This interview contains mild spoilers for later entries The Wheel of Time book series.
The Wheel of Time season 3 is in its final stretch, and we've been loving it. The third season of Prime Video's fantasy series has hit its stride, adapting some of the most memorable moments from Robert Jordan's book The Shadow Rising and giving all our favorite heroes and villains time to settle into their roles. It also introduces a number of new characters who will have a large impact on the story going forward.
For instance, we met the family of Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney): Queen Morgase (Olivia Williams), Prince Galad Damodred (Callum Kerr), Prince Gawyn Trakand (Luke Fetherston), and Lord Gaebril (Nuno Lopes), Morgase's consort who harbors a dark secret. Introduced in Episode 302, the royal family of Andor arrived at the White Tower and caused a stir. It was entertaining to watch and rewarding for longtime fans of the book series, who have been waiting to see characters like Morgase, Galad, and Gawyn on screen for years.
Yesterday, we shared our interview with Callum Kerr (Galad), where we talked about his road to joining The Wheel of Time and his character's complicated family history. Today we're catching up with Luke Fetherston, who plays Gawyn.
Gawyn is an interesting character in the book series, who charms and frustrates fans in equal measure. How did Fetherston grapple with stepping into the shoes of a character who has inspired such a mixture of feelings among fans? How did he prep for his physically rigorous fight scenes? What are his hopes for the future, should The Wheel of Time show get to explore more of Gawyn's story?
Watch our interview below! Or read on for a transcription edited for clarity.
DANIEL ROMAN for Winter Is Coming: Gawyn is a character fans have been waiting to see for quite a while. Can you talk a little bit about how you ended up joining the show and what sort of preparation you had to do for the part?
LUKE FETHERSTON: I'm not sure that the fans have been waiting to see him, Daniel. [Laughs]
WiC: Oh, fair. Some fans, let's say that.
LF: Some fans, yeah. So, in answer to your question...I wasn't aware that I was auditioning for The Wheel of Time when I was auditioning. We had a suspicion that it was The Wheel of Time, so I'd managed to watch series one prior to doing my self-tape. And I certainly wasn't aware that I was auditioning for Gawyn. They had all code names and I couldn't find these names anywhere in the show. I think...I'm pretty sure my name was "Geron," so I was desperately hunting for this role to try and find out about him.
But yeah, when I got the role of Gawyn, I was kindly sent a kind of like one-page brief of his arc throughout the series. And then, you know a very quick three-second Google of his name led me to all these varying opinions, and I quickly panicked and then calmed myself down and stopped reading. But it was honestly really amazing to be gifted a role like this, because the fandom are, in whatever they may be, they are very passionate about the role. And I think that is a gift as an actor, to try and get under the skin of a character and understand his motivations and kind of bring them to life in the nuanced way that they deserve. So I think I very quickly had to stop reading people's preconceived ideas of him just so I didn't then have them myself.
I'm also kind of pleased that I hadn't read the books because otherwise I would have perhaps had a similar opinion...so I'm glad that I don't, because it's not my job as an actor to judge his decisions and motivations, but to kind of pursue them, as I say, with nuance. So yeah, hopefully I manage.
WiC: That makes total sense. I mean, Gawyn, he's not a Cersei Lannister [from Game of Thrones]. It's always interesting to hear people's opinions on him because he's not an evil character, he's complex.
LF: He's not evil, but he's not a perfect prince. Yeah, he's in some ways flawed, but that's so interesting. Imagine if he was perfect, that would be so much less fun for me.
WiC: You mentioned that you got a brief for Gawyn's overall arc for the series. If The Wheel of Time gets to return for a fourth season, what's one aspect of the character that you'd be excited to dig a little bit deeper into?
LF: Oh my goodness. Well, who knows what's gonna happen? I'm just grateful to be involved. But, you know, I guess it would be pretty cool to lead the final battle. There's multiple other things that I could say, but I don't know what's gonna happen. But I think that'd be pretty awesome. Obviously, perhaps doing scenes with Madeleine [Madden] as Egwene.
WiC: Have you and Madeleine Madden talked at all about the potential that you may end up doing scenes together?
LF: Spoiler, me and Madeleine have never actually met...we weren't filming at the same time. But I've heard nothing but wonderful things about her through Ceara — that's my sister [Elayne] — and I think Madeleine is an incredible actress. I think she's so fantastic. So it would be amazing.
WiC: In this season, you have some really interesting fight scenes. What was filming them like, both the "friendly fight" with Callum Kerr, but also the one you had with Dónal Finn [Mat] as well, which is a little more serious?
LF: Yeah, 100%. The friendly fight, it took a long time. And it was, as you can imagine...we spent like 10 weeks training for, an hour a day roughly. So it was about building up stamina because we knew that day was going to be really, really long. And it was because it wasn't just us that they had to get, there was a scene happening as well, so multiple different camera angles and we were in the background of many of the shots.
But you know, it was incredible to film that. We had an audience, you know, on top of the crew, which doubled the audience easily. I mean, slightly daunting. I think perhaps it sat in Callum's wheelhouse more comfortably than it did mine, this kind of peacocking around with our shirts off. I was like, 'Oh wow, this uh...this is different.' [Laughs]
But it was really, really enjoyable, we had a lot of fun. And then the payoff, having seen us kind of have that friendly fight to then get absolutely mullered by Dónal. I just think it lands so brilliantly, and I'm so pleased that it does. I'm super happy with it, and Dónal was incredible with that quarter staff. And again, just what a joy to film. I mean, even when someone's coming at you with a quarterstaff, and not holding back...those swords were smacking...you had to protect yourself, otherwise you'd get hit. And we wanted it to be that way. So it was great.
WiC: That's cool that he was such a good scene partner to do that with, because you never know with fight scenes how that will actually play out, how much people will hold back and things like that.
LF: Oh, there was no holding back and we were all game. Yeah, it was really important for us to make that what it was.
WiC: I think we have time for maybe one more brief question, so I'm gonna ask you one that I also asked Callum. We found out in the third episode of this season that Lord Gaebril is not who he says he is, we know at this point that he's one of the Forsaken. But Gawyn and the rest of the family think that he has been their dear stepfather, however you want to put it, for quite a while. What do you think is Gawyn's fondest fake memory with Lord Gaebril?
LF: [Laughs] That is hilarious. Oh gosh...I reckon probably Gawyn's probably used him as target practice. So maybe something along those lines. What did Callum say out of interest?
WiC: He said probably discussing tactics or something very dry like that, which sounds right.
LF: Yeah, I'm more mischievous than him, so that works.
A huge thank you to Luke Fetherston for taking the time to talk all things Gawyn Trakand with us!
Two more episodes of The Wheel of Time season 3 remain. They air Thursdays on Prime Video.
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