‘The Rings of Power’ Star Cynthia Addai-Robinson on Míriel’s Stunning Vision and How Frodo’s Fellowship Helped Her Love Middle-earth

variety.com:

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story includes plot points in Episode 4 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, as well as one major story development written by author J.R.R.

Tolkien in the appendices of “The Lord of the Rings.” Like so many of her castmates of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” Cynthia Addai-Robinson didn’t know exactly who she was playing until she arrived in New Zealand to shoot the Amazon Prime Video series.

Unlike several of her castmates, however, Addai-Robinson was not an obsessive fan of the expansive world of Middle-earth created by author J.R.R.

Tolkien. But once she was cast as Míriel, the Queen Regent of the resplendently prosperous island nation of Númenor, the veteran actor (“Power,” “Shooter,” “Arrow,” “Spartacus”) dove in head first into the rich history of Númenor and Middle-earth. “It’s interesting to be an adult, and now have a chance to be immersed in this material,” Addai-Robinson tells Variety. “There are so many people, amongst both my castmates and also just in my personal life — my husband, friends — who talk about how this is material that they were introduced to when they were younger, and the meaning it carried for them at that stage of their life.” Addai-Robinson discussed what about Tolkien’s world she was most drawn to, how she thought about the upsetting vision Míriel has at the start of Episode 4, and how she prepared for Númenor’s foray into battle in the second half of the first season. How did you first experience Tolkien’s Middle-earth? My introduction would have been the Peter Jackson films.