Genevieve O’Reilly has been playing the role of Mon Mothma since 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, and was seen most recently in the Andor series, and will again reprise the role in the Ahsoka series premiering on August 23rd on Disney+.
You’ve now been playing Mon Mothma for nearly the better part of two decades. When you first landed the role, did you ever think that it would have this longevity?
Genevieve O’Reilly: You know, that was one of my first roles out of drama school and it was a very fortunate baptism within the industry to get to work with Natalie Portman, Jimmy Smits, and George Lucas. Then those scenes [in Revenge of the Sith] didn’t make the film, I’m sure for many reasons, and so I kind of just put it to bed.
When they rang me and it was for Rogue One, gosh what a surprise that was! It was such a beautiful film and it was lovely to get to actually step into her shoes, it felt like such a lovely full circle. What I never expected was for it to then come around again. I had voiced her in the Rebels animated series between then and now, but what a lovely surprise to have the opportunity to play this woman again, and not only play her but to actually discover her as a woman, not just as the senator – to really stretch within her to find out about her life and who she was. It’s been really special for me to get the opportunity to do that.
Andor gives Mon Mothma the most complex layers that we have ever seen from the character, and you have already played her later in this arc in Rogue One. How do you work to define where she is at this point in her life as an actor?
Genevieve O’Reilly: Well, I think that’s in Tony’s writing. From my experience within Star Wars, this is the first time it’s really been humanized for me. He’s made it grittier, more complex, more human, more pedestrian. She’s a mother and she lives her life within a complicated marriage. I always knew that she would be fighting the Empire on the floor of the Senate, but I didn’t expect her o be stepping into the Empire at home as well.
What a juicy thing for an actor to discover and then get to wrestle with, those scenes in her home where she can carve out allies and speak of rebellion maybe for the first time. The idea that there’s not a formulated rebellion and you have to carve it from nothing, that you have to wade in that danger and discover that she could lose everything, the cost that this woman lives with was deeply juicy for me.
It was revealed at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year that you are going to be returning as Mon Mothma in Ahsoka. How does it feel to be playing her at another separate point in both her life and leadership?
Genevieve O’Reilly: It was fascinating that they asked me and it was such a surprise. I was really thrilled that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were interested in me coming for a minute to play with them. They’re such brilliant filmmakers. It was just thrilling for me to be able to go over and play with them for a bit. I’m a huge fan of Rosario [Dawson], she’s a brilliant and formidable woman and actor. I think what they’re doing with that piece is going to be really exciting. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a wonderful actor and to get to work with her also was amazing.
It felt extraordinary for Mon to get the opportunity to enter a different world again, and perhaps that’s because I’m so invested in Andor. But when Jon and Dave rang and spoke so passionately about Mon, and made it clear that they really wanted her to be in Ahsoka, I felt humbled that they were inviting me to come and join them. They’re brilliant storytellers and filmmakers at the cutting edge. What they’re doing over there with how they use The Volume, they film in a very different way than how we filmed [Andor]. That was really exciting and informative for me to go over and learn how they do that because using that kind of cutting-edge technology to inform the piece, it’s a very different way of filming. I was grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of that.
We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of Andor and, simultaneously, we’re about another year away from the new season. What has it been like seeing the overwhelmingly positive reactions to the show over the last year, and what can you tell us about your experience filming Andor Season 2?
Genevieve O’Reilly: It really meant so much that the fans put their arms around Andor. It feels like a very different piece of work from other Star Wars projects, so it could have been something that they didn’t enjoy. But the fans have loved it, are invested in it, and are curious about it. They’ve gone with Tony’s vision, so it felt really special to share that and for it to be received not with apathy, but with excitement and gratitude. People really, really understood what we are working towards. They really liked the textured grittiness of the show and really saw the humanity within it too. That fan base is such a special and passionate group of people. It meant so much to us that they liked it.
Now we’re filming season two, and I can’t be anything but excited for them. Oh my gosh, it’s this massive juggernaut of storytelling, and all those fans kind of know where it’s going. Andor felt like something really new when we shared it, but now everybody’s invested in that world as well as these deeper, slightly different versions of these characters. Everything is really driving to a very exciting finish. We’re in the middle of filming season two right now and I’m as desperate to share it as people are to see it, so we all have to wait 12 months!
Read the interview in full at the link below, and experience the two-episode series premiere of Ahsoka, a Star Wars original series, streaming August 23rd on Disney+.
