After playing Supreme Leader Snoke in the sequel films, Andy Serkis returns to the Star Wars galaxy as Kino Loy, a prison labor boss on the planet Narkina 5, in the Disney+ series Andor.
Vanity Fair: People will hear Andy Serkis is in Andor, and they might think, “Oh, a Snoke origin story!”
Andy Serkis: [Laughs.] I know! It’s a difficult one because I’m sure that’s exactlywhat people will think. And why would they think other? I was a bit confused as to whether to do it or not, but it was purely because I love Rogue One. I truly loved the grounding of that film in a world which felt both real and yet still felt epic. Also, I’m getting to play a character at the opposite end of the spectrum of a highly powerful Supreme Leader. [Kino Loy] is someone who is a real person in this world.
We don’t learn a lot about who Kino is. We know he’s a prisoner who oversees the forced labor of other prisoners. What else can you share about him?
What I imagined of Kino’s backstory, before he was in prison, was that he was a union leader. He’s used to working as a foreman. I wanted him to come from a place where he was put in prison for, perhaps, standing up for workers’ rights, and then put into a position of authority because that’s what he does. He is a natural leader. But he really just wants to serve his time. He’s got a family. He wants to get out and get back, and assumes that that’s going to happen after his incarceration.
He’s abrasive at first. I won’t say he’s a bad guy, but he’s not somebody who is comforting. His presence is harsh and he makes it clear to Cassian Andor that he doesn’t really care about him. He cares about how he fits into this workroom that’s running fairly smoothly.
Exactly. He doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers. He doesn’t want to draw attention.
What motivates Kino Loy?
Obviously the electrification and the reward system. If you do well, you get flavoring with your food. If you don’t do well, you get shocked. They are like rats in a scientific experiment. So everyone is working just to survive and get through. He’s got basically a year left in prison and then he’s going to be set free. So he doesn’t want anything to upset that.
Kino does seem to buy into a fantasy of fairness. He thinks that if you follow the rules, you’ll be rewarded. Without that belief, he probably couldn’t function.
That’s absolutely right. He’s been brainwashed into believing that—even though he probably knows deep down that he’s been imprisoned unfairly. He sort of cut that part of himself off. He just wants to do time and get out. They act almost like robots. Andor is questioning that. Obviously, he wants to escape, he wants to get out as quickly as possible, so these two are opposing forces
Kino can be kind, as well. He isn’t always a hardass.
No, no, no. I mean he is tough, but he’s only tough when it looks like [something is] going to endanger his own freedom or the freedom of others who have served their time and are about to get out. He won’t abide that. It’s tough love.
Do you think Kino has a corollary in real life, where people decide to go along with something even if they know it’s wrong, because they feel like there’s no other hope?
These stories are huge metaphors for the world that we live in. They are building these parts for a machine. They’re teeny-weenie cogs. They’re making parts for something, and they don’t even know what it is. But it can only be something that is going to enhance and build up the power of the Empire. They’re just drones. You could liken it to lots of situations around the world where people are in servitude or forced labor in order to produce something or other.
And often people will say, “Well why didn’t they just rise up?” It’s human nature to feel hopeless and not even try. Sometimes those in power depend on that hopelessness, right?
It’s breaking down human will so that you accept what’s given to you. That’s why Cassian Andor is such an extraordinary heroic character. It’s not like he’s a swashbuckling hero. He’s someone who understands that you have to stand up for what is right. The individual can make the difference and [this prison] is an environment that makes you think the individual has no chance of changing.
Is that why Kino clashes with him initially? He sees the wildness and the untamed quality in Cassian, and Kino has been tamed?
A hundred percent. It’s the very nature of the way that they are tortured. There is no way to escape because of the electrification of the environment. It is that Pavlovian reaction to pain that is going to wear your nervous system down. Your body’s telling you if you do that, you will receive pain. If you do [what you’re told], you get rewarded.
There are no bars on their cells. The only thing holding them back is the shock they might receive. The Empire has succeeded in making them not want to leave. Their fear becomes the cage.
Correct. Absolutely. When you’re on that set for weeks and weeks, everyone started to think as one and you could feel people losing their will. Once you were in there, there was no comfort. And it did leave you at the end of the day thinking, “Oh my God, get me out of here.” [Laughs.] It really was intense.
We were literally barefooted. And that’s such an interesting choice of Tony [Gilroy’s]… To take shoes away from you, to make you have bare feet, is a really weird sensation. Your feet on metal plates for days and days and days and days, does something to your energy. It just saps you.
Read more here, and watch the first eight episodes on Andor exclusively on Disney+ now.
