How Cynthia Addai-Robinson came to rule ‘LOTR: The Rings of Power’

nypost.com:

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and Cynthia Addai-Robinson is still beaming, far away from the flashing lights and star wattage of the lavish bash held at Culver Studios.

She’s even gushing about the fact that she somehow managed to miss seeing one A-list attendee.“The day after, you see some of the photos from the carpet, and I was like, ‘How did I miss Michael B.

Jordan? Where was I?’” says the 37-year-old actress, who stars as Queen Regent Míriel in the much-anticipated series that just debuted on Amazon Prime (and which our critic called “a triumph”). “I must have had my head turned the other way.”But Addai-Robinson is also giddy with relief about not having to keep “The Rings of Power” details hush-hush from her family, friends and fans anymore. “We wrapped filming over a year ago, so we’ve had to hold onto this giant secret for longer than a year,” she says. “Now that it’s finally out in the world, and people are seeing it and reacting to it, it’s just a really nice culmination of a very long time of secret-keeping.”Really, though, all the high-security, high-stakes dealings behind the prequel series to the beloved “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy go much further back — to a pre-pandemic world that sometimes feels as distant as Middle-earth.

Addai-Robinson (who previously starred in the CW’s “Arrow,” USA Network’s “Shooter” and the Starz series “Spartacus”) first auditioned in June 2019 for a different role — one she prefers not to reveal. “I’ll keep it to myself,” she says, clearly having gotten the tight-lipped thing down.But inhabiting the fantasy land of elves, dwarves and hobbits didn’t seem to be her destiny.