Legend of the Seeker adversaries face off for the first time
It’s the moment Legend of the Seeker fans have been waiting for: Richard Cypher (played by hunky Australian actor Craig Horner) will finally come face to face with that epitome of Seeker evil, Darken Rahl (Craig Parker) on this weekend’s episode, “Conversion,” Horner and executive producer Ken Biller told SCI FI Wire in an interview.
“I guess it’s that Luke Skywalker meets Darth Vader kind of thing,” Horner said. “It’s a big deal. It’s who he’s been chasing the whole time. He’s only heard stories about the tyranny of this person. When he sees him he just knows. It’s just cool.”
And along the way there’s chains and bondage.
“Conversion” is a turning point for the series, Biller said. “They discover the extreme lengths that Darken Rahl will go to in order to exert complete control over the people of the Midlands, including trying to get for himself a new and dangerous power.”
Richard will discover “that fulfilling the prophecy isn’t going to be as easy as defeating Darken Rahl in a sword fight,” Biller added. “It’s also an episode in which Kahlan [Bridget Regan] becomes aware for the first time of a new and dangerous aspect of her powers, which will continue to play out over the course of the series.”
The episode was important enough that the producers ended up re-shooting the big fight scene, Horner said. “Because when we did it, we’re like, ‘We can do better,” he said. “We can make that fight better. We can flesh it out.’ So we went back and did a whole half day, just getting that fight right.”
Legend of the Seeker is a syndicated fantasy series that explores the journey of Richard, the Seeker, and his companions Kahlan and Zedd (Bruce Spence), as they battle to protect the Midlands from the evil Rahl. The television series is based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth book series.
“Conversion” premieres in syndication this weekend on Saturday, March 14, or Sunday, March 15.
Here’s the promo for CONVERSION in case you missed it.
Craig has been out doing even more phone interviews – here are a couple of his recent ones:TheTorchOnline: I know you had a successful film and TV career in Australia before landing this role, but I’m wondering if you can’t relate to the character of Richard in that your life was much simpler a year ago, and then the producers of this show showed up and changed everything, just like with Richard.
Craig Horner: Oh, man, you hit the nail right on the head right there. It was just that big kind of leap into the next level of my career. I was forced to step up into the lead of a show with 22 episodes, move to another country, set myself up, and yeah, you couldn’t be more right. I’ve really grown up.
TTO: There are leads, and there are leads. You are in almost every scene, and it’s a very demanding role. How are you holding up?
CH: I’m holding up, man, I’m still going. I’ve got three weeks to go, and then I’ll probably collapse and vegetate and go into a coma. It’s been pretty full-on. It’s been long hours. There’s not a day when there’s not horse-riding and sliding and just running around. And every episode, almost every scene, it’s like the end of the world. And you can’t just walk through a scene where the whole world is at stake. You can’t just sit around and go, “What’d you have for breakfast?”
But it’s good. I love it.
Click HERE To read the rest at The Torch Online.
In terms of your casting on the show, Rob Tapert said “absolutely thought he was the guy, instantly.” Raimi thought that although you’re older than the character you play, you were “very believable” and that you’ve “got enough good qualities in [you], in real life, and [you] will probably make the audience believe that [you're] taking that ride towards making a responsible person and that growth of character that’s so important for me in the stories of Terry Goodkind.” That’s pretty high praise.
Wow, yeah, that’s really sweet. And I guess I’m at that age where I can take this character from boy to man. Which is what he needs to do, especially this first season. You know, for all he goes through, that’s how it’s written: he starts off with no idea of what magic is and the terrible war that’s raging on the other side of his world. He’s tossed upon it and he has to save it. I’ve got 22 episodes to take a boy and turn him into a man. It’s kind of exciting. You can’t really do that in a feature, you know what I mean? You’ve got 90 minutes and can do a true montage and all that stuff. But when you do actually have ten months of a shoot where you’re growing up as well, you can’t do it.
I read that in the casting of Bridget Regan as Kahlan, you guys did one “chemistry reading” and the producers knew immediately that they had found their stars, correct?
Wow. Wow, that’s cool. Yeah, I remember that room [laughs]. You know she was the only actress who physically grabbed me and threw me against the wall so, maybe that’s why she got the part.
Speaking of that, she gets to kick as much butt as you do.
Yeah, oh yeah, she can look out for herself, that’s for sure.
The bad thing (or maybe the good thing depending on how you look at it) is that Richard and Kahlan can’t have sex or they lose their magic.
Yeah, there’s a lot of mystery behind that and it’s very tough situation. It’s the whole Romeo and Juliet, you know? Montague and Capulet chemistry. Two lovers who cannot be. It makes for exciting drama, huh?
Interview with Legend of the Seeker star Craig Horner from Darren Albert on Vimeo
Finally Sci-Fi scoop has a long Audio interview with Craig posted. Here’s an excerpt:
There’s something like 25 million books in print with the Sword of Truth series, was it daunting to take a lead role in a series based on books that are so popular?
CH: No it wasn’t daunting, it was just, ah, electrifying, it was charging. It was like, in fact having that book I just went straight through it and I went ‘let’s check out thsi book’, even before I knew how popular it was, I went ‘let’s have a look at this book so I can nail this audition and get this role you know’, and I fell in love with the book and thought it was amazing. I thought this character is a great chracter and I really think I can do him. And when I got the part and when I knew that they were confident in me in playing this part and instantly knew I was right for the role then that instilled me with confidence enough to embark on the project. Then I just hoped to do the book justice and do Richard Cypher justice, and I’m still trying to do it and I hope its coming off.
