TV: How did you get into character as Nori? Did you find it easy or difficult to become her as you worked on your process?
MK: We had so much support. The showrunners were so collaborative and open to have a meeting whenever to discuss scenes and backstory and relationships within the community. [We also had] dialect coaching, movement coaching, and we had the most incredible coaches, Leith and Lara, who really helped me find myself in the character, both physically and through the dialect. Then add on costume and make-up, and there were all these pieces that came together to bring her to life. I was just a vessel for it, so really grateful for everyone and how passionate they were about the Harfoots and about all the worlds.
TV: What is your favorite thing about Nori?
MK: I think my favorite thing about her is how resolute she is, and how much she cares for her loved ones, and how protective she is. It’s not out of just her being naive, but she would go to the ends of Middle Earth for her loved ones and her family and the community, so I kinda think that’s my favorite thing about her. But I find that she’s so frustrating. [Laughs] I would get a script and be like, “Why is she doing that? Come on.”
TV: Do you think you have a lot in common with Nori? What are your similarities?
MK: I relate to the protectiveness and care for loved ones. I also love stepping outside of my comfort zone and I think she does that quite a lot, but I hope that I don’t bring other people into that as well because she definitely does with Poppy. She’s braver than I possibly am, but she’s also much more comfortable standing up for others than she is for herself in a way, so that’s something also I connected to.
TV: From watching the first two episodes, I get the sense that Nori is initially very similar to the very famous hobbit Frodo and that she is adventurous and as you said, protective of her loved ones. How do you feel that she evolves across the series or the first season so that she’s her own character? Do you feel like she stands outside of Frodo’s legacy?
MK: I think that ultimately it’s just a completely different time, it’s thousands of years beforehand, so she is her own character anyway, and that that is why she’s such a troublemaker in the community because she just does what she wants to do. So to find that in her beliefs and values, she’s very much her own kind of being and it’s set in a completely different context.
Credit: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video