After a season about courage and selflessness, suffering and shame, Adria Arjona said a vulnerable goodbye to the character of Bix Caleen and Andor forever.
The following interview contains spoilers for Andor Season 2.
“When showrunner Tony Gilroy told me how I was going to part ways with this character, I did not take it lightly,” Arjona told IndieWire. “It really shook my heart, the fact that I was gonna send off on this journey one of my favorite characters and then have an impact in ‘A New Hope.’ I just couldn’t believe that I was going to form a part of that, that I was going to have such an impact in the rebellion.”
The sendoff in question is her character’s final speaking scene of the series, in Season 2, Episode 9. After lying low and staying together for years, Bix and Cassian (Luna) finally feel safe on the rebellion home base of Yavin 4 — so much so that he seems at risk of giving up the fight just to protect and stay with her. At one point, another character tells Bix, “Maybe you’re the place he needs to be.” With that realization, Cassian wakes up one day to find Bix gone and a video message she left for him — never saying goodbye, but pushing him to continue the fight so they can meet again.
“All Bix says is, ‘Cassian will be back, Cassian will be back, Cassian will find me’ — she has no doubt,” Arjona said. “In the back of her mind, she’s like, ‘Wherever he is, he’s OK, and he’ll be back.’ There’s a lot of hope in that, which is heartbreaking because you know the ending — but she doesn’t.”
The scene was a unique opportunity not only for Bix to say goodbye to Cassian, but for Arjona to do the same for the audience — directly into camera.
“The first three takes that I did were unusable. I could not stop crying,” she recalled. “You can understand conceptually what the arc is going to be like, but reading it and then having to perform was something else.”
“I get paid to deal with my emotions. I get paid to be able to control the way that I feel,” she added. “I got in the way of my own job for the first time at work, because I cared so much about Bix and because I care so much about the journey that Cassian has to go on. I wanted to do such a good job, and I wanted to nail it, not only for me, but also for the fans, because it really takes off onto something else.”
Read the interview in full here, and stream Andor on Disney+ now.
The post Adria Arjona Wept Saying Her Farewell to Andor appeared first on Jedi News.
