Actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach is riding high at the moment. Known initially for his work in Lena Dunham’s “Girls,” in the ensuing years, he’s put in the work and been in all kinds of indies, dramas, and varied film and TV works. 2022 has been something of a banner year for the actor, having a kind of second, breakthrough renaissance for his co-starring role in FX’s breakout series, “The Bear,” which became a massive hit this past summer.
Moss plays cousin Ritchie, and he describes the dysfunctional, anxiety-ridden, but highly entertaining, funny, and moving TV drama as “high sodium volatility” (you can read our whole interview with Moss-Bachrach about “The Bear” here).
Moss-Bacharach’s extraordinary 2022 has also included the Emmy-winning “The Dropout” and a reunion with Lena Dunham on her provocative feature, “Sharp Stick.” And this week, unannounced other than by us, he turns up in the Lucasfilm series, “Andor,” starring Diego Luna and created, written, and showrun by Academy Award-nominated writer/director Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton,” “The Bourne Legacy”).
In the “Star Wars” series, Episode 4, “Aldhani,” now playing on Disney+, Moss-Bachrach plays Arvel Skeen, a radical dissident who is part of one of Luthen Rael’s (Stellan Skarsgård) rebel cells. As Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor joins the cell that Skeen is part of last-minute and unannounced, it causes major internal drama for the group who are distrusting of this newcomer entering into their secret cluster. Episode four ends with Cassian, Skeen, and this squabbling rebel cell about to pull off a dangerous and disruptive heist meant to unsettle the Empire, but it won’t be until episode five that we actually see them attempt this daring, possibly suicidal mission (you can read our review of the season so far here).
For eagle-eared fans, Moss-Bacharach even name-drops a fan favorite when he is scolding one of the rebel members who fell asleep on guard duty. “You ride with Mossy? Garvish? Saw Gerrera?” he seethes “Fall asleep on watch; they’re gonna put your head on a pike for a laugh.”
We spoke to Moss-Bacharach back in August before the series had aired, but right after critics like myself were given access to the first four episodes. He had not yet seen the series and admitted he didn’t even know about certain episodes he was not in.
So, it was funny, I was prepping for this interview and coincidentally watching “Andor,” and boom, there you were, the timing was perfect. I love Tony Gilroy’s work. How did you get involved?
Yeah, man, me too. That’s all it was for me. It was fucking Tony Gilroy, right? I mean, that is the man right there. That’s even like way more than ‘Star Wars,’ I was there for that dude. I mean, you’ve seen it, so you know, we were trying to make something more real, more serious. I mean, you probably know way more than me cause I haven’t even seen the show or read the first three scripts. I think my character shows up in episode four?
Yeah, right, four.
Tony Gilroy. I mean, I don’t know how much Tony is—I don’t think he’s like a huge “Star Wars” guy, you know? He wants to make something more terrestrial. With character and story. I feel like a bit of a ham, sorry. I’m also not sure what I can say.
Well, we’ll hold this until the week of release for episode four.
Cool, cool. I mean, let me try to put myself back there, dude. It was a while ago, and it was so crazy. It was so weird to– I mean, I was born in 1977. Those early “Star Wars” films are more complex, I think. And even though it’s been a while, and you know, I’d like to think I’ve graduated beyond all this; I’m more sophisticated, I’m a more cynical dude, but my first day on set, there are people pointing to the sky, “there’s a moon there and, there are three planets there. There’s our moon there.” And then I have like these lines to say, and, and I, “oh man, this is, this is a lot. This is kind of crazy.” And I have to talk about [laughs, parsecs and things like that and something triggers something in my childhood, you know? It was a surprisingly profound and scary little moment there. I got a little like choked up. But I don’t know what else I can say about our “Star Wars.”
Sure, though, is it safe to say the series feels as if it’s trying to say something more adult, trying to comment on the state of the world and the state of tyranny? And to drill down deeper, in your section: how we fight our battles and if we can agree on the ways to do it.
Oh yeah. I think that in many ways, this is “Star Wars,” at least– the original ones, they always were sort of about that. And I think Tony’s just sort of expanding on that; he’s just grabbing onto that and maybe getting a bit more specific.
I wanted to talk about struggle, the emotional aspect of struggle, the hardship of it, the risk, the kind of emotional difficulty that you see in your episode; everyone is on edge, bickering, but it feels behind all that is huge emotional stakes.
Yeah, totally. It’s about the politicization of like a nihilist kind of like, right? Cassian, that is. But it’s so compartmentalized I don’t really know so much beyond my stuff, which was just very straightforward. We’re a group of radicals trying to like free their little corner of the universe. Take some money from the Empire, free this little goat and sheep planet and blow some stuff up. But there’s like a direct connection between this and— what kind of turns me on about the thing is this—chronologically, it’s one of the more “Star Wars,” because this takes us to ‘Rogue One,’ which takes us to ‘A New Hope,’ I think, is that kind of how works, yeah. So I kind of got into that feeling like I’m a founding father or something, you know? [laughs] Of this mythology.
For sure.
And I have to just say; I’m just kind of in awe of Tony. There was no writer’s room; there was Tony Gilroy, going into his office and spending hours in there and coming up with like planets and different kinds of spaceships and names, crazy names for all sorts of weird, different aliens that he would make up. I’m just so tickled by thinking about Tony’s process of world-building going on in his like 8×10 office or hotel room somewhere, with pen to paper, planets being formed in distant galaxies; I think that’s just so awesome.
Ha, yes! Very much agree! That’s funny because when I talked to him, I sort of remarked on the same thing and how it amused me too. It’s not really his wheelhouse, or at least wasn’t years ago, and to think of Tony Gilroy naming a new Charbacca character or whatever [laughs], it’s funny.
Yeah. I think maybe he like puts on a different cap, and I think because it’s not his wheelhouse exactly, I think he can just kind of let it rip in sort of a kind of fun way. I don’t think he takes it that seriously. I mean, he does obviously take it very seriously, but I think he has a really good time. I think he makes himself laugh with it.
I think that’s what makes it so feel so fresh to everyone because Tony doesn’t come at it with the same hushed reverence to it that most people do.
I don’t know what Tony has reverence for at all.
Ha, ha, yes, that’s too funny.
But, dude, you’ve seen it. Can you tell me what it looks like? How does it look?
Oh, it looks great, there’s obviously no volume, all real world, real sets, and it just feels really authentic, gritty, lived-in, etc. And moreover, you get a real sense of the desperation that everyone is feeling at this period of time. It feels like prestige TV set in the world of “Star Wars.”
OK, cool, that sounds good. That’s what I was hoping for. I was hoping that the shift in less CGI would lend it weight and make things feel real. I just didn’t want it to feel like it exists inside of—the volume; that stuff is just so ephemeral to me. I don’t know.
I gotta let you go in a second so quickly, “The Bear” has been greenlit for season two; do you know when you’re shooting that?
I don’t know. I imagine sometime early next year, but I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything. So that’s a bit of a guess.
Do you you have any hopes or wishes for season two of “Andor,” any dreams?
No, I can’t, dude; I’m sorry. I’ll be full disclosure. I’m on like day four of my COVID here. [laughs]
“Andor” first four episodes are available now on Disney+.