Genevieve Reilly on what Andor season 2 means for Mon Mothma: 'She must take risks and step forward!'

Genevieve Reilly is returning as wily senator Mon Mothma as Andor season 2 gets underway on Disney Plus, from April 22, 2025 in the US and April 23 in the rest of the world, including the UK.

As fans will know, the events in this prequel series lead directly into the 2016 movie Star Wars: Rogue One where the Rebel Alliance, of whom Mon Mothma was a big part, try to steal the Empire's Death Star secrets and space rebel Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) sacrifices his life to do just that.

As Andor season 2 gets underway, Mon Mothma is still subtly plotting rebellion from within the Empire’s ruling elite, along with the mysterious Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and their friend Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay), but danger rears up for them during and after an eventful family wedding at Mon Mothma’s lavish Chandrila estate.

What to Watch caught up with Irish actor Genevieve Reilly recently for a Zoom call in which she told us much more about Mon Mothma's vital role in Andor season 2...

How do you feel about Mon Mothma nowas Andor season 2 begins? And how does it feel to make big history in the Star Wars saga? 

Genevieve Reilly says: "I feel very grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to play her because there is space in Andor for her to have a voice. In Andor season one Mon Mothma operated in the shadows. We learned how dextrous and secretive she had to be and how political she had to be. In Andor season two, that is really wrestled out of her. She must take risks and step forward. She must use her voice in a way we haven’t seen before.

"There are a few moments in this season that really define her for me. I was so looking forward to doing them and I think they are important not just for the woman, the character and for me playing her but they are really important for the overall story in Andor and also in the greater Star Wars story itself. People will really appreciate her voice after this final season."

How does Mon Mothma balance her political activities and her secret rebellions and other activities? 

Genevieve Reilly: "She has to really balance those two very different sides of herself. It’s vital that she can because, of course, the rebellion must be secretive. The more powerful you become, the more you have to hold. The more you have to sit on this building explosion. She must sit on it until the time comes for her to be able to risk genuine sacrifice. At the same time, we know that she has a daughter and a husband and so she has many lives she is holding within herself. But I think we all do that.

"I’m not fighting a rebellion, I understand that but I think there’s something about all of us, we have our home selves, we have so many versions of ourselves, we are a lover, a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a colleague, a worker, a doctor, your career and so each of us, I think, does that in our lives. Mon Mothma particularly within Andor is like someone on steroids, a woman trying to contain so much risk and danger, with grace. She’s trying to maintain an effective political persona. It’s very dextrous. I feel like it’s like a sword fight. She’s perpetually sword-fighting."

What layers have you added to Mon Mothma? 

Genevieve Reilly: "There’s not much I can say without giving too much of the storyline away but what our producer Tony Gilroy did was maintain very close relationships with each of us. He would ring us, usually on a Sunday evening, I’d get a call and he would tell me his plans and what he was writing and we would talk and really discuss it.

"There’s a couple of things I don’t want to give away but I remember saying to him, ‘I really think she’s this type of woman, I really think she would do that’ and he was so receptive to it. There’s one moment I remember quite vividly. He just said to me, ‘you’re absolutely right’ and then he would write that scene. He’s an extraordinary creator and he comes with so many ideas but he also takes the time, and this is really unusual and very generous of him, not only to connect but to sit and to chat and to listen.

"Sometimes he would come with pages or scenes and ask me ‘what do you think?’ and he’s creating all the time. So that meant by the time we got to set, no one is throwing anything away. There’s no waste, there’s no extra fat. It’s very focused so by the time we got to film it’s a bit like a laser, we were all so focused. It’s quite precise and it made Andor an important workplace for me because everybody came on their game because of the discussions we had had, because of how much Tony had been involved with all of us."

How is it as an actor to play someone like Mon Mothma who is always acting herself to keep her rebel side hidden? 

Genevieve Reilly: "Often when you play characters you’ll be holding secrets. I often find that when I first read a character, I’ll wonder what their secrets are. What’s different about Andor is you know her secret as an audience so there’s a real relationship therefore between the character and the audience because you see not only the performance for the character but you also see behind the screen. There are moments when you can see her performing and there are moments when you see behind the stage. That’s a really lovely device to have and a really lovely relationship with the audience.

"Obviously, then there’s me who is the actor but I think what is beautiful about Tony Gilroy’s writing and creating and all the writers who are part of it, is the layers they create and as you watch more and more you appreciate the layers, the foundations, the nuance that is laid over one another. It feels very textured and therefore I’m hopeful that what you will see is when the woman steps out from behind the shadows of herself. You, the audience, will feel fulfilled by that because the audience have also taken that journey with Mon Mothma. You have witnessed the risk, the sacrificed so therefore when it is required for her to risk everything I think it’s dramatically very interesting."

What does it feel like to act out four different years in Andor season 2? 

Genevieve Reilly: "It’s quite an extraordinary experience actually. We often shot them in blocks. We started with episode 4, 5 and 6, because I think that’s what they do in Star Wars and then we did 7 to 12 and went back and did 1, 2 and 3.

"What’s really specific about the idea that each three episodes is a film is that like a film you get dropped into a moment, a specific moment, like a slice of a life, and you get to invest in that moment for that character. It feels very rich as an actor to do that because the work is being done by the film, you know the location you are in, you know where you are. Particularly for this piece you know that each time, you’ve jumped a year.

"So, to come off season one and then we jump a year. At the end of season one for Mon Mothma it’s a betrothal and we start season two exactly a year later and we are at a wedding. So you get to use everything from before and then you’re dropped in this moment that is so vital to the piece. You get to wrestle with it and you get to tell that whole film and that lasts maybe a weekend and then you leave it behind, jump a year and then you get dropped into another specific moment. It was quite freeing as actors for a lot of us because we didn’t need to drag the character with us, the character was dropped in a moment so the specifics of it can be very real.

"The idea that within a season you have the evolution of character that I have for Mon Mothma, I’ve never experienced before. Because we jump a year each time, the expanse of the story can be so much wider. I think the depth of understanding of character is really unparalleled for me and the layers that they set up. Sometimes I was watching it and then you jump four episodes and something I discovered in episode one is like a flower raising its petals. You realise it’s been working on you because it’s part of another film that you saw. It just adds to it. It’s something I’ve never done before, the specificality of four films and how it allows for the evolution of character."

What are the best and most challenging scenes you had to film in Andor Season 2? 

Genevieve Reilly says: "The wedding is quite extraordinary in the third episode. There are a number of things that happen at the wedding. The wedding happens over episodes one, two and three so that’s our first film for me. Obviously there are lots of other things going on for lots of other characters. There is so much held within that wedding itself. There are moments that happen that will reverberate through Mon Mothma for the rest of the season. There’s so much in it, it’s so rich. You must understand the orthodoxy, the complexity of ritual and of that family of that history and of that woman, her relationships but also when it collides politically and how it drives her forward for the rest of the season.

"The wedding was amazing. Also, there’s a scene you saw in the trailer of Mon Mothma dancing, now I can’t tell you the context of what that is or what she’s holding but just to be able to move Mon Mothma differently, because she’s usually quite statuesque, just to be able to release her from that and see this woman in what is genuinely an emotional moment felt so liberating for her as well as for me.

"Then there’s one other episode later in the series, I think it’s episode nine, where politically, you see the woman I always hoped she would be. I always hoped she would have that moment. Those are probably my two favourite moments for this character in this season. The personal and the political."