Sudhir Srinivasan Interview with JD Payne, Markella Kavenagh, and Megan Richards |The Rings of Power

Wars come to the [Music] Earth this is the work of Seldon such a pleasure to meet the three of you my name is sudish shinas and I an Indian film critic we've got of course Mela who plays Brandy food we've got mean who plays poppy we've got JD pay of course Mela Megan you both play um half food characters and I've got to ask you just like every Frodo needs a s every um you don't know he needs a puppy um could you could you say something that you really admire about each other's characters maybe to let's start off with something bright I think something that I I love about Nori is just her gumption to go for it whatever it is and the Intrigue in that but also I think it's really interesting this season that both of them sort of have SE for individual growths and it's been really lovely to watch the growth of Nori's Arc that marel portrays um it's it's really quite amazing to watch you work thank you um with poppy I think her ability to trust I think she really you know Nori really tries to get her to to go through quite challenging things and makes some very brave choices and even though poppy really doesn't want to sometimes she just trusts that it might be the right thing to do so I really admire uh Poppy's just trust in the friendship and Trust in in yeah in nor Instinct one of my favorite things in the lot of the Rings about the Sam fro friendship for example is about how sometimes Sam seems more like a protagonist than fro from time to absolutely yes do you strive to invoke such comparison when you're dealing with a similar sort of friendship here or do you do you try very hard to stay very far away from it to create its own identity how do you do that I don't either or we neither are trying to purposely mimic and invoke it nor are we trying to do something completely different yeah I think you know uh because it's an obvious comparison that people are going to make sure yeah and I think token's characters are always in our minds as we're as we're creating and and so we're trying to make it feel familiar but also to have it be its own thing yeah yeah I mean in a series about a lot of Darkness the half food characters bring a lot of merth and light um to the whole series and yet you feel like they're constantly being underestimated everywhere um what's what's very what's something very special about these characters you think about these two in particular yeah about halfs in general mhm um well I think it's because people underestimate them sometimes they're able to surprise um the world and surprise the audience with what they're able to do um you know uh the The Stranger lands in their their backyard and other people may have turned their back on them but you know as you know they're just talking about like you know there's there's a sense of curiosity in gumption and also a sense of loyalty that these two characters sort of you know in totality feel towards the stranger and that will change the course of Middle Earth I have walked across mountains and deserts to help my friend find his Destiny one the fate of the world may depend on that's true yeah um I mean you you were saying such nice things about Nori um for me I absolutely love that um She's Got an uncurled adventur streak about her um refusal to be boxed into into anything you know and it it it feels like it stands for every person who who cannot you know there are always a type of person who just cannot be boxed no matter how much you try no matter how much you try with the love and force and Co you can try all of that yeah do you take after such a character um I think I definitely feel like I share a sense of adventure that noring has but I no I feel like she's her own she exists in her own space with how curious and adventurous she is and I really admire that about her but she does need to rain it in sometimes push a little far you know watching um your adventures with ISTA especially it feels like that could have its own episodes and I asked and I say this mainly because I love that for all his magic and strength and everything the both of you often end up saving him from time to time as well so so do you want to talk about the Dynamics that you share with Isa yeah I mean I Nori and the stranger have such a a strong bond and I feel like they really recognized within each other from the very start that they've either been misunderstood or they really need to find certain answers or explore the unknown and and they haven't been allowed or granted the time or space to and and so I really feel like with um it's it's a consistent theme throughout their friendship that they're really actively trying to show up for each other but also show up for what their purpose is and I don't want to speak for poppy but it definitely something that she want that Nori wants poppy to be a part of as well yeah and yeah what would you because you bring poppy into the picture sometimes these characters can be seen as an extension of the more fundamental personality which is Nori for example how do you strive to create a separate identity for for poppy um maybe from a writing standpoint from a performance standpoint uh would you want to talk about performance or uh yeah I I mean I think poppy is her own identity she's I mean she's her own character literally um and I think what you'll get to see this season especially is that she has her own growth um and she's doing it alongside Nori which is really lovely but she's definitely got her own path I think that um she's sort of heading in um that kind of Direction and yeah I think just her own characteristics also the way that she's written is just so herself and it kind of always has been it's always felt like um JD and Patrick have always really sort of known her um from the very beginning you know and the two of them sort of form a Unity if you could say like you know there's a line they have season one where they they're talking about it and they say there's head sense and hard sense head sense and heart sense you know so there's the idealist and there's the pragmatist you in some ways nor is very much the idealist papy's very much the pragmatist and you need both you know you need the idealist who who just says what if and you know consequences be damned let's you go let's go and try something and you also need the pragnant to say oh wait a minute now like let's make sure we can we yes your vision is is is correct but let's make sure we're doing it in talk about how how it can be accomplished as a a final question um there are so many wonderful places across the series right so many locations with their own characteristics um individually where would you like to be if you could one place one group of people uh anywhere in the middle of Earth I mean I would love to hang out with Tom Bombadil if I could like that would be an amazing like you know great dinner to have uh but also in general I probably with the elves I I enjoy the because of their mortality well because of their wisdom you know they've been around so long they've seen so much um I would just love to just sit there and pick their brains for hours and hours and hours loveely CU wow okay yeah I love the dwarves I've always love you don't mind in the darkness so much not so much no because there's so much heart in there and they really they put their Heart and souls into everything they do so I get claustrophobic though are the idea of like being underground I don't no I know but you know with the right personality but they're a good hang they're good yeah yeah um anywhere the ants are I love them I just I love nature personally um and yeah I just think that's so cool yeah yeah lovely um I'm pretty sure we could have a longer conversation especially about the dwarves and the sense of love that they sort of channel into the whole series time but it's been a pleasure chatting with all three of you thank you