Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Diego Luna's Cassian Andor will surprise people. The moment he's introduced in Rogue One you know this guy will do anything to protect his mission.
I got a chance to chat with Luna about the darkness within Cassian and his relationship with his best friend, K-2S0, an Imperial Security Droid he reprogrammed to help in the Rebellion. I'm not sure that particular bit was out there before now, but it's an important detail for Cassian's character. I'll let Luna tell you more in his own words below!
Enjoy the chat!
Quint: I just paid a visit to some of my friends over at StarWars.com and heard you got to run off with a stack of comic books...
Diego Luna: Yeah! I did, I did, I did. The originals that came out in Spanish in '77.
Quint: Sounds like a good haul!
Diego Luna: Come on! That is quite a piece.
Quint: I haven't gotten to see the whole movie yet, but in the footage they did show us we got to see the introduction of your character. I love the edginess of your character. In his first scene he does something pretty ruthless even though it's for the greater good...
Diego Luna: Well, he has to do a lot of the dirty work that the Rebellion needs. I don't think it's debatable. It was for the right reasons. Also, he's the one in charge of this mission. The Rebellion puts him in charge of this mission because he's the kinda guy that can make those decisions in a second. Normally he would do the right thing. He has a lot of information, I mean this guy's an intelligence officer. He's very mysterious. He's a guy who has to keep so many secrets and that makes him full of contradictions. He can sometimes be quite an obscure character.
Quint: That must be awesome for you to play, then. He's so rich, so you're never in danger of him becoming a one-note character.
Diego Luna: No, no, no. And there's a chance for an arc there, so I'm very pleased.
Quint: There's nothing like Star Wars out there. It can bridge political differences, borders, language differences. It can have and impact and reach people in a way that very few franchises can and I think in large part it's because of character writing like that that keeps you on your toes.
Diego Luna: This film in particular, I think, takes a lot of risks. It's very bold and really goes for it. It's very modern, also. It's a great tool being able to start a film saying “In A Galaxy Far, Far Away.” Whenever it gets too personal we can tell you, “No, no. This is a galaxy far, far away. Don't take it personal, it's not about you! What do you mean?” It allows you to make so many comments.
If you see that first one, it's a reaction to what this country was going through in the '70s. Our film needs to leave a stamp of the world we live in. That's what we tried to do, at least.
Quint: I assume you succeeded. I'll know next week!
Diego Luna: You will know very, very soon. The only thing I can tell you, because I did see it two days ago, is that I am relieved. I realized I was carrying a weight on my shoulders for quite a long time and now I feel much more relaxed and happy and enjoying this journey and enjoying this great gift I have been given of being a part of something that matters to me and also the audience.
Quint: That's good to hear. Can we talk a little bit about the group dynamic, especially Cassian's relationship with K2?
Diego Luna: I think it already tells you a lot about Cassian if you see that his best friend is a droid that he happened to reprogram.
Quint: A murder droid at that!
Diego Luna: (laughs) And the best tool for a spy. He gets you all the way inside the enemy territory. He's great to get information. It's first a tool. Nothing is personal to (Cassian). He has almost blocked completely the possibility of emotional contact with others. It is by working alone with this droid that he starts to establish this connection. There's something beautiful about that.
K2 is this Imperial machine with all the danger that brings. That machine is prepared to kill, but if you reprogram it what you find in there is the most loveable character of the film. He's the sweetest character. There was an error in the reprogramming, so this character has just one issue: he says everything as it goes through his circuits.
Quint: He's got no filter.
Diego Luna: No filter, no filter, and the truth sometimes is not needed! It's a fun dynamic that one and I was very lucky to be able to do this with an actor like Alan because he was just so much fun. I also felt so protected because he's a very generous man.
Quint: Cool. Can't wait to see the whole thing and watch you guys work together. Thanks for your time, man.
Diego Luna: Thank you.
Many thanks to Mr. Luna for taking the time to talk with me and shed a little light on his morally muddled Rebellion hero.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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