Did Tony give you a backstory for Dedra? Or did he want you to do that on your own?
We spoke because initially it was a five-year story, and so he had said we would go back into her background. So yeah, he gave me, I didn’t need much. I mean, she’s obviously, I drew on a lot of things. To be honest, I don’t really do a lot of that. It’s all very in-the-moment stuff. I don’t know how helpful it is for me to… I mean, there are certain things I can probably guarantee. She wasn’t very nurtured, I don’t think. And I would imagine she had to climb up always from when she was tiny. So that does something to a person, doesn’t it? If someone feels like they haven’t got much, they rely on control to feel at ease. So he gave me what he imagined for her. But yeah, it wasn’t very specific. We didn’t go specific because the show would have done that if we were doing it, so we didn’t really need to. It was like, “We’ll get to that.”
Should we expect any more revelations about her life in season two?
Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, maybe a bit. Yeah, they’re all things that I’m finding out piece by piece myself.
I believe you’re still in production. How many more months or weeks do you have to go?
I think August maybe, is the end.
Oh wow. So you’re halfway through or…
Yeah. And it’s epic. And now that we know what it is, especially now that it’s been received the way that it is, the loyalty we have to the people that have received it in that way is so huge. We all really want this to be such a treat for everybody. Yeah, there’s a lot to tie up. And I don’t know how Tony and Beau [Willimson] and Dan [Gilroy], I mean, I don’t know how they do that. They’re not just writing a big show. They’re writing a show that links to things that already exist. And how do you begin to do that? It’s only been maybe one or two lines that I’ve had to question. And only because it’s written by Americans. And so Dedra has a very clipped English. Usually, I go onto sets, TV sets, and I’m like, “O.K., this makes absolutely no sense. I said this in a previous scene.” So it’s been a joy. It’s like doing a great play. You don’t have to mess with what you’re given. And if anything, when I try to do something that I think would be, and I’m told, “No, no, no, no.” And I think, “O.K., it was worth a try.” But I really trust them.
I trust them too. But I will be honest, I’m disappointed that director Benjamin Caron is not coming back for this season. His work was incredible in season one.
He’s so fun. He’s such a fun person to hang out with. But the directors we have, I mean, for me, I’m quite particular. I don’t trust many directors at all. And Brian Friel, this very famous Irish playwright once said, “Great actors don’t need directors, just let them do whatever they want.” But I was like, “But maybe that’s on stage.” But now this year, Ariel Kleiman is Australian. They all have this really different energy and Tony has found people that suit the block of work that they’re getting to do. Janus Metz is doing this huge central block. And then you’ve got, oh, Alonso Ruizpalacios, it’s amazing. You won’t be disappointed. And Ben is off to do other things. So yeah, you won’t be disappointed with the direction. You really won’t.
Well, let’s get back to Dedra for a moment. Do you feel is she altruistic? Does she think she’s doing the right thing? Is she power-hungry? Is she a combination of the two?
I think the idea of her being altruistic is actually more interesting than, I mean, she wants power. There’s no doubt about that. But she wants that power in order to be able to put everything in order. It’s like you talk to anyone, any evangelist, is that the right word? Or fundamentalist? They believe absolutely that what they’re doing is for the greater good. It’s insane. I do think she’s a psychopath, though. I do think that there’s a level of disconnect with her and if you look up female psychopaths, female psychopaths are less likely to murder than normal average females. Because female psychopaths, they usually end up in prison for things like manipulation, coercion, and all of that stuff. And that’s very Dedra. She’s able to manipulate situations, and keep herself as clean. which is why Ferrix was such a mess for her because she lost all control at the end of Ferrix. She had everything set up, and then she lost control. But yeah, she’s all sorts of different things, isn’t she? That’s why she’s so brilliant, I think because she’s not just a mustache-twirling villain. She’s far more complex than that. And so that’s what makes her so interesting to play, because there should be moments where you feel sorry for her. Where when you are watching Dedra, when you watch something happen to her, I hope that what I do to you is make you feel for her. And then go, “Oh, no, no, no. S**t, no, I don’t want to feel that for her.”
There is that moment in the final episode of season one, where she’s on the ground, she’s about to be dragged away, and you’re like, “Oh, wait, what has she done that’s so bad that deserves to be killed by this crowd?”
When you back through.
Were you portraying her in the context that she had never been in a situation like that before? Had she been such a white-collar military figure that she’d never been on the ground and experienced that? Or was it just a fight and flight reaction to what was going on?
Good question. I feel like she wouldn’t have been around that level of mob before. She’s kept away from that. Her job before the ISB, what she did was essentially torture in little rooms. And I don’t imagine she would’ve had to get her hands dirty like that. So anything that messes her up. I mean, it’s even things as simple as somebody touching her. She’s not used to having people be allowed to come into this space. And I guess you have to wait for season two to see where that maybe comes from.
It would be a logical assumption to assume with any character that happens to that this event has changed her in one way or another, moving into season two.
Yeah.
Maybe not.
I mean, things have changed as a result of that thing. Is that a fair thing to say?
That is fair. And I guess my last question on that is you were interviewed recently where you said that the relationship between Dedra and Syril gets “weird“ in the second season.
Well, no, I read that and I thought, “Oh God, Tony’s going to kill me.” I talk a lot. No, what I meant by that there’s this thing that people are doing called shipping, which is shipping them as a couple, and I feel like what I’m trying to say is that Tony and the team don’t write normal situations. So, when I read that first last scene, I was like, “Oh my God, she gets rescued. She gets rescued by a guy? I’ve built her this whole season, and now she’s getting rescued.” And he was like, “Yeah, I don’t write that.” And then you explore the scene and you’re like, “Oh, no, she’s really not happy that she was rescued.” So what I would just say is that complex is a better word for it than weird. But I mean, they are a bit weird. Their thing is a bit weird. Whatever way it goes. It’s got a complexity to it that is more than the are boyfriend and girlfriend or, oh, they’re adversaries. There are so many other colors to it than either of those two black-and-white things, which is why “Andor” is so good because they’re all so much more complex than what you would really expect. Are you watching “Beef?”
I have watched all of “Beef”, yes.
I mean, that is so good. And you do not know what is coming at you. And I think Korean cinema does it really, really well. You have all these films that you think are a certain thing, and then you’re like, “Oh my God, what?” I feel like that’s the genre that we are in, that kind of writing where you think you’ve got a handle on someone or something, and then that’s how you should feel. Every episode should just feel like, “I did not expect that.”
Did you get to the end, or are you still watching the season?
I’m literally, just before I signed on to talk with you, I was watching episode 12 where, I mean, are you kidding me? The f**king crows are talking about their testimony. When it all got a bit like you go anywhere with a show like that because it’s obviously written by really talented people. So you’re like, “Oh, there’s a really weird witch now in it. O.K., I’m totally going with that. Yeah, that’s great.” That’s really good.
Speaking of great shows, my last question for you is, you probably saw the critical reaction but the show also got a ton of Guild recognition, and then at the height of Peak TV, it just earned a Peabody nomination. You’re going to set. It’s been a long process. Is it satisfaction for everyone? Is it feeling like, “Oh my gosh, we have to knock it out of the park for season two?”
I just feel like we are all so proud of it anyway. Sometimes you do something and you think, “Oh, this isn’t really good.” And you’re like, “Oh, thank God we got away with it.” We didn’t feel that way because we knew we weren’t getting away with anything. We knew that we had made something, every person. And I think when it’s such a big ensemble when everyone is putting their best into it. I think we’re all the kind of actors who would give everything anyway. But there’s something really lovely about saying, “Wow, we want to give everything even more now.”
“Andor” is available on Disney+.