Throughout the press tour forAndor— both before andafterit debuted to critical acclaim — series creatorTony Gilroyhas given credit where credit is due. In a recent interview withVanity Fair, Gilroy bluntly explained that the series only existed becauseKathleen Kennedy“protected” it. Kennedy is, of course, Lucasfilm’s longtime President and one of the mostprolific producers in Hollywood, withPoltergeistandE.T. the Extra-Terrestrialmarking the start of her career. She’s also the one to carry the brunt of any criticism lobbed at Star Wars, particularly from so-calledStar Wars fans, who have a habit of targetingwomen involvedwiththe franchise. Gilroy directly called out all of the “shit that she takes online” while making it clear that “there’s no show without her.”Andorhasn’t faced the type of criticism that other recent Star Wars series (namely,The Acolyte) have faced, which makes it even more paramount to note Kennedy’s role in its success.
When I spoke with Gilroy earlier this month, I brought up his recent comments about the online abuse Kennedy has endured, and he gave a very insightful answer, drawing comparisons to a time in his career when he was under heavy scrutiny from the media. Once more, he spoke about her role in keeping him invested in the series — which he wasn’talwayskeen to be part of. He joked that she was involved in “hijacking me into the show, seducing me into the show, keeping the process rolling to keep me involved in the show, getting this show started to roll, approving all the wacky stuff that we did, and encouraging all that.” He continued:
“Our process with her is that she sees every script, obviously. She sees everything that’s going to go out. We have everything on Avid, where everybody’s seeing everything. All major casting approvals is Sanne [Wohlenberg] and Nina [Gold]. Nina and I would come up with our candidate, the person that we wanted to go through. There are certain thresholds that we wouldn’t waste time on, but pretty much anything that had any significance at all, we would run by her.Anything that had real significance would be a real community conversation, very little disagreement about any of those things.”
The controversial —but brilliant— decision torecastJimmy Smits’ Bail Organabecause he was unavailable to film? “Ben Bratt. Totally Kathy.I was like, ‘What are we going to do?’ She was like, ‘Ben Bratt.’ I’m like, ‘Really? Wow. That’s fantastic.’ So, sometimes really big swings and really big suggestions.” Gilroy went on to say, “She’s our conduit to money, and so that has a lot of happiness and has a lot of friction. So at the same time that you’re working together, you’re having some very difficult conversations and moments about money. But there’s no crying in baseball. It’s a thing. It’s a job.Everybody’s under the stress.”
Tony Gilroy Details His Own Experience With Media Scrutiny
“I’ll leave you with this,” Gilroy stated. “The Bourne Legacywas the first time that the internet came crashing in on my creative process.” The film was the fourth installment of theMatt Damon-led action franchise, which washeavily commented on by the pressat the time. “I had to tell a reporter one time who called me up. They had half of a story, and half of it really wrong,” he tells me, adding:
“They had something that was really gonna mess me up, and the internet had just started, and chats had just started. I said to this reporter, ‘I’m trying to make a script. I’m trying to start this project. Can you imagine trying to do this job with 100,000 people looking over your shoulder?’ I go, ‘It’s killing me. I’m begging you to hold this story. Half of what you have is wrong. I’ll give you the right part when it’s over, but I can’t do my job with everybody looking at me.’ It was so compelling. No one would ever say that now, because everybody has a billion people looking at everything you do.So, imagine what it’s like for her. Every single thing that she touches.”
While the in-fighting withinThe Bourne Legacy’s productioniswell-documentedand in the rearview of Gilroy’s impressive career, his experience clearly shaped his perception of what the internet can do to the creative process — and the creative.
“It’s not just that, but I’ve been on a press tour now for eight weeks. You finish every interview, and you have to gut-check yourself. Did I say something wrong?Did I say something that’s going to be clickbait and pulled out of context?And it happens every day. It happens every day. ‘$650 million.’ I’m not supposed to talk about it, but it was public record. It was in Forbes six months ago. It’s a nothingburger. It’s actually the cheapest show that’s been made if you figure it out. Forbes did a whole article about how it was the cheapest show, but by mentioning it at ATX and going, ‘Oh, we had money troubles…’ My god.”
In closing, Gilroy remarked, “So,I see what happens to me on a minor scale. For her, it’s epic.You’ve got to be really rugged. You have to haveverythick skin to keep going. Respect on that.”
Kathleen Kennedy Is Getting Her Flowers With ‘Andor’ Season 2
Gilroy isn’t the only one to praise Kennedy’s involvement in the series. During arecent conversation for our profilewith the series’ star,Diego Luna, he discussed how “spoiled” he was to work with the creative team behindAndor. “I would work blindly with this team, with this community, with these people. I learned so much from everyone. Obviously, Tony [Gilroy], Sanne [Wohlenberg], and Kathy [Kennedy], and all the designers in this show. It’s the best of the best. Their process was so inspiring.” He also detailed his experience as an Executive Producer on the series, saying:
“I really like understanding the logic of everything that happens when we start shooting. All of that process matters to me a lot. I think — the way I like to describe it is — obviously,we have the leadership of Kathy, who says, ‘We need you to do this, and therefore I’m here to support you, and give you everything, and be the first person you bounce things with.’Then you have Tony Gilroy, who is like old-fashioned filmmaking. We are following the lead of someone, and it’s his perspective, and his point of view that we celebrate here, and that you have to understand perfectly so you can serve, and you can become the tool you can be for that point of view to succeed. Then you have Sanne Wohlenberg, who designs this machine and makes sure the machine keeps moving forward — is thinking about what’s happening in this moment but what needs to happen tomorrow and how to make sure what happened yesterday doesn’t happen again."
While Luna was committed toAndorbeforeGilroy joined the project, he shared a similar sentiment to the showrunner when it comes to how vital Kennedy was to keeping the project afloat. “I always want to remark, because I do think it’s crucial for this series to turn into what it is. The freedom, the support —we were always encouraged to keep going from Kathyand from Disney. It was special.” He noted that when the five-season plan changed into a two-season plan, they were fully supported by Kennedy and Disney. “We never had to worry about ‘Is there going to be another season?’ Our worry was ‘How do we make sure it’s just one more season?’ There was always a feeling of, ‘Yes, you are going to get to the end of what you guys pictured and promised.’ We all have to get there because this series only succeeds if it ends atRogue One.”
Luna also spoke to Kennedy’s involvement in making not justAndorhappen, butRogue One: A Star Wars Story, too: “I always like saying that Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm took a big chance with Rogue One, and it’s because of that bold move that we got the freedom to doAndor.”
