Posted in: Disney+, Movies, Star Wars, TV | Tagged: andor

Andor Writer Gilroy: Trump/Congress Anger Inspired Mon Mothma Speech

Andor writer Dan Gilroy reflects on writing Mon Mothma's season two-defining speech with commentary on the current political climate.

Andor season two was not only about bridging Cassian Andor's (Diego Luna) life from mercenary to rebel leader, but also providing greater context to certain figures of the Rebel Alliance like Senator Mon Mothma, originally played by Caroline Blakiston in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), and now by Genevieve O'Reilly since 2005's Revenge of the Sith. While previously a background supporting character, O'Reilly's role as Mothma expanded as she supported the Rebel cause in secret initially before ultimately the senator spoke out publicly against the Emperor in the season two episode "Welcome to the Rebellion." Dan Gilroy spoke at the Sublime Primetime Drama Panel at the Writers Guild in Los Angeles about writing one of the series' most defining speeches.

Andor Writer Dan Gilroy on How Donald Trump Inspired Mothma's Speech Against the Empire

Gilroy revealed that he started work on Mothma's speech in 2022-23, which followed Donald Trump's first administration from 2016 to 2020. "When I'm writing that speech, I'm pissed off. I'm pissed off right now," Gilroy said (via Deadline). "What this character has seen through the course of the show is her senate colleagues abandoning everything they believe out of expediency and cowardice and leaving their constituents to pure evil, to an emperor who used to be a politician. So as I'm writing the speech, which is really the climax of that episode, I'm also deeply aware … of what was going on in our world at that time. I'm watching Senators being held to a standard of things of what they [said they once] believed in, and then utterly abandon them out of expediency and cowardice." The Nightcrawler (2014) writer is up for an Emmy for the Andor episode. Among the highlights is Mothma talking about "the distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss" and the equally eye-opening, "the death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil." Following the speech, Mothma escaped and went into hiding.

"A lot of people draw parallels between what's going on in our world and the show. And I think those parallels very much exist," Gilroy explained. "What I like about this episode, what I like about the show, is we've provided a way for people to articulate their anxiety, to sort of have discussions about political morality, to serve as witness to what's going on. The show is really about speaking truth in the face of authority. And people are making commitments in our show that lead to their death, that lead to the loss of everything they've held dear, that lead to the death of people who they love. They've made a decision that they're going to speak truth to authority because the universe is being taken over by evil. It's very strange to work on a show when you feel like your universe is being taken over by evil and you're putting words in people's mouths and giving them decisions. And you're asking yourself, 'Would I die for that?' Because really that's what these characters are doing."

For more, you can check out the speech above. Andor, which also stars Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Stellan Skarsgård, Denise Gough, Faye Marsay, Varada Sethu, Elizabeth Dulau, Ben Mendelsohn, Benjamin Bratt, Fiona Shaw, and featuring the voice of Alan Tudyk, is available on Disney+.

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