- Hey, I'm Markella Kavanagh, and I play Nori Brandyfoot.
- Hi, I'm Megan Richards, and I play Poppy Proudfellow.
(exciting music)
The Harfoots are a nomadic community.
They travel through the seasons,
through mainly the hills and the woods.
They have a community sense of hope
and belonging and trust and love and joy.
But with that comes the difficulties
within their circumstances,
which is all of the danger that comes with traveling
and being at the bottom of the food chain.
They constantly are sort of looking over their shoulder,
but they have each other,
and they have a strong sense of no Harfoot left behind.
- I guess you could see physical similarities
between the Harfoots and the Hobbits
in regards to feet and ears.
The difference lies in their circumstance.
So when we see the Hobbits and we meet the Hobbits,
they have the Shire, they have their home,
whereas the Harfoots are very much searching
and actively trying to find a sense of,
a solid sense of consistent sense of place.
And so it's very much a journey for them.
They carry their homes on their backs
and move within the seasons,
and vulnerable, but strong and resilient
and united and connected to each other.
(dramatic music)
We don't, we're not really, we don't have any magical,
we don't have like- - No.
- We have innate strength.
And resilience.
(Megan chuckles)
- Yeah
- We can throw stones
- We can throw stones.
We can build stuff, though, I suppose.
- Yeah, that's very valid.
- Yeah, they can build stuff.
- [Markella] They can, they can.
- Foraging.
- It's food.
(mystical music)
They do eat where you're from, don't they?
Of course they do, Nori, what a silly question.
(mystical music continues)
- Oh-yeh.
- Mm.
- Map reading, something that I'm terrible at.
- You're good at that.
- No, I'm not. I'm really not.
- Megan is incredible with directions.
(whimsical music)
- There are a couple of scenes where we,
we're like hiding or having like a whispered conversation.
And when Harfoots sort of crouch down,
they're in like what's classically called an Asian squat.
And if you haven't been in an Asian squat
for more than five minutes in your life,
then you begin to feel it.
(Markella and Megan chuckle)
So I think like the difficult positions, I suppose.
But I mean, you know- - The physicality.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- I think it's actually being consistent
with the movement as well. - Yeah.
- So like how walking compares to running.
Also remembering that we're playing
Harfoots of a certain age as well.
In our world they would be classified as teenagers.
So having that kind of, that movement too.
I think it is, I think it's the physicality.
- Yeah. - I would say.
(lively music)
We had a lot of help from,
(Megan laughs)
we had the most incredible movement coach, we had Lara.
We had the most incredible dialect coach, Leith.
We just had a team, really.
Costumes were just incredible.
The feet helped ground you as much
as you might be slipping in mud all the time.
You needed them, and they really helped us
kind of feel like we were in the world.
And so I think that it was just a combination
of all of these aspects and all of these departments.
I don't think that crew generally get enough credit
or as publicly recognized, and I really think it's important
to know just how much it is a testament to their work.
It was a team.
And so yeah, a couple of hours in makeup.
A bit of dialect coaching, a bit of movement coaching,
and a wonderful few directors and showrunners.
- There is an essence of Poppy in so many people.
- Yeah. - Everyone's so important.
Everyone is.
Like, we couldn't do it without you.
We literally couldn't. - Yeah.
- It's honestly incredible.
And just the minds of different people
collaborating together, like it was just, yeah,
it was just so gorgeous and...
Yeah, a lot of fun.
(dramatic music)
- I would say how hilarious they can be,
just after like real tragedy.
They can find any reason to make light
out of a really dire situation.
I think that's what I love about them.
And they're so often misunderstood or underestimated.
- The idea is to just push forward,
but also while making sure that everyone's safe
and everyone's together.
And yeah,
the pure joy I think is something that really resonates.
(dramatic music)