment? What is it to be the leader of a rebellion?
As a politician, her approach is clearly different to that of the more get-your-hands-dirty Cassian Andor – but perhaps there wouldn’t be a Rebel Alliance without those different perspectives?
It’s not just those two. I think history shows us that any great rebellion requires many people working to effect change within their own spheres, to allow them to eventually collide and create an effective rebellion. Luke Skywalker isn’t in his X-wing fighter attacking the Death Star without the plans that Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor stole [in Rogue
One]. And before that, there’s been layers of little things that have to come together for those two to meet.
In the deleted scenes from Revenge Of The Sith, Mon Mothma meets with fellow senators Padmé Amidala and Bail Organa to discuss Palpatine’s power grab. Do you think she regrets that they couldn’t do more to stop him?
I think that’s really interesting. History moves slowly but through a reflective lens, it moves very fast – and it must feel like that for her. I’m not sure we always see solutions directly in front of us. It is sometimes when we are at the very pointy end of the stick that we can make the decisions that perhaps we couldn’t without having that exterior pressure. Sometimes life has to do that for you. RE
The first three episodes of Andor debut on Disney+ on 21 September.
"I’m not sure we always see solutions directly in front of us "