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.
