Hi, nice to meet you.
So, Rosamund Pike says that Rosamund Pike
character says that words are important, especially how we use them.
So I am asking you how important are words
and how should we use them?
Well, they're very important.
Words have meaning, and the way that you, you
actually use the words mean very many different things to different people.
So I agree.
Very important.
Yeah.
And the Aes Sedai the Aes Sedai have a way with words where
they never tell a lie, but they
they get around that by by, you know,
wordplay, so to speak.
Yeah.
The series based on a massive series of books.
How did you go about just adapting for the small screen?
Well, I think we can say that the safely say that
Rafe Judkins, a wonderful showrunner.
taking this massive, massive
adaptation
and and weaving his way through all the characters,
the story, the mythology and making it know wonderful for the fans
and also accessible for those people who haven't read the books before.
You know, it's his writing.
It's interesting how
there are powers in this world, but
the power of mind is really important.
So how did you work on both the psychological aspect
of your characters and then the action scenes?
I think that all the action is driven
by, you know, the character motivation
that comes from a place of from.
wanting to protect these, these young people that
don't necessarily understand what is happening to them and
they are sort of coming into their own,
you know, as as sort of young adults.
And she's there to guide them.
And so I think I think there's
a protective quality to her relationship with with the young cast.
And then there's also a desire on the part of the young cast to
discover the world.
And I think both those things motivate
the actually pretty well.
Clearly, you bring about an interesting point
that this is a really lovely blend of familiar faces and new faces.
How did the casting process work?
When we started a long time ago and obviously
we auditioned Rosamund [Pike] and obviously we were thrilled to get Rosamund.
I mean, she's just perfect in the role
and has been amazing and loves the book series.
The casting of the younger actors we went on for a long time
and ended up in the wonderful casting director called Kelly Valentine Hendry,
who went all over the world for the casting of Bess.
As everybody knows, Madeline's from Australia.
Zoe's New Zealand.
Josha ' s from Holland. Marcus is from the UK.
It's it's.
And then it was chemistry.
We got them all together in a room and got them all to read together
because they're going to be together for a long time on this journey.
There's an interesting point that he's
passing our knowledge to younger generations.
How did you work in that sense for this TV show?
Because we have many ages
and characters, but passing on knowledge is really important.
How did you work on that point?
Well, it's sort of inherent in the wheel of time
where the wheel turns into one edge passes into another.
And so I think you go back to that,
you know, all things are sort of cyclical
and a version of this has happened before version.
This will happen again.
And it's it's the choices the characters make,
you know, as influenced by the older generations that they made along the way
that determine, you know, the action that you see unfold.
And they believe in reincarnation, so there's there's there's a sense that,
you know, they've been here before, they've seen it before,
and we do play that.
It's interesting you mention that because the series itself
was supposedly based on Taoism and Buddhism.
How sensitive were you guys in adapting
this and making sure that
it's not definitive to those religions
that the series is based on?
I think I think they had
a real understanding and appreciation of that in the writers room.
It's really a question for Rafe and our writers
that were in the room talking about all these big themes
and also as it relates to the plot and the personal character development.
But I think those themes were in mind quite a bit.
Absolutely, they were.
one character says to Rosamund Pike,
you are a woman not used to hear the word No.
That character is in the book OK, but you
made it more like a contemporary woman.
How did you work on her?
I think the women in the books and the way that we portrayed them,
which is one thing I love,
is that they're all strong women with individual characters.
It's it's, you know, it's very much
all ages young to old
and they've all there's a character for everybody to identify with.
You're a woman.
There's a character in this, in the books that you identify with elements
in all of them.
Yeah,
you also find the gender politics about women versus men really interesting.
Was there anything that you drew on from our own history
to help inspire the show?
I think it was interesting to just see how
when one group has a power that other groups around world don't
sort of how that shapes civilizations as they evolved around the world,
whether it's gunpowder or, you know, steel or other things like that.
And so I think, you know, with that in mind, seeing what
this organization of women, the Aes Sedia being the sole, you know,
group to use this
magic and the power they wield,
I think it's it's has a lot of parallels to actual history as well.
I think [author Robert] Jordan was inspired by a lot of those parallels
and the theme of balance is there the whole time.
So, you know, we've always kept that in mind, the sense of balance
and keeping the balance and trying to maintain balance
between men and women.
Fantasy is a general
that for ages was a nerd thing, but in the last 20 years,
it's soap opera popular.
So are you glad first of all of that?
And do you believe that fantasy is the genre that today
can best portray our world,
our society.
I think so.
I think that fantasy, number one, allows you to escape
into the themes of these characters
much easier than something that takes place in our world,
especially our world with technology and cell phones and the internet.
There's so many things that are sort of barriers
to escape into a narrative in a fantasy world like this.
I think it's much easier to do that.
In. We spoke with a
lot about the heroes, but there are so many interesting villains.
Yeah.
which go from like the monstrous Trollocs to the,
you know, the power the oh can't remember the names.
The questioners just like it's like white coats and the Aes Sedia
They can do this as well.
How would you go about making just the whole like menagerie
of villains?
Well, it's again, it's sort of it's a balance thing.
It's it's it's a good and evil in everything and everyone and nobody
being, you know, exactly what they seem when you meet them
Trollocs excepted, probably.
But they're and the fades, obviously
again in Rafe's writing.
You know, we you know, I keep going back to that.
It's creating these characters who have.
A sense of good and evil.
And, you know, and everything and everyone that's on screen
from the white cloaks to the to the Trollocs.
Well,
speaking about villians,
it's interesting out in this story, each
character can be a hero or a villain in a certain way.
So in your opinion, what makes a villain,
I think a villain is this,
you know, we we allow the audience to kind of make that decision.
I think I think every character is portrayed very,
you know, even handed, whereas even the villains in this story,
I think, believe that they are doing the right thing.
They're not sitting there saying, OK, I'm doing something,
you know, specifically evil here.
They all think they're in service of what their definition of of good is.
To an extent, maybe not the fades, but I think that
that's that's sort of that's sort of how I think
the writing is approach the villains absolutely forsaken as well.
I mean, you know, they are, you know, they're they've got a mixture.
They believe that they're doing the right thing in their way,
even if we see them as villains.
They believe they're doing the right thing.
This show, even
skepticism, has some pretty impressive battle sequences
which blend the choreography of like sword fighting and fight magic.
What goes into
the production and the development, the choreography of these scenes?
Oh, a lot, a lot and a lot. Our cast....
Everybody arrives and is with our stunt team
and spends a long time training
learning to ride horses.
We had a movement coach help us with the
the channeling so that it looks organic rather than, you know,
necessarily like a Marvel characters shooting out from their hands.
So, yeah, a huge amount.
Huge amount of prep.
How important was the creature design,
and how did you work on it?
It was hugely important.
We were fortunate enough to have
Nick Dudman, who has worked on some incredible creature
films, not the least of which Harry Potter and his team was able to construct.
Beautiful,
realistic looking Trollocs and and other
other things that when the actors, I think it was very important to reef
when the actors were on set, they were interacting with something
that actually existed versus the technique that a lot of productions
use by just completely doing it CGI, where they would essentially be a tennis ball
or or somebody wrapped in a green going green series, very kind of green suit.
So it really felt real for everybody.
And I think I think that was that was a real, real benefit.
Yeah. And we enhanced them with visual effects as well.
So it was the combination of real stunt people in suits
with visual effects to give it the extra you believe they're there and they were.
So it's
a massive world, so many different factions, monsters, villains, heroes.
If you were part of Wheel of time, where would you see yourself?
Well, I love Nynaeve.
I'd be supportive.
I'd be one of the characters at the beginning, and I love her
sort of warmth and caring, but she's also she's kickass, you know?
So I'd be with her on her journey.
I'd be I'd be Leane swinging the sword.
That's so it sounds like fun.
Okay, thank you so much.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
We love to talk to you.
Good luck with the show.
I'm thrilled. Thank you.