Interview: ‘Andor’ Star Adria Arjona on the Sanctity of Tony Gilroy’s Writing

As one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood, Adria Arjona has already developed a reputation for collaborating with some of the industry’s most innovative and committed writer-directors, and Andor creator Tony Gilroy is no exception.

“With his writing, you don’t want to touch a single thing,” says Arjona. “His job is to really get to know you and start writing for you in the way that you speak.”

Gilroy’s Andor scripts have understandably earned that kind of sacred respect from stars like Arjona, whose performance as Bix Caleen has her squarely in the Emmy conversation after season two’s recently acclaimed run. Andor has been lauded for introducing unprecedented complexity and maturity into the broader Star Wars universe, touching on relevant issues of genocide and class. In fact, the power of Gilroy’s work lies in his willingness to call things what they are. By acknowledging the undeniable weight of a word like “genocide,” Andor connects itself to our current moment more than most sci-fi or fantasy shows often might.

Arjona felt similar power in S2E3 “Harvest” when Imperial officer Lieutenant Krole attempts to rape Bix, taking great pride in being able to pay respect to sexual assault victims in her own life and around the world, if not the galaxy.

“I held my friends and family members who have gone through that and wish they would have responded how Bix responded in that moment,” says Arjona. “To speaks those words out loud, there is great power in that, and I did not take it lightly.”

We asked Arjona about the parallels between that watershed moment in Andor and her previous work in Zoë Kravitz’ directorial debut Blink Twice, which touches on rape and sexual assault from its own unique perspective. While Kravitz’ set encouraged a different sense of freedom and exploration in Arjona and her cast mates, both sets instilled in her the confidence to continue tackling meaningful topics through her work.

“I’m always for depicting the reality that happens to women in our world,” says Arjona. “Blink Twice is a fantasy and Star Wars is a fantasy as well, but with that, there’s a lot of truth.”

Check out our full discussion with the talented Adria Arjona below. We connect a few more dots across her already illustrious career, reflecting on her incredible collaboration with Richard Linklater in last year’s Hit Man (which Joey raved about here). Of course, we dive even deeper into Disney+’s Andor as well!