Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actress Ismael Cruz Córdova opened up regarding the racist backlash against the show’s inclusive casting.
Córdova, of Black and Latino descent, portrays Silvan Elf Arondir on the TV based on the novel by JRR Tolkien. After booking the role, the Puerto Rican actor needed to deal with “pure and vicious hate speech” at the typing hands of online trolls.
“I fought so hard for this role for this very reason,” Córdova told Esquire in an interaction.
“I felt that I could carry that torch. I made sure that my elf was the most Elven, the most incredible, because I knew this was coming.”
Rings of Power and its different cast of characters have been met with skepticism and hostility by some, with the show being the most recent victim of trolling on user review aggregator websites.
The series has low audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, in contrast with its high critic score. Accordingly, Amazon held reviews for 72 hours to weed out trolls (via The Hollywood Reporter).
“You can never use it as an excuse: ‘But elves don’t look like that,'” Córdova said.
“They didn’t, but now they do.”
Along with Córdova and Boniadi, the sizeable cast of the series likewise features Saint Maud‘s Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Arrow‘s Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Queen Regent of Númenor, Míriel, True History of the Kelly Gang‘s Markella Kavenagh as Nori Brandyfoot and Game of Thrones‘ Robert Aramayo as Elrond.