00:00There was a time when the world was so young, there had not yet been a sunrise, but even
00:12then, there was light.
00:16Hi, Cynthia.
00:17Nice to meet you.
00:18Hi.
00:18Nice to meet you as well.
00:20Awesome.
00:20I'm Rivera from Essence.
00:22Just to kick things off, I wanted to ask you about this grand sweeping property that's
00:27been hugely popular for decades, even prior to the movies, which we're talking two decades
00:34ago now, and you're joining something that is just so beloved by fans, so obsessed over
00:39by fans.
00:40What is it feeling like to join something that is just on this scale?
00:46My overwhelming feeling is excitement.
00:49There are a lot of feelings, but excitement is certainly at the forefront.
00:55And for me, what I've been thinking about a lot recently, I have nieces and nephews who
01:02know that their auntie is working on something.
01:05They don't quite know what.
01:08And they're just at the age where they can sort of appreciate a story of this scope and
01:16with all of this world building and these amazing characters.
01:18And I'm just excited to see what they think, you know, that the people that I'm most excited
01:25to sort of hear their impressions are my family, my friends, because, you know, when I was
01:30working on this, they were very much at the forefront of my mind and just knowing that
01:34they would have that excitement and it would be a way to bring them into this world, a way
01:39for them to approach fantasy, you know, perhaps for some people for the first time.
01:44So it's exciting to get to be part of that.
01:47And, you know, I'm lucky to just sort of have this new family that, you know, I get to be
01:54a part of.
01:56Absolutely awesome.
01:57Now, being that this is a prequel, we're talking thousands of years prior to the Lord of the
02:03Rings that we know.
02:04Can you tell us about your character and who she is and what she's adding to Middle Earth
02:08in this new iteration or old iteration, however you want to look at it, of the Lord of the
02:13Rings story?
02:14The new old.
02:16Yes.
02:17So I play Queen Mediel.
02:19She is a queen regent, queen regent of Numenor.
02:24And essentially, as queen regent, she is not quite a queen just yet.
02:29So, you know, when we are introduced to Numenor and introduced to her, we'll have a better
02:33understanding of what that means.
02:36And with her, she is, you know, a thoughtful leader, somebody that has a strong moral compass,
02:42somebody that wants to maintain the peace and stability of Numenor, which when we are
02:48first, you know, seeing it, it is in a moment of relative peace and stability.
02:53But we also come to see that she is navigating her people between essentially two ideas.
03:01There's a faction of people that want to maintain a sense of tradition, traditional ways, and
03:08believe that that's how you, you know, you don't lose sight of where you come from.
03:13And there are people who want to move forward and progress and innovate, and they want to
03:18leave the old ways behind.
03:20And she is somebody that, you know, senses those rumblings and has sort of an ear to the
03:28street, as it were, and understands that there is, you know, there are the beginnings of,
03:33you know, those rumblings of discontent.
03:35So she's trying as much as she is able to maintain that peace politically.
03:40And, you know, it's not as simple as it seems.
03:45So, you know, we see how that plays out in season one.
03:48Now, how was it for you being that there's not technically really source material for this
03:54iteration of the story of what's going on in Middle Earth?
03:57How were you able to kind of craft this character in the universe that we know, but kind of building
04:03it from the ground up?
04:04So the source material for what essentially we are presenting as the Second Age is basically
04:12Tolkien's notes.
04:13So there are these appendices and, you know, him being a sort of man who took great care
04:20and put a lot of detail into some of these ideas and the building of worlds, we would
04:26always sort of use that as the source.
04:30But what's great about, you know, my character is, you know, she is a character that is sort
04:36of thinly sketched, and I get this amazing opportunity to sort of, you know, fill in the
04:42gaps and enhance what is there.
04:45So, you know, getting to play a female character in this world, in this context, that has agency,
04:52that gets to be fully realized, that has complexity and depth, you know, I would say my favorite
04:59thing about this adaptation in general are the female characters and how they are really,
05:05really sort of brought forward in a way that I think feels really fresh and new, at least
05:12compared to other sort of Tolkien retellings that we've seen.
05:17So I'm most excited for that.
05:19Now, when trailers first came out or, you know, just initial images, of course, this property
05:26has a lot of very excited fans, very obsessive fans, but this has been a very traditionally
05:31white property.
05:32So some people were taken aback to see characters of color in Middle Earth and taken aback in
05:36a negative way.
05:38And so not that you have to dignify any negative backlash with hearing those things and seeing
05:42those things that people were saying about, you know, tokenist casting or forced diversity,
05:47like what was your reaction and how do you deal with that?
05:50It's interesting, you know, everybody sort of has their own way of how they navigate those
05:55sort of online conversations.
05:59And I, of course, am not naive.
06:02I know that those conversations happen.
06:04But for my own sanity, there's that, you know, certain amount of protection that you need
06:10to have.
06:11Because for me, it's just not my view of things.
06:15You know, there are things that are said online about, you know, diversity within, you know,
06:21fantasy and Tolkien specifically, and I just flat out don't agree.
06:26So I wouldn't engage in a conversation that essentially is not a conversation.
06:31And for me personally, this is the only way forward.
06:35You know, in the fantasy genre in general, you want to see the world as you know it to
06:41be, even though it is fantasy.
06:42And you also want to see the world as you aspire to see it.
06:46So you're telling a fantasy story, even a classic story, but you're telling it in 2022.
06:53To me, this is the only way to do it.
06:56It would be jarring to see it any other way.
06:58And this is true of, I think, fantasy in general.
07:01And I know for a fact that audiences want to see this.
07:05So anything else is noise, frankly.
07:08And I just, I just literally don't pay attention to it.
07:12Well said.
07:12And with that said, I know that, you know, everything's very under wraps, very close
07:16to the tuck of what's coming up in season one.
07:18But what are you excited for fans to see from you in this?
07:22I am excited to show Numenor, first of all, because Numenor is something that has been
07:27described in Tolkien's writing, but it hasn't been depicted on the screen.
07:32So I think there are a lot of, you know, fans that are very well versed in Tolkien that
07:36know this, this legend, and they're getting to see this world for the first time.
07:41And then, you know, for my character specifically, I have an arc that is just the most incredible
07:49arc that I've ever gotten a chance to play.
07:51And this is just in season one.
07:53So it's, it's kind of funny to sort of know where it leads and not be able to tell a soul.
08:00There are very, very few people who know where my story goes by the end of season one.
08:06And so I just can't wait to, to finally share it, to be honest.
08:10It's like, I've been sitting on this for, for many, many months and I'm ready for the
08:14world to see it.
08:15And we're ready to see it as well.
08:16Thank you so much for taking the time for today.
08:19So nice to meet you.
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