Antonio Viña: Portraying Kassa, Young Cassian Andor
Antonio Viña reflected on his experience portraying Kassa, young Cassian Andor in the titular show, from learning the Kenari language and playing with B2EMO to stepping onto the set for the first time.
Since Rogue One was released in theaters back in 2016, Star Wars fans have fallen in love with the complex character of Cassian Andor, but it wasn’t until the release of the titular Disney+ series last year that the character was deeply explored—with Diego Luna reprising his iconic role. However, Luna was not the only one to take on the role of the soon-to-be Rebel in Andor. Showrunner Tony Gilroy shone the light into Andor’s past as a youngling on the planet Kenari in the first three episodes: His name was Kassa, portrayed by Antonio Viña. The young actor reflected on the casting process for Andor: “I remember that everything was a big secret. My family and I only knew that it was a Disney+ series, but we didn’t know it was Star Wars. When I found out that I was going to play Cassian Andor, I felt nervous but obviously excited because I was going to represent an important character in Star Wars.” Soon enough, Viña’s contribution to the galaxy far, far away became quite memorable.
The cinematography of Andor’s flashback scenes is pure beauty—from the costumes, the natural and practical sets, the camera work, and ultimately the sound score coming together in support of Antonio Viña’s performance. Given many scenes without language interaction, Viña gave us a masterful execution, using facial expressions and body language to emanate Kassa’s raw emotions, subtle but powerful. Accompanied by his physicality and presence on the crashed ship’s set, we get to see impactful acting. Viña revealed the directorial process with Tony Gilroy and Director Toby Haynes: “Tony took me into a war room that had concept art from the ceiling to the floor where he explained Cassian’s past to understand how I was going to play Kassa. Then Toby helped me polish the character.”
The young actor recalls putting on the iconic Kassa costume and walking onto the set of Andor like it was yesterday. “I remember filming in [Black Park in Buckinghamshire] under the rain and being very cold. Although the feeling of wearing the suit itself was a good one, what excited me the most was being on the spaceship set. When I first saw it, I begged Toby to explore the whole ship, and he told me, ‘Relax, I want this to be a surprise for you.’ When I entered the ship for the first time I felt like a child, literally,” Viña said.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Andor’s origin story is the introduction of a new language, Kenari, spoken by the natives—providing an additional level of mystery to the past events of Andor’s life. “Kenari is a mix of many languages [Portuguese, Spanish, and Hungarian]. It was difficult to learn but also exciting. I had a linguist teach me the accent, pronunciation, and all the Kenari things,” Viña explained. Language expansion and learning can be quite the challenge, although the Kenari language doesn’t exist in its entirety, learning phrases for filming can be difficult to say the least; Viña made this look easy, with such smooth and confident pronunciation.
Antonio Viña admitted that his favorite Star Wars characters are droids—C-3PO, R2-D2, and of course B2EMO. Although Kassa’s first encounter with the droid was a bit traumatic, meeting B2EMO while filming Andor was one of the actor’s best memories. He said, “During a break on set they let me play with B2EMO’s controls a bit … It was so much fun!” And as we all know, the two will eventually become best friends in the series.
The actor ended the interview sharing his experience touring around comic cons, meeting fans and Star Wars fellow actors. “I have met so many amazing people, Tait Fletcher, Dorian [Kingi], Emily [Swallow], and more. I’m thankful for all of them because they supported me and integrated me into the Star Wars family,” Viña said.
Antonio Viña’s portrayal of Kassa, young Cassian Andor was an unforgettable addition to Star Wars storytelling, so make sure you show your love and appreciation by watching and rewatching Andor and don’t forget to follow him on Instagram to stay up to date with his latest comic con appearances and future projects.
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