Pendragon Tops The Charts On Amazon

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just playing pin dragon scene so you're all over the place yeah that's that's a little alarming for sure I was walking through the the cafeteria there I was like oh that's that's the bull sequence okay cool that's that's always a little unnerving yeah here I am injured badly again yeah again again yeah it's a little nicer though because I have a very different hair color so I feel like I'm flying in cognito with like slightly darker hair right now so that makes me that makes me feel like I'm one of the cool celebrities with the sunglasses yeah built-in protection yeah the you know look it's an epic series and I I'm curious I have a bunch of questions for you but I'm curious what it's like to step back and look at yourself in a series like this I mean this is big you've done a lot of projects but this one seems like in terms of scope maybe the biggest you've worked on right yeah definitely and what is that like for you what is it like seeing yourself on the screen in this form well it's very I feel like a alarming isn't really the right word to to use to say feel it you know seeing myself on screen in this form but it's definitely it's it's it's a very cool thing I'm a huge fantasy nerd and so you know especially as a writer I've always wanted to write fantasy so getting to getting to come on board and not only right but also act in a very high fantasy show has just been really incredible and very daunting and there were there were a lot of fears and challenges going into it but I'm very grateful that I got to be part of it but still it just woo it yeah there were some growing pains for sure on this one you said daunting and I it was I was you know when we first announced internally that we were taking on this project I personally was like what we're gonna pull off a high fantasy series when you have to compete with things like Game of Thrones were there fears for you that we're not gonna be able to actually do this I think I was a little delusional going into it I was a little you know we had Dallas on you who I was like wow man he's just he's such a pro he's worked with the best and really can create incredible things with very little funding and very little resources and he can just create a masterpiece so I had a little bit of delusion going into it's being like it's Dallas will go it'll but then I did get to see a little bit of how the sausage was made on and feel like oh okay this is it's there was there was a lot more work going into creating these masterpieces that were made without the amount of resources that Hollywood typically gets on the amount of funding that Hollywood typically gets so that that funding was replaced with manpower and creativity which ultimately was such an incredible experience and I got to wear more hats than I would have been able to wear otherwise so I'm very grateful for that but yes it going into it I was maybe a little bit more deluded than I am now well speaking of wearing many hats I don't know if a lot of viewers know just how many hats you wore so what were your roles aside from starring so I was also a writer on season one and a co-producer which basically just is a fancy term for meeting that because I wrote I got to have the I guess the title co-producer but also very grateful that Dallas and Jeremy gave me the opportunity to kind of be on the production team and get to learn a little bit about producing it is a part of the world that I want to step into at some point so I'm very grateful for that you know what nobody warns you about when you buy a house it's not the plan projects that get expensive it's the Tuesday afternoon when something suddenly stops working you're suddenly searching for a contractor hoping someone can come out quickly hoping that the repair bill isn't as bad as you imagine and that's why we here at the daily wire trust home serve home serve offers plan starting at just four ninety nine a month to help with many of those unexpected home system repairs that regular homeowners insurance often doesn't cover like plumbing failures and electrical issues you call home serves 24 seven hotline and they help start the repair process and the next time I need help with my home home service who I'll be calling your next costly home repair is already coming act now and get protected with a plan through home serve for fifty percent less your first year go to home serve dot com slash morning wire and find a plan that's right for you that's home serve dot com slash morning wire for fifty percent less savings compared to renewal price void in florida you have a writing background obviously you've written on some other projects what was it like the writers room I remember hearing about this getting constructed and then you guys would go back into the secret writers room and all that stuff what was that process like for you it was so cool because I was I was very young I still am young ish but it was I was very young going into the writer's room and I was very new to writing it only written a couple of screenplays before and only had a couple of them produced and so being a writer on it was another daunting part of of the process because I was writing with these incredible writers who had who had sold so many scripts and even you know one of my mentors in a way Ryan Whitaker who I worked with on a project and who wrote one of my favorite screenplays getting to work with him and kind of be a peer to him around a table was absolutely terrifying and it took me a while to actually speak up in the room and say wait hold on I have an idea for this and you know I was the only I was the only female writer as well so that was at first a little a little scary because I like I said it all all the other men in the room I was like you guys all have so many more credits than me but everyone was really welcoming and in a way that didn't feel like condescending or anything being very young I was expecting that to kind of be part of the process but no it it was just really I would go back and do it all over again it was very stressful because when you work on a project like this there are there's a lot of excellence that's demanded of the writers and of everyone on the team but it was absolutely worth it I feel like the pressure did really mold us and created us hopefully into diamonds we'll see what viewers think but yeah ultimately it was it was a great experience even if it was like very stressful at first it was a tight turnaround you guys get on the road quick what in terms of the auditioning process what came first in terms of the the writing versus which role particularly you played yeah that was a very long process actually because I was hired as a writer to you know just be a staff writer in the room and as we got further into it and the more I learned about the character carous the more I really fell in love with her and the more I started to realize that Dallas Sonia always has a plan and that he had originally said do you want to act in the show and I said no what I really like to is right and at that point when he first asked me I hadn't read the books I didn't I wasn't familiar with the character and by the time I did read about the character I ended up kind of falling in love with her and she's a very unique character so I really pursued that and there were there were discussions of maybe I would place someone else maybe it wouldn't be this character and ultimately we we kind of all landed on her and I I was the one who ended up being like okay yes I I really want to play this character I just she she was very special and I've never gotten to play a character like her before so but yes writing writing came first which was very odd ultimately because you write something being like that poor actress who's gonna have to go do that and then it's you you're the poor actors who has to go do that jump in lakes and jump over balls exactly speaking of the jumping over balls which we already mentioned. That's an epic scene. And I mean, I think what was going through my mind is like, how did you train physically to get in the shape to do that? How much of those, how much of the stance were you? And then, I mean, just in just to get the physique where it needed to be. I mean, what did you do to prepare? Yeah, it was a, it was a lot of, a lot of time that went into it. But I'm very grateful that Dallas and, and the production team and everybody gave me the time and opportunity to do that and gave me the resources I needed to, to train for that. I was not a track athlete going into this. So I had to learn how to, and the, the biggest thing Jeremy wanted to make sure. Happened was that I was able to do as many of the stunts as I could as we needed to, to make it look realistic on camera, which just meant a lot of running. And he was like, you've just got to be able like, watch Tom Cruise. That's how you run. Yes. True. And he actually brought that up a lot, which we did not know that, but other than that, it's fine. But we did, you know, he, he really was just like, we're gonna, you're gonna be running a lot on, on site. We're gonna be running a lot in this arena. And you've just got to be able to, you know, have the stamina to do it really. And so that was the main thing that we really focused on was having the, the cardio strength to be able to, to hang in there. And man, I could have run a marathon back then. And now I'm like wheezing after a mile. So we need to maybe get back into that routine a little bit. But yeah, that was a really, and you weren't an athlete going into this. No, really. No, I mean, I played volleyball, but that's about, and that's like generous to say that I played volleyball. What about the horseback riding? You, you come, you have a farm, right? Yes. I do have a farm. I do have a farm. And this is something I could talk about all day, because I love horses. I do have horses. I have four of my own. And, yeah, horses was that, that aspect of it I was very excited about. And getting to swing up on them, and, you know, ride bareback in a couple of scenes and stuff like that was, was so much fun. And just getting to goof around with our, with our horse wrangler, they were, we really had some of the best stunt team horse wranglers that we could have asked for. And that's something else that I really credit to, you know, yes, Dallas, but also just the production and it as a whole, because we, we brought the best of the best people from Androsha Nutella, who made the, the costumes in the wardrobe to the actors like Daniel Fathers. He was incredible. And the horse team, like everybody, truly, truly were the experts in their fields, which just made us all feel very safe even in situations when, you know, it's very dangerous stunts. How, how were the elements in terms of filming locations? You're on top of mountains half the time. How was that? Was it cold? Was it harsh? Yes, all of the above, but it was also very immersive. And I think that that was, that was just what we really had to lean into. You know, I've made this joke several times that, you know, and we, we shot for about six months. So we shot in summer, fall and winter pretty much, and are like, you know, bits and pieces of each. And we, when we were shooting in like the tail end of summer, I was running around in like my frilly dresses and I was like, this is so great. All the boys are in their first. And I'm in like my, I've got sleeveless shirts on and it's great. And then of course, December rolls around and you're still in your sleeveless and you're still in your frilly dresses. And the boys still have their first. The boys are way happier than I was. But it was very immersive. And you know, when you get in the lake and you're meant to be kind of cold and uncomfortable because this guy is kind of, you know, spying on you or whatever you think he's spying on you, you get to lean into that as a character. When you're, you know, dealing with a very emotional scene in the pouring rain in December, you get to lean into that discomfort and lean into that pain. And being on hand, being in the, in the mountains of Trentino and being in the wind and everything. And we were shooting in a cloud one day. It was really incredible. Getting to do that, it's so easy to let the cameras fall away and just step into the scene and be the character. So yes, it was not fun sometimes, but it was very good for the characters. When you do discuss this, maybe with friends, you know, what in terms of the story that what drew you to it the most? What is it? What do you think? What is the most powerful element of this series? I think that probably second chances, all of the characters or most of them experience some, some form of redemption and having to, you know, to use a phrase from the show, go back the way you came. And that's true of my character. It's true of, of James Arden's character Taliesin. It's true of Merlin. It's true of so many others in the show that they, they're given a second chance. And I think that that that's a really powerful message to me because I mean, I've made plenty of mistakes and I would love to go back and change them and have the opportunity to move forward without them weighing me down. And so I think that that's a beautiful message to be giving people is that you don't have to keep walking in the way that in the direction that you're going, you can make a change, you can have that second chance to to write that wrong and be a better person and, you know, all the things you ought to get out of. But that was the, that was the strongest message that I kind of got from the books is that you can, you can write the wrongs, you can, you know, have that redemption. So yeah, that really spoke to me in the, in the scripts as well. Okay, so aside from Pendragon, what are your favorites or what is your favorite? Oh my gosh. Okay, well, I, I've just recently gotten obsessed with red rising and I am loving these books right now. Harry Potter's also obviously a huge one. I, I only got interested in Harry Potter actually more recently. I wasn't a huge Harry Potter fan growing up, but growing up it was Star Wars. It was all of the whole Star Wars universe. I was a big Clone Wars girl and anything. And basically any kind of Star Wars spin off I was obsessed with. I just think it's so interesting. The other languages and coming up with rules and cultures and how does this and often they are, you know, unintentionally metaphors for our societies and stuff. So I just, I think it's so interesting. Also, Dune. I love Dune. Dune is incredible. Dune is incredible. Have you read the books? Yes. Yeah. Dune, the first Dune is the best sci-fi book of all time. It's whole good. How do you feel about the second movie? Which one's better? Dune one or Dune two? Dune one. The, the, the reason I think this is, no one's going to want to hear that. The problem with Dune is the, the, the world view that takes over that is built in from the beginning is very dark and very fatalistic. And so you, you realize it more and more as you watch that movie. So the second movie you realize and oh my gosh, where this is going is very dark. It's not what you think. From, it's not a, it's not a Judeo Christian exact perspective. It's not a good perspective on a messiah. So that, and that's true of the entire series. So I've read all of them and they get kind of darker and darker. So I love, I love that I can have some hope and optimism in the first one. Yeah, that's, that's so fair. I think, yeah, my hot take is that that's why I love Dune two is because I think I, I love, I love a good anti hero. I don't know. I'm going to really like out myself here, but I don't know if you guys have seen a tack on Titan, but it's a, it's an anime and it is. I have watched half of that. Yeah, it's, it's the same kind of thing where it's, it's like, it, it goes down a dark path, but I think it's, oh man, I think the dark ones are, are the most beautiful, though, because they, they, they touch a part of your soul that you didn't think anybody else saw. And there's something in that being seen. And I do think that that's part of like Merlin's story in the Pendragon cycle is that he goes to some dark places. And I think that there's something about showing those dark places that he goes to that really makes people feel seen. And so that's part of the reason I, I don't know, I like Dune two. Well, I'm glad you brought that up. I do think part of the reason the daily wire in Jeremy Boring is, is drawn to things that he feels and we feel are true to life, true to human psychology, resonate with people are not rose colored glasses are not, you know, putting a little beautiful shine on something that actually is dull and dark, you know. And I think this series does, does that. And do you, in terms of adding to the canon, so the follow up question to the sort of bigger picture you'll love, you'll love fantasy. Do you feel like this book series and this, now this TV series adds to the fantasy series, fantasy sort of canon in any significant way? I think so, because I think that, you know, you're, you're taking in a lot of ways it's historical fantasy, which I think that we don't see a ton of. So yes, I think that it's, I hope, you know, if I can, you know, be a little grandiose, I hope that it does contribute. I love the historical aspect of it that these ideas that, that these myths are true. I think that that's something that I really was drawn to about this. And I'm sure that this is something that some people will struggle with. But I loved that we portrayed some of the old gods of the, like, I thought that that was so cool to portray them. And the designs that our special effects artists did, just from a creative standpoint, they were incredible. Yeah, just really spectacular. So I think that just from a historical fantasy standpoint, I hope. So I think that if nothing else, I think that we created something that did feel very authentic and did feel very gritty, as you said, that doesn't, doesn't cast any rose-colored glasses on things. But I also think that we did it excellently. And yes, of course, there are things that I watch, especially in my performance or whatever. And I'm like, oh, man, I wish I would have, or I wish I wouldn't have written that line that way or whatever it was. There's plenty of things that that, you know, you always think you can do better. But as a whole, I'm so proud of this team and I'm so proud of the producers who pulled it off and the production quality and the performances that I, you know, fingers crossed, I hope it becomes somewhat canon. - We do too, and I think it will. It really is amazing. I'm excited for people to see it. Thank you so much for joining us. - Yeah, thank you both so much. That was Rose Reed, one of the stars and writers of the new Daily Wire Plus series, The Pendragon Cycle, Rise of the Merlin, available now on the Daily Wires website and app. And this has been a weekend edition of Morning Wire.