At San Diego Comic-Con 2022, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star Nazanin Boniadi got the chance to speak with Collider's own Perri Nemiroff to dive into both her character's backstory, and into her character Bronwyn's onscreen romance with Silvan Elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova).
A reoccurring theme with Bronwyn is that of being an outcast, both among larger society as a human from the Southlands, but also within her own community. She is a single mother — to son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) — in a forbidden romance with an Elf, and is also one of the more outspoken members of the community. But Boniadi doesn't see this aspect of Bronwyn as a negative, saying it's more indicative of her strength.
"She's a bit of an outcast, because she's so strong minded and strong willed and she's a single mother and she's in this forbidden romance with an elf and sort of frowned on by her community. So she's been forced to prove herself, and speak louder and more directly to her fellow people. And yeah, I think when you're sort of deemed as the outcast and a little bit crazy, then you you tend to become a little bit more forceful in the way you get your message across."
But who among us doesn't love a little forbidden romance? When asked what it was that drew Bronwyn and Arondir together, Boniadi says it's a combination of feeling like an outcast, but also shared interest underneath the surface.
"It's the forbidden aspect of an elf and a human are not supposed to be together. But on the other hand, they're both sort of outcasts. They they feel misplaced among their own beings, you know him as an Elf, he's not. He's a poor Elf's Elf. And I'm a poor man's human. If you compare like the southlanders to the Numenoreans, they're covered in dirt and they're rough and rugged. And he is also that in his own world, and so that outcast-ness is what draws us together. But also we have a lot of deep love and connection to nature. He is obviously an Elf, I am a herbalist or a healer, so I'm surrounded by herbs so that connects us. But then we're so different in the way we carry ourselves. He's so silent. He's sort of a stable and calm presence and I'm more like Ruby, played by Renee Zellweger in Cold Mountain, if you will."
As fantastical as playing a character in Tolkein's world must be, Boniadi mentioned that she sees a lot of herself in the strong-willed Bronwyn, and that the two actually have a great deal in common. She told Nemiroff:
"What really resonates with me with Bronwyn is I was pre-med. So I have a degree in biology, I was going to be a doctor, I only started acting in my mid 20s. And she's a healer. So we have that in common. And then also she is from the Southlands, and her ancestors chose bad, or evil, over good. And she and her people to try to redeem themselves and prove that they can be trusted. And there's sort of this inner activist in her, and I'm a human rights activist. So I always think of Bronwyn as sort of a fantastical version of myself."
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres September 2. Check out the full interview below: