How Rings Of Power's Cynthia Addai-Robinson Did Her Homework Bringing Míriel To Life - Exclusive

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is exploring the kingdom of Númenor for the first time on the silver screen. The venerable island nation is Tolkien's Atlantis and a critical part of his legendarium. Without Númenor, Aragorn wouldn't have a kingdom to claim — and without its royal family, he wouldn't even exist.

Of course, during "The Rings of Power" story, all of the regal drama in "The Lord of the Rings" is still thousands of years in the future. At this point in the Middle-earth timeline, we're still dealing with the original line of Númenórean kings (Aragorn's claim comes through an offshoot of the royal bloodline). When Season 1 starts, the "technical" king of the land is one Tar-Palantir, a far-sighted monarch whose Elf-loving ways have pushed him from power. In his place, his daughter, Míriel, has been chosen to lead as Queen Regent of the land.

Over the course of the first half of the season, we meet this strong female leader as she struggles to lead a divided and turbulent nation. It isn't an easy task, and it only gets harder when Galadriel shows up on her shores and convinces her to choose the side of "the Faithful" (that is, those who are friendly with the Elves) and sail off with an armada to deliver the Southlands of Middle-earth.

Míriel's story is complex and dripping with political intrigue. It's also one with very little source material to draw from. But that hasn't stopped actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson from doing what she can to mine the text for information to better inform her character.

In a recent interview with Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Looper asked her what it's been like coming up with details to fill in Míriel's paltry source material. "I definitely tried as much as possible to do my due diligence," she said, "and see what sort of details there were available in terms of the writing, not just specific to the character of Míriel but the larger world of Númenor, Pharazôn, and trying to take that information to then come up with an approach in terms of 'How do I portray this person?'" 

The actress also turned to Míriel's family tree for inspiration: "I thought a lot about her lineage. I've thought a lot about, 'What does it mean to be in a line and know from birth you're going to be raised to one day lead as queen; what might that upbringing be like?'"

Addai-Robinson pointed to the state of Míriel's mind and emotions, a sense of internal heaviness, and lessons she learned from her father's rule within the story's context as sources she used to flesh things out. "It was interesting because there's so much to mine," she said. "What's really exciting about Númenor is as the story continues, there's a lot of opportunity there for some interesting and complex storytelling within a society and what direction a society takes and what the implications are for the greater good."

While Míriel's appearance in Tolkien's writings is brief, her part in "The Rings of Power" looms large. It will be interesting to see how the character continues to develop over time as Addai-Robinson brings her to life.

New episodes of "The Rings of Power" drop Fridays at 12 a.m. ET on Prime Video.