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The actor reflects on playing the adoptive mother to Cassian Andor and adds insight to her fan-favorite line.

[This story contains spoilers for Andor‘s first three episodes.]

Star Wars has a thing for Killing Eve as Andor star Fiona Shaw is now the third key figure from the BBC America series to join a galaxy far, far away. Following in the footsteps of Killing Eve creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and star Jodie Comer (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), Shaw plays Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) adoptive mother, Maarva, who first encountered young “Kassa” (Antonio Viña) inside the wreckage of a ship on his homeworld of Kenari. Related Stories TV 'Andor' Creator Tony Gilroy Urged His Team to Put Aside Their 'Star Wars' Reverence TV 'Andor' Stars Denise Gough and Kyle Soller Discuss Playing a New Kind of Imperial Character

For Shaw, the answer for why Maarva assumes responsibility for this Kenari child has to do with the fact that Cassian’s fellow Kenari people had just killed a Republic officer. 

“He would’ve definitely died if she hadn’t taken him home. She saw him and thought, ‘This is a spectacular kid.’ So she brings him up as her own,” Shaw tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Shaw also doesn’t blame Maarva for grown-up Cassian being a bit of a disappointment and nuisance to his friends and family.

“She’s probably always acknowledged that because Kenari and his search for his sister is always on his mind, he never gave himself entirely to this mother,” Shaw says. “So she has done the best she can with him, and of course, he’s a disappointment because he can’t find his path. And he can’t find his path because he can’t find his route.”

In a recent spoiler conversation with THR, Shaw also adds insight to her fan-favorite line, “That’s what a reckoning sounds like.”

You fit so well in the Star Wars galaxy that I was surprised you hadn’t been cast until now. Have you had any previous brushes with Star Wars casting over the years? 

I wish you were the casting director because then I might have. (Laughs.) So thank you very much. I’m glad you think that. Each time comes with its own horns, and my moment is now. So I’m thrilled to be a part of it, and this is a really sophisticated development of all the Star Wars series. Tony has written something complex, textured, emotional, assured and excavated. He’s done it all, and he’s made it almost like many European or Russian films. He’s made it a domestic investigation in the middle of this very, very metallic universe. So it’s a great achievement.

So why does Maarva take responsibility for this Kenari child who’s now known as Cassian Andor? Why does she take him in?

Because she found him. I mean, she adopted him because she found him. He would’ve definitely died if she hadn’t taken him home. Her husband says, “Are you crazy?” And she says, “I’m not going to leave him here to die.” So I think that’s it. Even when she first saw Cassian, he is a creature of such wonderful personality, and I suspect the bond happened even before she decided to take him on. She saw him and thought, “This is a spectacular kid.” So she brings him up as her own.

Do you think she tried to have kids with her husband for a long time before that? 

Interesting question. I wondered if she forgot to have them because she was so busy wandering around the galaxy with her husband, collecting lots of metal in order to make things. You do feel that Ferrix isn’t a very well-off community, and the people have made their living by just fixing spaceships and sending them back out to the Empire. They’re kind of mechanics, and their backyards are full of bits of old stuff. But the scale of it is so big just because it’s spaceships. So she collects spaceships with her husband and mends them. She was a bit of a swashbuckler. She wasn’t somebody who stayed at home until [she adopted Cassian]. 

As a professional scavenger of sorts, she recognized value in Cassian like she does with spaceship parts. 

You’re absolutely right. And when we meet her when she’s much, much older, she’s tired and pretty exhausted and pretty worn out. She’s had some fair lumps of tragedy in her life, and the Empire is also driving her insane.

Cassian is a bit of a disappointment to those around him. He’s unreliable and flighty. Does Maarva blame herself at all?

I don’t think so. She’s done the best she can with him. Even a child at 10 is pretty formed, but I think she loved him. And she’s probably always acknowledged that because Kenari and his search for his sister is always on his mind, he never gave himself entirely to this mother. So she has done the best she can with him, and of course, he’s a disappointment because he can’t find his path. And he can’t find his path because he can’t find his route. So, psychologically, I don’t know how much she would be conscious of that, but I would certainly forgive her for doing the best she could to make him safe, to make him full of the values that Maarva is full of. She’s a daughter of Ferrix. She’s very honorable. She’s a very fair person. I don’t know how fair she is in business, but I don’t get the feeling that she’s a cheat. So what do you do with a son who, in 10 years, starts to do his own thing? 

You praised Tony Gilroy’s writing, and “That’s what a reckoning sounds like” is quite a line as she taunts those officers. She looked like such a boss in that profile close-up. 

I enjoyed that because what was also written in it is this feeling that Maarva has been in these moments before, the same way somebody might remember the 1960s and when the revolution died. She is somebody who remembers previous turbulence. Her family had been punished quite unfairly by the Empire, and I think she really does enjoy what a reckoning sounds like. When it gets quiet is when you really have to worry. She’s referring to the silence before a storm.

Why doesn’t she turn her heat on? She breathes cold air at certain moments, and both Cassian and Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) make references to the fact that she can afford to turn it on.

Well, I think she’s actually poor and that she can’t just have the heat on all the time. I don’t think they’ve got very much. She lost her husband [Gary Beadle’s Clem Andor], and she was down an income or down a worker. They’re not well off, and Cassian is very concerned about that.

Lastly, what’s your earliest Star Wars memory?

It hit me remarkably when I was 19 and I came to America for the first time. I’d never been abroad. I went to Chicago to stay with a family whose daughter I knew at university with me. And so we went to see Star Wars, and I had also never had a McDonald’s before. I had a McDonald’s, and I saw Star Wars, so my life changed. I saw it outdoors in Chicago, in 1979. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

*** Andor’s first three episodes are now available on Disney+. This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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