Sophia Nomvete took on two of the most important challenges of her life at the identical exact time when she signed on to star in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – adding an original character to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, and becoming a first-time mother.

“It’s a dream come true on a private level, and on a profession level,” Nomvete said of joining one of the crucial beloved fantasy lores in history. “I’m the primary female Black dwarf to have ever been seen cinematically or to the touch Tolkien’s work.”

“I’m a mother, and to give you the chance to host this character who’s a princess, a regal, formidable woman, it’s every part that I think the world and the franchise need and must be really really happy with, and I’m beyond excited to be a component of that.”

In Prime Video’s prequel spinoff of The Lord of the Rings, Nomvete portrays Princess Disa of Khazad-dûm. As wife of Prince Durin IV, she helps rule over the then-thriving and energetic kingdom, a much different society than the crumbling underground realm we see within the events of The Lord of the Rings that happen hundreds of years later.

As a frontrunner of her people and her family, she is one in every of “the cogs that keep Khazad-dûm moving,” as Nomvete describes her, and uses her talents, wits, and strengths to maintain her family members’ legacy upheld. The actress says she cannot wait for fans to see “the various layers of Princess Disa” over the course of season 1.

“She is warm, she is confident, she is unapologetic. She stands in her power, she is sexually charged, she is gorgeous and powerful,” she said.

Joining the solid of the most costly streaming production in history just because the world was tossed into unprecedented times, Nomvete had the fortune of relocating to the plush Recent Zealand countryside, where the brand new chapter within the classic tale was crafted.

“Recent Zealand is one of the crucial beautiful places in the whole world,” she said, noting that she was in a position to bring her family, including her then 8-week-old daughter together with her for filming. “During a time when the world was going through one in every of the most important challenges we’ve seen, the pandemic, it was truly a gift and a blessing to be positioned in just a little slice of heaven and to give you the chance to lift our family, and the family of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power in such a special place.”

Bringing her recent baby along together with her for the ride, Nomvete quickly discovered her power and drive while juggling motherhood and work in a novel, high-pressure circumstance.

“What it was was empowering,” Nomvete said of the experience of tending to motherly duties between filming the role of a lifetime. “It proved to me, and I hope to the remainder of the world, the limitless possibilities of a girl and a parent.”

“I used to be breastfeeding between takes. I used to be attempting to learn the way to be a mother along the journey of hitting my biggest profession moment thus far. And I’m still here. My daughter and my husband are thoroughly and hugely supportive, and we’re thriving.”

“It felt like a blessing since it pushed me to a [level] that I didn’t know I had, and now I get to remove a coat of any anxieties or query of self-worth and spread the word to all women that we’re, in truth, superheroes, if anyone ever questioned that.”

Despite tapping into her strength like never before to create a personality she’s happy with and excited for audiences to experience, Nomvete still had a nasty downside to acting in a fantasy series to face. Like many Black actors before her joining the solid of a property with intense fandom, she needed to tackle the daggers of racist trolls balking at the various solid of characters on this recent imagining of Middle Earth within the Second Age.

“I’m human, so I used to be not resistant to any of that,” Nomvete explained. “But I even have to have a look at the larger picture, and the larger picture is that I’m here. It’s our turn. It’s my turn. And Middle Earth is such an exquisite world as we see it today.”

“So, I deal with the hundreds of thousands of people who find themselves supporting and screaming from the rooftops with excitement to see themselves staring back at them; to see us heard and seen and valued as a member of the film industry in a project of this scale.”

“That’s the driving force. That’s the main target. And I urge anyone who questions that to return along for the ride since it is extraordinary and it’s so way more fun in a spot of inclusivity and reality of what the world looks like.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres September 2 on Prime Video.