Andor Battle of the Bails - Which Actor Do You Prefer?

I've long associated Jimmy Smits with L.A. Law so it's always felt a bit weird to me that that L.A. Law dude was Star Wars so the recasting didn't really bother me.

 

Yeah, I think of him as Miguel Prado from Dexter.

 

Bratt was great.

 

This was the one thing I did not care for. Not just the recast but I didn’t like how Bail was written at all. Especially the final episode.

 

Yes I agree. His doubt on the elephant in the room being spoken about just did not seem to fit his character.

 

I may have hummed the theme to L.A. Law silently the first time he appeared on screen in the PT.

 

He felt very cold too and that’s just not how I picture Bail at all. It was an odd choice. The last scene with him was good I admit and closer to the Bail that Smits portrayed.

 

Bratt was great and had the best writing for the character, I would have loved to see Jimmy Smits take a crack at it though!

 

He evolved on the subject, and I thought that made sense. And he was trying to bring the other senators along (Cassian having saved Mothma likely makes them think her support for him is too biased). Being initially questioning/ skeptical likely helped there. He also wasn’t unreasonable in his response. He doesn’t know what we know, and so he pushes to dig deeper. As for his coldness, he definitely has a less “kind father” edge than Smits, I’ll give you that. It works for the show, IMO, but the underlying tone of the character is a little less soft than the person we see in Rogue One.

 

I'm not sure how anything could or could not be out of character for the character of Bail in live action prior to Andor. He was basically nothing more than an extra with a few lines prior to this show.

I agree with the sentiment that Bratt was great... but to be fair, Smits didn't exactly have Andor level script/direction in ROTS and only had a couple of lines in RO. If you've seen Oreilly in Ahsoka you know what a massive difference the direction and script can make. I might think she's a mediocre at best actress if that was the only reference I had.

 

Smits got more to do in Obi-Wan Kenobi which is why I would have loved to see what he would have done here, the Alliance council scene with Bratt in his outfit seems a little weird

 

I apparently completely memory holed Kenobi; totally forgot he was even in it.

All I remember is that show was bad and I would rather forget about it... apparently being old helped me do that lol

Edit - Maybe Bail was fleshed out in it.... I sadly just can't remember at all. If he was then I stand corrected

 

But Smits was great in it.

 

I am going to have to say both are good in the role. I am more familiar with Bratt from his Law and Order days, and of course from Coco. I also liked seeing Smits in West Wing, they are both excellent actors. So, I am throwing my hat into the 'both are good' circle.

 

Jimmy Smits. I really wish he was in S2 of Andor. I just never liked Benjamin Bratt

 

I wished it was Smits in season 2 for continuity sake, but I was very impressed by Bratt.
he played the part well.

 

I prefer Jimmy. But this wasn't a story where we needed to see a lot of Bail. As such, I believe Bratt did a very solid job.