Welcome to Pour One Out! On this collection, IndieWire celebrates a few of our favourite characters on TV which have come to the top of their run this season, with the celebrities who performed them.
[Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for “Andor” Season 2.]
As a longtime Star Wars fan, Adria Arjona continues to be in awe of her function in “Andor.”
The “Rogue One” prequel collection could also be named for Diego Luna’s revolt chief, however after two seasons, it’s simple that he wouldn’t grow to be who he did with out Arjona’s Bix Caleen.
“When [showrunner Tony Gilroy] informed me how I used to be going to half methods with this character, I didn’t take it calmly,” Arjona informed IndieWire. “It actually shook my coronary heart, the truth that I used to be gonna ship off on this journey one in all my favourite characters after which have an effect in ‘A New Hope.’ I simply couldn’t consider that I used to be going to kind part of that, that I used to be going to have such an impression within the revolt.”
The sendoff in query is her character’s closing talking scene of the collection, in Season 2, Episode 9. After mendacity low and staying collectively for years, Bix and Cassian (Luna) lastly really feel protected on the revolt house base of Yavin 4 — a lot in order that he appears liable to giving up the struggle simply to guard and keep together with her. At one level, one other character tells Bix, “Perhaps you’re the place he must be.” With that realization, Cassian wakes up sooner or later to search out Bix gone and a video message she left for him — by no means saying goodbye, however pushing him to proceed the struggle to allow them to meet once more.
“All Bix says is, ‘Cassian will probably be again, Cassian will probably be again, Cassian will discover me’ — she has little question,” Arjona mentioned. “At the back of her thoughts, she’s like, ‘Wherever he’s, he’s OK, and he’ll be again.’ There’s quite a lot of hope in that, which is heartbreaking as a result of the ending — however she doesn’t.”
The scene was a singular alternative not just for Bix to say goodbye to Cassian, however for Arjona to do the identical for the viewers — straight into digicam.
“The primary three takes that I did have been unusable. I couldn’t cease crying,” she recalled. “You may perceive conceptually what the arc goes to be like, however studying it after which having to carry out was one thing else.”
“I receives a commission to cope with my feelings. I receives a commission to have the ability to management the way in which that I really feel,” she added. “I acquired in the way in which of my very own job for the primary time at work, as a result of I cared a lot about Bix and since I care a lot concerning the journey that Cassian has to go on. I wished to do such a very good job, and I wished to nail it, not just for me, but in addition for the followers, as a result of it actually takes off onto one thing else.”
However even these preliminary takes strengthened Arjona’s connection to the scene and the character, who she mentioned in all probability additionally cried by and deleted just a few takes earlier than finalizing the footage for Cassian. After that, and because the duty of what she was doing started to fade, Arjona mentioned she tapped into “a second of tranquility.”
“Star Wars” initiatives include heavy safety, however Adrona mentioned Gilroy was “gracious sufficient” to let her learn three episodes as soon as she acquired solid. “I simply determined to belief Tony, and I’m so pleased I did, as a result of every thing he promised is there on the web page,” she mentioned. “I like the truth that she had an enormous arc to undergo. I like her energy. I like that she’s not a sufferer. She holds herself actually excessive up and believes in dignity. She’s one powerful cookie.”
Season 2 of “Andor” picks up one yr after the top of Season 1, with Bix and Cassian separated as they keep away from detection from the Empire. The latter’s seen certainty and function juxtapose Bix and the nightmares of her torture, her each day struggle to beat back a predator on the planet Mina-Rau, and the trauma that she collects even because the revolt grows stronger.
“I can not consider what these characters undergo this season,” Arjona mentioned, noting how enormous it’s that after her assault in Episode 3, Bix explicitly says, “He tried to rape me.” She spoke with survivors to organize for the scene and its results on the character — “I held them with me that day,” she mentioned of the shoot.
“You can not inform a human story with out pertaining to abuse,” Arjona mentioned. “Abuse has existed in our historical past endlessly. The abuse of energy is simply part of us, sadly. To inform a narrative a few revolt, a narrative about folks coming collectively and the complexities of that — abuse is part of that, and to not contact it will have been not telling the entire scope of it honestly.”
Within the years that comply with, Bix struggles with substance abuse and together with her personal function within the revolt, at the same time as Cassian grows stronger in his. “Even from the top of Season 1, all she actually needs to do is be part of the revolt,” Arjona mentioned. “All she needs to do is be higher so she might assist and be part of this nice trigger, however she will’t. And there’s quite a lot of disgrace in that.”
With manufacturing and the discharge in her rearview, Arjona nonetheless seems to be again at Bix and “Andor” with nothing however admiration. She stays in awe of the character’s “braveness, bravery, selflessness,” and capability for sacrifice. She has concepts about the place the character goes after “Andor” — Cassian’s destiny is understood, however Bix might be on the market combating throughout the occasions of “A New Hope,” “Empire Strikes Again,” “Return of the Jedi,” and past — however nothing she needs to say out loud and put within the universe. “Andor” is all now we have of her, at the same time as her legacy ripples by the galaxy.
“When folks come collectively they usually belief and everybody has their lane and beats at their very own drum inside their lane, it fucking works,” Arjona mentioned. “That’s what making the present is, and it’s what the present is about. It’s about folks coming collectively — and it’s stunning when artwork mimics life in that approach.”
“Andor” is now streaming on Disney+.
