With every element of the second season of Andor being explored, discussed and dissected – and with awards season ramping up right now – it’s always enlightening to hear from the writers of the show, and here writer Tim Bissell delves into his episodes, which included this already iconic scene between Dedra Meero and Orson Krennic.
Inverse: Is there a particular line reading that sticks out to you? Something that you wrote and that one of the actors came back with an interpretation of it that you hadn’t anticipated?
Tom Bissell: The Dedra-Krennic confrontation scene [in season 2, episode 11], to me, stands out as a scene that I was worried about. It was long, it was shaggy, it was filled with tons of technical detail and disclosures about stuff that had happened off-screen that is really important. And Tony and I worked, you know — I took a bunch of cracks at that scene, and then Tony finished it, and he did, like, incredible work to finish it. And I remember just worrying, “Is this going to be just a huge energy drop?” Is this going to be like a talky, jargon-laden scene that has no impact? And seeing the way people have responded to that scene has been one of the most gratifying things I’ve experienced. It is a riveting scene. And that all comes down to the performances and the way Alonso Ruizpalacios blocked it.
When he puts his finger on her head, that was not in the script. And when you have a long scene like that, it is paramount that you find the power exchanges and the turns, because they’re not necessarily there on the page. And the way that they made that conversation feel so alive, and such a power struggle, that’s just people reading what’s on the page and making very smart choices about how to put it on its feet and, as Tony always says, “make it real.” And so, I had lots of concerns about that scene and holy cow, were they annulled the first time I saw it.
Check out Fantha Tracks Radio this evening as we dive into the second season with Joe Mulinaro from Rule the Galaxy on a special ‘wash-up’ episode of Making Tracks Reaction Chat.
