'Andor' star Diego Luna chats with THR's Borys Kit to talk all about the Disney+ series during a THR Frontrunners conversation series recorded at the San Vincente Bungalows in West Hollywood earlier in May.
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00:00I don't know. I cannot talk about that because that that's not out yet. Sorry. I was about to
00:07Make a spoiler. Okay, no spoilers. No, no, no
00:17Thank you for organizing this like I got to see it on a big screen
00:21I know it doesn't always happen, right?
00:23I think they should be showing this stuff on the big screen and like at the El Capitan every week. Uh-huh. I agree with you
00:29I agree with you
00:31I just mentioned one thing. Yeah, of course just I just thought we have the director here
00:36sitting there the director of the episode you just saw so
00:43At ease here well lucky to have Ariel here he's directed the first six I think right see first two blocks
00:50Yeah, I'm so glad you're here
00:53You're gonna help me with some specifics
00:56How
00:57Often do you get to see yourself like this on screen? Do you like watching yourself?
01:01No, I don't I don't I like this show because it's an ensemble piece. It's
01:08It allows me to see
01:10Wonderful actors. I don't like seeing
01:15Myself much
01:17It's not it's not
01:19I I do it like I need to do it like regularly with everything. I do I go I see it at least once
01:26But it's it's not good. It's not good. Doesn't fit. I want to fix things. You know, I want to get it better
01:32My mind changes also like you you grow time passes. You see things from a different perspective
01:38You talk to people about it and and the and the performance stays the same, you know
01:44We change but that doesn't change
01:46But that being said I love the the the possibility of watching and or on a big screen
01:53I've been going to I asked today to to witness the whole thing not come at the end because it's it's very special
02:00I think the the amount of work put behind this show
02:04we're all people that
02:07Learn to do this by doing films, you know
02:09And we think on a frame where everything matters and where you let audiences decide where to go
02:16You know a rich frame and this is a very rich frame that is great when you see it this size and not in a
02:23phone or
02:24On an iPad, you know
02:27This is a massive screen so cool
02:30Now obviously there's a lot to digest in the show in this episode and or to me is a very specific
02:37type of
02:39Show it's a spinoff prequel to a movie
02:43Who some consider to be, you know
02:46Some of the one of the best Star Wars movies ever made and it has a definite ending
02:51For a lot of the characters including yourself
02:55But before we get to talk more specifically about this, I'll actually go back to the very beginning
03:02of Rogue One actually and
03:04What was the casting process like for that when you were first cast as Cassian and or do you remember?
03:11Yes, I'm never gonna forget it's not like this happens
03:16Twice in your life. It was
03:19It was so weird
03:22This was 11 years ago
03:24And I got a phone call that someone wants to see you
03:30We think he is the director of the new Star Wars film
03:36We that's the information I had
03:39And I was asked to go on a meeting on a Sunday in LA and I live in Mexico
03:45So I said, okay, let's go. Let's take the meeting
03:48The director is Gareth Edwards and I go to a restaurant and and he's sitting in an empty restaurant. It's like
03:56It sounds like I'm making up the story, but it's not
03:59He's sitting next to a wall with his computer open just there by himself
04:04And he's young he's feels my age
04:07I don't know but like there's a young guy sitting with a computer open
04:10I sit down the waiter receives me sits me down in Spanish says goodbye in Spanish
04:16And they and I stay with it with him and he starts talking
04:20non-stop about the possibility of this film and telling me the whole story of a film and he keeps saying it so then this guy
04:26Does this and then she does this but he does this and I go like why I mean
04:30What is he talking about? And at the very end I was like
04:34Well, what is this gonna be about like he wants the number of another actor like, you know
04:39I always make the joke with the guy that I always thought he was gonna ask me for girls one number
04:45But he goes like I would like you to play this role. I
04:49really didn't like I
04:52Didn't see it coming. I didn't know what he meant really
04:56And then he started explaining I want to I'm here
05:01We're supposed to do a different film with a different tone in the acting. I love your work and
05:09Imagine like Star Wars with the actors in in a tone close to it to my mother man
05:18Now you sound crazy
05:21But uh, but he basically pitched me the whole story and said like look I would love to work with you
05:27But now we have to convince everyone else. Do you want to go through it right with me and and
05:34Various auditions happen after that
05:38It was like months to receive the final call
05:42and and I I went through that process not hoping anything but live through it, you know, because I really
05:50In every step I was I thought it wasn't gonna happen
05:54Like there was no reference for me to say like this makes sense, you know
05:57It was clearly something new in this universe. I think Rogue One
06:02That's what what makes Rogue One so special that is it's a very different film meant to be different has a definitive ending
06:09You know, it's about characters. You you've never heard before, you know, you you don't you don't see films about them and
06:18Yeah, it was it was quite a process it was the year and a half of craziness also you can't tell anyone
06:25You know, I can't tell my family. I flew to London once they got me through a backdoor of a hotel to do an audition there
06:33It was bizarre
06:35bizarre
06:36Yeah
06:38And then at one point you were asked
06:41To reprise the character this time is a series
06:46Now, how how did that process?
06:49You know, I don't know if it was it was Tony or who came to you and said hey
06:53We want to we want you to come back at this time do a series
06:55No first the first it first it all the other day
06:59I was like touring because you'll see the the if you like obviously if you like the show
07:04you'll keep watching and you'll see that we get really close to Rogue One and
07:09Actually, it ends at the beginning of Rogue One so the many characters from Rogue One will come and
07:16I was doing promotion with Alan Tudyk who plays
07:20K to a soul the droid and
07:23He reminded me that we made jokes on set about something similar, you know about like revisiting the characters later
07:33And and that happened in Rogue One, but that was just all actors
07:37Making fun of that
07:39We actually were the only ones doing Star Wars and making sure there was no chance to do another one because we die at the
07:46end
07:50My daughter said on the on the on the premiere that it's like but you're not coming back
07:56I go like no, I was just for a film and she's like you don't do this and you know
08:02And all of you know, this is wrong
08:05But anyway, so I I I think the first time was two years later that I received the call from Lucasfilm
08:14And he was he was again
08:17something bizarre
08:18You know, it was called to say like would you be would you be willing to explore the possibility of doing something?
08:25With the character, you know, it was very big and I said, yes, of course
08:29Let's talk about it and when we talked it made complete sense because I think there is
08:36It is a it is a great like narrative tool to have such a
08:42Strong and definitive ending of a character and not knowing anything about him, you know
08:48It's it's it's beautiful to start building something to create an arc an interesting one
08:54I think there was a big chance all the mystery around Cassian
08:59Was very helpful to to do something in a long format where we could have time
09:04I thought it sounded like a great opportunity and it was then that Tony Gilroy
09:09Got involved and when he came in he pitched me his idea on
09:15The arc he was hoping to to draw and how far we were gonna find him and that he wanted to end
09:22Just right into like just a second before Rogue One starts, you know
09:28For the character and he pitched me that yeah six years ago
09:33It's been it's been a long time
09:35How is your approach to the character change from the first time you played him back in the movie to how you play?
09:42Play him now and on the on the series
09:45Huge there is so many. There's so many
09:49Coincidences and there's so many connections that the story we are telling have with the backstory
09:55I made myself, you know, because I bring everything I bring myself into the mix, you know, and and my perspective my context becomes
10:04Important part of any role I play there's no way not to you know, but it was very interesting
10:11to see
10:13How in tune I was with Tony's perspective on who this guy could be, you know
10:18This is from the beginning for me the idea of being so different having this different accent
10:25I'm being in a place where no one knows where who he is where he comes from
10:29And I thought well this guy's been forced to move, you know
10:34It's been forced to migrate everything has been taken away from him
10:38and
10:39And and that's how I connected with the role and when you see that
10:43Story that backstory in the first season, you know, it has a lot of connection
10:47It has a lot of connection with what I had in mind, but I have to say that
10:52The there is I mean the beauty of this show is that
10:57it is it is it serves the perspective of
11:03One person, you know, it serves the perspective and the vision of Tony Gilroy and
11:08And he is he has answers for everything
11:12really, like nothing is there just because it's cool or because
11:17It's gonna create an effect on the audience, you know
11:20Things are very well planned and everything connects and and it's beautiful because when he shows you the world when he
11:27Goes deep into the specifics
11:29You suddenly you you understand it perfectly and and you are there and on this second season
11:35He made it even more difficult for us audience for us performers for everyone like the time jumps
11:42The gaps we have to fill but it's all there if you if you go through the writing if you go through the lines
11:49You know, everything is there all the information you need to know to understand perfectly
11:56What's going on is there, you know, so I think you even see it in the characters faces
12:00I don't know how many people have seen episodes four five and six which are already out
12:05But yeah, you can you which it's each each three episodes jump a year later into the series getting us closer to
12:13Rogue one and you can see
12:16Physically the obvious is an emotional difference, but also physically I think some of the characters change as well
12:23And then for you specifically, how do you I don't know if you shot this show in order
12:29Episodes the episodes were shot in order or were you just jumping around because how do you as an actor?
12:33Get to the place where you have to be as a character in the first arc at the second arc and the third arc
12:41Well, yeah, very little sleep a lot of worry a lot of notes in all that, you know
12:47I still work with the scripts printed because I need to see it
12:52It's it gets confusing definitely, but we have a we have there is a system, you know
12:58There is a system from the first season that I think we got really good at it. And and it's that we break it
13:06Production wise we break it in four blocks
13:08So each block does have a beginning and an end and it it's its own unit, you know, there is a director
13:18DOP working on it for three months before three months right good three months of
13:24pre-production then we go on production and you finish that block and
13:27Then you start the other one and sometimes one starts before the other ends, you know
13:33I know in order to get things on time and and to get the ball moving and not stopping but
13:40but yes, we
13:42Answering to the the strict order. No, we didn't shoot in chronological order
13:46In fact the scenes you just saw the very end of this episode was the very end for our shoot
13:54It was the way I finished like a kid playing on a cockpit, you know and the gimbal, you know
14:02He was like going back to being eight years old and playing I could take all from from my ship
14:09but yeah, and the the end of that the the the Adria Adria sequence
14:15And all of that was the last days of shooting
14:21And it was quite emotional I mean, I don't you didn't ask that but I was gonna tell you
14:27How much I miss them
14:29No, but it's it was it was it was we showed out of order
14:33But one thing we do is that we have a we have a good pre-production time before each block
14:39And that's I mean, I'm glad he's not here so I can say good things about him
14:45without ruining anything, but he's he he
14:50The way Tony collaborates is very special, you know, because in his writing
14:56He involves Luke Hall who's the set designer, you know, and so he doesn't write
15:03about like a cinema
15:05When he's gonna write about a cinema and a screening happening in that cinema
15:10He sits with Luke Hall and says, okay, it's gonna have five
15:14Five six people sit it like this. It's gonna be packed. It's gonna be like
15:18You know a wood in California this in so they design the place and then he goes writing
15:24So when he writes he can be very specific the action belongs to a place and the and and that piece of writing
15:32It's already a collaboration, right?
15:34then the next step happens which is like we actors get like close to the material and we and we read and we talk to
15:41Him and and we make questions and we suggest things and and that also kind of like a has another
15:48In reaches the page, you know
15:51But then directors take it and I already won't let me like this is even though it's television
15:57There's a moment where it belongs to them
16:00You don't have the writer on set
16:03You know giving notes to the actors tell them the writer the writer
16:08Works really hard with the director gives him all the tools
16:11But when we're executing it feels like you're in a film set and you're working with a director who's in control of the decisions
16:18And who's there and you as an actor, you know your character very well
16:21It's like doing a film where that you've been doing all your life or for 10 years
16:24no, so you also have many of the those answers, but there's a feeling of freedom and
16:30and
16:31An opportunity to discover new things because there's already enough a very rich
16:37Scene happening so but we also shoot in location and we shoot in real sets
16:43That are built and we interact with real things
16:46So there's accidents that happen that enrich also the the process and make it even better. No, so
16:53There is there is a lot of clarity on what we're doing and I'm going back to your question that you made like an hour
17:00ago
17:02There is a lot of clarity on what are we doing on set and
17:07and Tony's been there through the whole process to the point where he doesn't have to be there and we all know what his vision
17:13is and
17:14where we're aiming and
17:17And he's then watching
17:19Dailies in the morning and and by midday you already have a message from him saying if he loved it and why you know
17:26but there was there is a sense of like yeah of
17:30Of
17:31Clarity through the whole process that that makes this very complex machine actually work and you guys shot in real sets
17:37Like you said right this wasn't the volume or anything like that. You guys were really out in fields
17:42You were I think we owe a lot to Rogue One
17:46Because Rogue One had that in mind. It was the idea of Rogue One was to honor like
17:51the genesis of Star Wars and that filmmaking that it was very mechanical very
17:57It was you know, the the droids move and they have a voice and there's an actor behind them behind the
18:04Creatures there's teams sometimes of two three people working on a creature and you're interacting with
18:11the sets are built and
18:14With the first season we couldn't go in as many locations as we planned because we were shooting on Kobe
18:22But on the second season, yes, we went to all of the the in
18:29Valencia we shot in out of London a lot in in in England. We shot in
18:36Barcelona
18:37Yeah, we traveled a little bit and then beautiful things happen
18:41You can't control everything, you know, and and you're working against the Sun and suddenly feels like
18:48Filmmaking 20 years ago, you know that kind of energy
18:54No, no, no, no
18:57I don't know. I cannot talk about that because that that's not out yet. Sorry. I was about to
19:03Make a spoiler. Okay, no spoilers. No, no, no
19:07So Cassie and it's such a complex character
19:11He's obviously a thief. He's been a prisoner. He's a you know, he's a fashion designer
19:16It's like it's it's like well, it's like it's like watching the show should be called like and or undercover
19:23but it's all because of
19:26He's a good teacher
19:28Good mentor, but he is and he doesn't have a complex relationship that will you see with with Luthen?
19:34But he also has a complex relationship with with Bix. That's the character played by
19:39Adria Arjona
19:41Yes, and Cassian is willing to sacrifice a lot but not when it comes to Bix. No
19:47Can you tell me a bit about their relationship? Yeah, it's I'm gonna
19:53Well you a few have seen the next block
19:57but
19:58Those of you who don't like the next block starts a year later, you know
20:04But but we just witness what happened there, you know
20:07you can just imagine the conversation Cassian and Bix are gonna have once that
20:13Ship lands somewhere, you know and and what they just went through. So the next time we see them
20:19it's a year later and we know this has been
20:23you know take it in and and and and that's what happens with the
20:28Structure, you know that relations are very so charged
20:32Emotionally charged and I was looking at the at the screening at the at this episode
20:40And I just reminded me how important love
20:45Becomes in the second season, you know love in every form also like friends like and and you can't talk
20:52Revolution if if there's no love involved, you know
20:55There's something romantic and naive behind the idea of revolution that comes with that
21:02Kind of like you see what I mean?
21:04Oh, I have a whole question about love love and Star Wars and what you'll see is there's like fascist love
21:10There's rebel love and and what you see the complex relationships you see and I might I might jump ahead of by an episode
21:19So hopefully I you know, there's no spoilers, but like you see
21:22You know our our imperial couple the way they are you see Bix and Cassian you see well even Mon Mothma and her
21:30Husband, they have a very unique relationship, you know, we're at a wedding here and there's all these different permutations
21:39And the young the young boy that just said goodbye, you know, I'm running in like
21:47Everyone like
21:49the beauty of this is not just a reminder of what you
21:52Sacrifice what you put in aside when you join a rebellion like this when you join revolution
21:58But it's what needs to be behind, you know
22:00What drives revolution is that sense of love of belonging of family?
22:06You know, those are those are the things that make you fight and you know there yes, there is laws there is
22:12injustice there is
22:16Yeah pain there is like
22:18All of that we can we've seen and we saw a lot in the first season
22:23But all these characters they are invested emotionally
22:27somehow with someone and that that becomes
22:30part a very important part of the second season to understand them and and that's again the richness of the writing that we don't just see
22:37People being capable of doing something we understand why they are doing it
22:42You know that with a with a very few scenes you understand why all these people would want something better
22:49I think love in this show equals hope
22:52Yeah, definitely and there's there's so much love that there's more love in this series and almost and probably the rest of Star Wars
23:09But I think I think there is there is these things where I mean I couldn't stop laughing about the way they're prepping
23:17You know
23:19I'm getting ready
23:22cereal and
23:26But but I was I was thinking
23:29It's very subtle the writing
23:32Mr. Gilroy
23:33You know, but he gives hints. He says things and you were asking about
23:38how the relation of Vixen Cassian has changed and
23:43We don't see we have them we see them together for two seconds
23:48When they hug we understand, you know, we understand I guess I hope you understand
23:54but what but he he's trying to call home and
23:58it's just one line, you know, I want to call home and
24:03when he says home he means bigs and use and you know, she's on the other side and
24:08And he tells you everything he tells you how the relation of all
24:14You know that if you remember the first season the the character bigs would say like I mean
24:21You're not here. You always leave no and now they call each other home
24:27And I think it's a it's it's again
24:30It's it's very beautiful because all those layers are there are there for you to see if you want if you don't
24:37Nothing nothing happens you still understand the big picture and what they're running away from and what's happening
24:44but all these characters have this opportunity to dream and
24:48And to dream about being with someone and and I think that's what's gonna make the second season very strong emotionally for for viewers
24:57You're also an executive producer
25:00on this season
25:03I'm probably working with a huge crew
25:05With the level on the level of detail that goes in to create a show like this like this one
25:12You're you're delving deep into cultures in a way that movies the movies don't you've created an entire language
25:18You have music how what goes into creating something like that?
25:24Well first that's why we did two seasons
25:28At the beginning when when Tony pitched it to me. We were talking about doing five seasons like
25:35Everyone in TV science for and
25:37we signed the same paper not knowing what we were doing very responsible from us and
25:45And then we started doing the first one and it took a good year to put together to like and then
25:52Kovat heated and it was very difficult to shoot and and building all the sets takes a long time, you know
26:01Ferex in the first season is a huge. It's a town, you know
26:06For this second season. We have even more planets that we visit more
26:11Different scenarios more speaking parts. Therefore the costumes so the the pre-production of this show is really long
26:19we we take like two years two years and a half to have one season ready, you know, and
26:26So we said like damn it's gonna be possible to keep this level the level
26:32We we were we had in in the first season for for five seasons, you know, I'll be 60 years old
26:40Doing this role
26:45And
26:46It's it was it was clear that there was there was a great opportunity
26:52to do one more and be
26:55even more
26:56ambitious and and more meticulous and more specific and more
27:03Rigorous, you know in the whole work and it is it is it's not just working with these amazing
27:09Designers, but it's the is the system that
27:12Sanaa Wollenberg kind of like design for us to actually execute this way
27:18you know and and and it's it's very interesting to see how it happens and
27:23How little Tony Gilroy and Sanaa sleep because there is always something happening, right?
27:29We we are shooting we are shooting because that's what we do and and it's very specific what we have to do as actors
27:35But the pre-production of two other blocks is starting the post-production of what you shot is happening
27:42The shooting of the the one happening is going on and you have the same team for all of it
27:50Besides us on set that we are specific to the block. We're shooting. So Michael Wilkinson
27:55I mean imagine he's the the costume designer that wedding
27:59You know like the amount of attention put in every dress
28:03You see is the same of the one you see on the back
28:06The one Genevieve is wearing in in the front the amount of work that that wedding represented for the team
28:14It's it's long. It's long and the beauty here. Is that
28:19We had the freedom we had the tools and and and they gave us the time, you know
28:26To actually execute this way. I think that the what the first season
28:32brought to us
28:34Was the certainty that people were celebrating the show for what we wanted to make why what for the same reason?
28:42We wanted to make the show at the beginning, you know, we wanted to do something. That was like
28:47Robust I mean like that that you could you could spend a lot of time
28:53You know finding more and more layers and more and more
28:57details you the the the work of the science in terms of makeup hair and
29:03Costume obviously and sets. It's just the best I've seen in my life
29:07You know, it's like it's this this artist are amazing and we can you you arrive to a set and you can shoot
29:14Everywhere, you know, you can move the camera
29:16I mean they actually did move the camera in that wedding like till the point they start to get you DC
29:22You know, like you can see all of it. All of it works, you know, so it's a beautiful. It's a beautiful like
29:30Space for for for creativity, you know
29:33you as actors as directors or you as a photographer to light those scenarios and
29:40Decide a frame in a place that is so rich is
29:43It's been quite a an amazing experience
29:46and the language because they've created specific language for this and it's and you've seen the
29:53Yeah, the next arc it also puts you into a different culture with lang with like so immersive with the language
30:02It feels like you're almost it has like a French hint to it almost like you're almost like in you know, France at wartime
30:09yeah, I mean obviously it's the all of that happens because
30:14Tony takes the time to write that and to design that and there's someone designing everything, you know with him
30:21But uh, but yes, it's it's time. It's pretty you know what I think what makes this show
30:28Different or at least from the very little experience. I have in TV is that we don't start till he's written
30:37We don't start till it's clear what we're doing and we don't start till we have everything needed
30:44You know, we we were ambitious from beginning to end and never and never had to like make compromises or give up
30:51You know, not at all. We if something we we were patient
30:57and delay things
30:59but but but I
31:02Think I think what what was ideas then became
31:06Something real that we could actually see feel touch and shoot. I think I think it pays off incredibly
31:13We're gonna end pretty soon. But before we end I do want to say
31:17You were you were just at Star Wars celebration in Japan just like a week ago
31:24How and how was that?
31:26I
31:29Was there too you were there
31:32You wanna tell me how was yours? Oh
31:36How much sake was in
31:40Not too much sake
31:43It's a lot being in Japan is one thing and then seeing having Star Wars in Japan is a is a whole other level and
31:50it is
31:52It is and and the other thing is is that there's no it wasn't just Japan there was a hundred and twenty-five
31:59nationalities represented at the at the event
32:04Can you imagine that like that's that's the reach of this community
32:08125 countries made an effort to go to you know to go to Japan and
32:14Spend three four days there and it's it's truly an event organized by fans and
32:21By by followers or by I would say by a community that has a sense of belonging
32:28You know, it's not as it doesn't it can't be compared to any other event
32:32I've been to present films or TV
32:36It's very specific, you know, because it's their place and I think there's there's a myth of like
32:42oh the fans of Star Wars can be like very demanding or it's it can it can become
32:49Kind of like
32:51yeah, heavy weight in your shoulders to step into this universe because of because of
32:58the risk of not pleasing them and and
33:01And I was asked that at the very beginning and since day one
33:05It's been the opposite and I think where I felt that the most it was in Japan
33:09You arrive to a place where everyone cares about the story you're telling
33:14Everyone feels part of it. Everyone is expecting to see it
33:18you know, there is there is a love connection to what you've been doing for two years and a half that makes it feel so
33:25special and
33:26and you come out and there is kind of like an a very horizontal connection because
33:34The audience they know what you're talking about. It feels like as if you were talking about their lives, you know
33:41like as if you were
33:43Touching on on things that matter as much to them as they matter to you and that's very very unique
33:50I don't I've never felt it
33:51But like normally you go out trying to get people's attention to show them something you've done that no one cares about
33:57No, that's normally what happens when you have to promote a film or a show and here you arrive and everyone is like
34:04How did it go?
34:06Please tell us I mean damn you took two years, you know
34:11And you go like wow, that's that's cool
34:14That's that makes you feel you are working in something that matters to someone and that's already starting in a very
34:22successful place, you know and you and you and you sat there with them as they you know for for autographs and pictures and you
34:29Interacted with them and I talked to these people and it's it's it's a big deal for them
34:34And for me too, like I don't do that like often
34:39For me was a big deal too and and being in Japan also was so special
34:44so interesting and also a place where I mean, it's a the film history of Japan is
34:51Has influenced Star Wars very much and cinema. No, so it was quite interesting to be there celebrating Star Wars
34:59It was cool. Awesome. And on that note, thank you all
35:08You