Puerto Rican-born actres Adria Arjona is currently best known for her roles in HBO Max’s Father of the Bride remake, Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff Morbius, and the acclaimed drama series True Detective. But next she’s taking a giant leap into A Galaxy Far, Far Away by playing the new character of Bix Caleen in the live-action Disney+ series Star Wars: Andor.
Recently Arjona participated in a virtual press conference to discuss her role in Andor and what it’s like becoming a part of the Star Wars galaxy.
First, Adria Arjona talked about what she saw in the character of Bix Caleen. “I liked a lot of things about Bix: I think she's fearless and she's bold, yet really deep inside she's incredibly loyal and compassionate and cares a little too much for the people around her. And I think that's sometimes at her own detriment. I think this boldness and powerful thing is sort of like a facade– she almost puts that on as a show. But deep down, she cares deeply about the people around her, and I think that's the part that I love the most about Bix.” Like her fellow cast members Kyle Soler and Denise Gough, Arjona also took some time to compliment Andor’s production design. “I feel like we're all gonna talk about the same set. [laughs] For some reason, I remember ten city blocks– that’s how big it felt for me. I think maybe it wasn’t [that big], but I just remember the first day walking around and getting lost in it and exploring. It was so cool. I also had made a silly rookie decision of really going into this show and saying like, ‘I'm not in Star Wars. I'm making a conscious decision that I'm not in Star Wars. I'm in this amazing show [created by] Tony Gilroy. We’re doing this.’
“And then everything was a constant reminder,– every prop that was given, every set that you would walk in, everything’s like ‘Oh man, I really am in Star Wars.’ Your inner child starts coming out and the butterflies are going. You're like, ‘What did I get myself into? I can't get out of it now.’ Yeah, that set was incredible. I remember there was one day where one of our directors told me to run and I was like, ‘Where do you want me to run?’ He's like, ‘Anywhere you want,’ because everything was filmable. If I would go left, we could've filmed there, if I would go right, we could've filmed there, and it was just me exiting [the shot]. He could basically point the camera either left or right, and that was kind of cool.”
Arjona also touched on the steadily improving trend toward an increase in diversity when it comes to the cast of Star Wars projects like this one. “I mean, it's pretty amazing. Diego [Luna] has been doing it for way longer than me, but it just gives me hope that now a little girl’s gonna watch it and be like, ‘Oh my god, that girl kind of looks like me and maybe I want to be like her [for] Halloween or whatever that may be. It's really exciting, and it comes to show how things are sort of shifting [in a positive direction]. I'm happy that Tony brought me along, but [my heritage] wasn’t part of the conversation, which was I think the most beautiful thing about it. It wasn’t like ‘Oh, you're Hispanic, so you need to be in this. Tony was like, ‘You're Bix,” and it's never justified. We never even had a conversation about my own ethnicity. I think it was really just about the work. And I truly hope for in the future, that that question isn't asked as much anymore– that it becomes this normality where seeing two actors like Diego and I in Star Wars is cool and it's the norm.”
Star Wars: Andor premieres with its first three episodes on Wednesday, September 21, exclusively on Disney+.