Genevieve O’Rielly discusses the character of Mon Mothma where we find her in Star Wars: Andor and looks at the fractious marriage between Mon and Perrin Fentha.
Y!: Okay, we need to talk about the marriage. What can you say about Mon Mothma’s relationship to her husband Perrin Fertha?
GOR: It’s awkward, isn’t it? Mon Mothma has been a Senator since the time she was 16. What Tony really was interested in exploring was, what is that if you’ve been that since you were 16? What is the orthodoxy that you live in and you have had to live within? That you were married at 16 or before, and you are representing your planet in a political sphere at 16. What are the constructs of your life that allows you that, and that, 14 years later, you are still there? What is that cage? And he’s exploring that.
Y!: He literally says at one point “Must everything be boring and sad?” That appears to be a pretty wide gulf in terms of their outlook on things.
GOR: I think it exposes how much of Empire is also within the marriage, and how far she has to go to fight for what she really believes in. She has to lose a lot, because her husband is Empire. Perhaps her life is Empire. She has to escape it, right? Or she has to risk stuff. And she ends up in that rebel bunker.
Y!: Well, he clearly seems to enjoy the pomp and circumstance, and she has to put on her face and endure a lot of these high society events. How does she do at these dinners, sitting next to people that, as she says, hate her and work against her every day in the Senate?
GOR: Well, she’s a politician and she’s been an effective politician for years, so she’s very good at her job. I think she’s an extraordinarily political beast. What she’s not revealing is her own passion, her own drive. Obviously, it is revealed in the scene with Luthen, but then she goes home, and you see that she very quickly has to put that armor right back up again. So, who can she trust?
- Hardcover Book
- Gratton, Tessa (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 352 Pages - 10/04/2022 (Publication Date) - Random House/Star Wars (Publisher)


