Stellan Skarsgård Explains the Intensity of Filming His Iconic Andor Speech

“Calm. Kindness, kinship. Love. I’ve given up all chance at inner peace, I’ve made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there’s only one conclusion: I’m damned for what I do.”

And so begins one of the most memorable scenes not just in Disney+’s Andor, but modern Star Wars in general. Actor Stellan Skarsgård’s incredible speech as Luthen Rael about the creation of the Rebellion is everything Star Wars is about, and in a new interview, the actor talked about the pressure and intensity behind filming it.

“It was very intense,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “Of course I knew I had a speech that was very well written, and it was probably one of the best scenes in the season. And I worked on it. When we shot it, somehow I was tense. I think I said, ‘Let’s go again, let’s go again.’ I think I did it 10 times in a row, very fast, right on top of each other. Ten times, like ‘Go, go, go.’ And then it was good. Then, I was satisfied, and the director was satisfied.”

Here it is so you can watch it again.

Luthen Rael will be back for season two of the show, which is aiming to be released in August of 2024, if all goes to plan. It’ll tell the rest of Cassian, Luthen, Mon, and everyone else’s story, right up until the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Yes, including the bond between Cassian and K-2SO.

Andor season one is currently streaming on Disney+.

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