Every Wednesday we’re being absolutely spoilt rotten by the depth, performances and intricate storytelling of Star Wars: Andor, and speaking with StarWars.com associate editor Kristin Baver, Kyle Soller (Syril Karn) and Denise Gough (Dedra Meero) discuss their characters and how they view the two rising stars.
“I want you to be very conflicted about your feelings about her. The great thing about Dedra, and what I love about playing her, is that…when I first started playing her, I was sitting in this room surrounded by these men — a lot of men who weren’t doing their jobs properly, and so I was really rooting for Dedra. You’re really on her side. And then she does certain things that you just think, ‘Okay, so maybe I can’t support that.’… For people watching, initially you really want her to succeed, because you just see a woman really striving for success. But then what you have to sit with is, once you get on board with her at the beginning just because she’s a woman in a man’s world…[she is] just as capable of doing the most heinous things for power. Somebody said to me the other day, ‘Please don’t redeem her.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s so good.’ Don’t apologize. Let her be just as ambitious as the most villainous of men and color in all the shades so that everyone’s conflicted when they’re watching.”
Kyle Soller discusses Karn, identifying a similar – albeit far lower on the ladder – ambition within his character.
“Oh my gosh, there’s another person like me! And she looks amazing doing it and she does it really well. This hunger for filling that void, this hunger for power and order in a fascistic realm, is quite dangerous, but so seductive. That was the gift that Tony gave us. They’re not two-dimensional…you really get the lighter shade and the gray areas of these people being people, within the structure and limits of this system.”
