‘It feels deeply human’: Andor’s Genevieve O’Reilly on turning a tiny Star Wars role into one of its biggest

In 2005, O’Reilly joined the Star Wars galaxy as the younger version of Rebel leader Mon Mothma. Now in Andor, the Irish-Australian actor gets her turn in the spotlight

“I swear I got the job because I was the palest person in Sydney,” Genevieve O’Reilly says of the fateful day, more than 20 years ago, when she took a meeting with a casting agent for Star Wars.

At the turn of the millennium, the newly opened Fox Studios was luring major productions to Australia; from Moulin Rouge to the Matrix trilogy, it wasn’t unusual to see a recent Nida graduate or sun-kissed soap star filling out a scene behind a Hollywood A-lister. O’Reilly, who was born in Dublin, but grew up in Adelaide then moved to Sydney to study acting, was one among many.