Andor season 1 is in its home stretch, with just a few more episodes remaining until the finale. A stunning espionage drama set within the bounds of the Star Wars universe, Andor has garnered rave reviews from critics and other audiences alike for its grittier, ground-level approach and nuanced exploration into the people on whom the Rebellion and Empire were built. In terms of layered storytelling and gray area, Andor in many ways surpasses even Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which first introduced the show’s titular character.
Although Cassian Andor’s story is captivating in its own right, the show’s supporting cast has proven to be just as fascinating. Andor delves deep into the experiences of characters from all walks of life, from senators like Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) essentially trapped in their posh-but-strained lifestyles, to everyday citizens like Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) doing their best to survive a galaxy under increasingly strict rule. One character whose journey has been particularly interesting is Syril Karn, a low-level security officer seemingly desperate to rise in the ranks of the Empire.
Kyle Soller, who plays Syril Karn, spoke with Screen Rant about his character’s thought process and story so far, as well as his relationships and special space diet.
Kyle Soller Talks Syril Karn’s Andor Journey
Screen Rant: Syril Karn eats cereal in the morning. He basically wears a necktie. He has a corporate job. In a lot of ways, he’s the most normal person we’ve ever seen in Star Wars. How has it been to play somebody who is so human?
Kyle Soller: I think one of the things that originally drew me to the project was that Tony had written this really complicated, normal-core, confused young man who is incredibly primed to be engulfed and eaten up by an organization like the Empire. He is kind of existing on the fringes of society, and doesn’t have many friends, has a very restricted upbringing. He’s probably not the most nutritionally-conscious person, considering his breakfast of choice. However, I always saw that Syril has a very clean way of living, and that includes what goes into his body.
And so, when he does go home to live with his mother after having his world completely turned over, he’s presented with his childhood cereal, which is just awful, but also a real indication that his mother doesn’t know who he is as an adult. And actually, that’s the way that he’s framed his world. That nobody really knows who he is. He presents himself as one thing, but feels intensely another. And that conflict which, I think resolves in a lot of people, is at the center of his story. And so, that normalcy that you’re pointing out, I found so refreshing. To kind of be in the Empire, but be in it in a much more recognizable landscape to the one that we currently live in.
Just based on your answer, it’s clear that there’s so much intention and thought behind all of your choices in the show. Is that something that you bring to everything you do, or is it easier because of how great the writing on Andor is?
Kyle Soller: Yeah, I tend to approach roles that way. And certainly what Tony had created just felt like a direct line into these people’s lives. That isn’t always the case. A lot of the time you’ve got to do a lot of heavy lifting as a creative to kind of fill in some gaps, but Tony’s writing and his plan for where these characters were going was so kind of complete.
Like, when we were originally talking about the character, he was like, “I don’t know where he ends up.” I was trying to figure out; is he good? Is he bad? And he was like, “I don’t know.” And I was like, “Okay, cool.” Not knowing is actually really great. It allows your creativity to kind of move into places that you might not normally let it if you were restricted to, “Oh, he’s good,” or “He’s bad.” Tony writes people who are just messy and conflicted.
By like episode three, he’s like, “And then you’re going to meet his mom. He has to go home and live with his mom.” I was like, “This is perfect. This like tells me everything I need to know about this guy.” What she was like. Once I read those scenes, that was just like going back to his childhood, so a lot of the normal work I would have done about trying to create a character’s history was just right there.
One of the questions I was going to ask you was how early in the process you knew about his relationship with his mom, because I feel like that would have informed a lot of early choices. Did you know all of that before episode one, or before you even signed on?
Kyle Soller: Yeah, Tony was amazing. He just was very inclusive. I think that allows your family of creatives to blossom with more creativity, and ideas. We were supposed to start filming in June, and he told me that in like March. Then, we didn’t start filming until November, so I had all of this mother/son stuff that was just deeply embedded by the time that I had started working.
It’s one of the cornerstones for me, for who Syril is. [He] is somebody who thinks he’s left the nest, but he properly hasn’t. The talons that his mother has, and that he’s allowed his mother to have within him are still very deep, and even though he wants to prove himself against his mother in a way. He wants to show her how much he doesn’t need her. And at the same time, he needs to show her how much he does need her approval and her acceptance, because he never got it growing up. That toxicity is where he forms all of his relationships.
Syril is kind of the opposite of Cassian Andor in a way, because they both lose something to the Empire. Rather than fight against it, Syril joins the ranks and chooses to go with the system. Do you ever think of your characters in the context of how they relate to others?
Kyle Soller: Yeah, a hundred percent. It’s always useful for me to make those webs. Not just antagonist and protagonist, but in terms of the values, systems, and desires of each character. Actually, in terms of Cassian and Syril, I found a lot of similarities in their journeys. Cassian’s being thrown into this mire of an unformed rebel world. People are kind of using him, he’s trying to find his own agency, and he’s trying to find his own safety in a lot of ways. And Syril is as well, in a very, very, different way.
His moral code, if you put it on paper and take it outside of the Empire system, is kind of admirable. He’s interested in truth and justice, and people doing a really good f*****g job at what they do. And looking great while doing it. But what he really does have this is striving to belong, and I think in a grand term, Cassian and Syril both have that hole that they’re trying to fill.
It’s been really interesting to see Syril’s interactions with Dedra Meero, the Imperial officer. What can you say about the mindset that’s leading him to break the rules just to get time to speak with her?
Kyle Soller: Dedra represents so many things to Cyril. She is kind of a fuller expression of everything that Syril desires. Power, order, tailoring. Complete status, to a certain extent, within the Empire, in that she’s a member of the ISB, which would be Syril’s dream job. I think he also feels and recognizes a twin flame in that Syril’s instincts are on point about Cassian. It’s not just that Cassian escaped and Syril had a massive failure. Syril has this twitch about Cassian, that he’s more than what he seems, and he’s finally met somebody else who feels that.
Kostek felt that as well, but he felt that on a more general level. It wasn’t necessarily just about Cassian. I think feeling seen, and heard, and acknowledged, even if Dedra is doing it in a kind of, like, “Stay the f**k away from me. Stop doing what you’re doing.” As we’ve seen, that’s never going to stop Syril. Never did before. But there’s also this meeting of two souls who are both after the same things. Who have the same agenda. Who have the same core value system. And that just kind of lights him up.
The show is getting such a good response, and it’s amazing. But it feels like on paper, it was really not a safe choice. We already know Cassian Andor is dead, there’s no Jedi, and there aren’t a ton of big cameos. Did it feel at all like a risk when you were signing onto the show? Or was there an atmosphere of pressure, like, “This is a big swing. We really have to land it?”
Kyle Soller: When the project first came around for me, what I read on paper was amazing. It was not at all what I was expecting. Before I had read the scripts, I was having misgivings about launching into another origin sort of story in Star Wars. It was like, “I don’t know. It’s a prequel of a prequel. What does that mean?” Then I read this the scripts. I was like, “Oh, wow!”
I say this in the best way, because it’s true, but it was so not what I was expecting. It was not what I had thought Star Wars was going to try to be doing at that time. The fact that they were branching out into a realm of a socio-political thriller that’s also a family drama, that’s also a space opera story, that’s also paying homage to the Star Wars universe, but making it very real and human and conflicted. Everybody is existing in this messy gray area where they’re like, “Are you good, or are you bad?” and making questionable decisions for the sake of the rebellion or for the Empire. It pulled back a lot of the fabric on what I grew up with thinking about the Empire, thinking about the Rebellion, and that was just so refreshing and unexpected that once I started reading the scripts, I was like, “Oh, well, this is a no-brainer.”
About Andor
Andor will explore a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It’s an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue where Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.
Check out our other interviews with Andor stars here:
New episodes of Andor drop on Wednesdays on Disney+.