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Spoilers ahead forAndorepisode ten,One Way Out.
The two characters could not be more different.
Andoris, for aStar Warsshow, quite light on aliens and non-humanoids.
(Narkina 5 seems to be a human-only prison.)
Having played both a CGI baddie and a normal guy, Serkis has experience with bothStar Warsextremes.
And the fact of the matter is, I love both, he tells Vulture.
However, he understands whats so exciting aboutAndors relative mundanity.
We love theStar Warsuniverse because it encapsulates both, Serkis says.
And I know some people prefer the more operatic, bigger scale, weird wonderfulness of aliens.
But I think there are a lot of people who really are enjoying the grounded reality of this.
Then Kino Loy comes in and he has a nuanced and complete arc in three episodes.
Was that rewarding for you?For sure, a hundred percent.
And so much of that comes down to great writing.
The series is so beautifully grounded and feels real.
Its much more in the murky gray area of theStar Warsuniverse as opposed to the dark and the light.
Its complex, and it does have that kind of psychological underpinning.
Its been a really interesting part to play.
Tony Gilroys an amazing screenwriter and showrunner and filmmaker, and I was a huge fan ofRogue One.
Did you develop that yourself, or did Tony Gilroy or someone else reveal it to you?
The whole way that the Empire works, like many totalitarian systems, is by divide and rule.
Now that hes in prison, hes sort of shut down in that respect.
Hes really only looking after himself until Cassian arrives.
For me, it was about creating the biggest arc that I could emotionally.
I was thinking about him as someone who perhaps has a family.
He is doing his penal service, his incarceration.
Lets talk about that speech in the tenth episode.
What was that progression like?
They are in a prison ship you just have to shut down and get on with it.
And so its almost like anger at himself at the powerlessness that he feels.
He remembers that he can galvanize people to have a better outcome for themselves.
But I wasnt drawing on that at all.
Were there other ways you considered delivering that line?
He realizes that hes not going anywhere.
We tried it in a bunch of different ways.
There was one where he was almost laughing at himself because it was so pathetic.
And ultimately, I mean, hes not dead.
Hes not dead in the water, as it were.
Theres no knowledge of what happens to him.
All we know is that perhaps there arent that many prison guards on Narkina 5 after all.
And so, who knows, there might be some way of living on and getting out.
But, as you might tell, I have no idea whats gonna happen.
The set construction was amazing.
It was very visceral in the sense that all of us felt desensitized.
The costume design was such that you couldnt really feel what you were wearing.
You had bare feet on the metal floor.
There was nothing organic on that set, nothing.
We really looked forward to lunch breaks because it was very sapping.
It took everybodys identity away.
It was a very, very smart design, but it really did affect you.
It was cold and quite sweaty.
And walking along the long, test-tube-like walkways when we were in those, we were sort of locked.
Not all of them.
It was pretty disgusting.
What is the difference between flavor and taste?
Flavor you’re able to only really just about smell cause its so watered down.
But taste, it actually tastes of something, which you might think is appetizing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
