The Wheel of Time is nearing the end of its third season, but we're still reeling from its penultimate episode. "Goldeneyes" was an important turning point for the series, as Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) led the people of the Two Rivers in a desperate defense against a horde of Trollocs who wanted to raze their idyllic little village to the ground. It's a thrilling part of Robert Jordan's novel The Shadow Rising, and it was an equally thrilling part of Prime Video's television series.
We've been picking through the rubble ever since, interviewing cast members and dissecting the episode's many twists and turns. Earlier this week we spoke to Taylor Napier, who plays the Warder Maksim. Today, we're catching up with Napier's onscreen partner, Priyanka Bose, who plays the Green Aes Sedai sorceress Alanna Mosvani. We spoke about the show's thoughtful depiction of polyamory, how Bose helped design the look of Alanna's channeling movements with her dance background, and more.
Watch the full interview below, or read on for a transcription edited for clarity:
Winter Is Coming: The Battle of the Two Rivers was a huge episode for the series. What was the most exciting part for you of filming that sequence?
PRIYANKA BOSE: I mean, first of all, the whole arrow sequence on the rock [in Episode 5], it was all too dramatic. It was so epic and it was so great, and I'm like, 'Wow, I was born to do this.' You know, you have these moments...everything's coming together, there's action, there's romance, there's cheekiness...it was everything. The locations were great, the lighting was perfect. It was really amazing.
WiC: You have some really cool channeling scenes this season too. During season 2, VFX Supervisor Andy Scrase told me about designing the physical movements for the channeling around each specific Aes Sedai, so I was wondering, did you have any input yourself into the kinds of movements Alanna does when she's channeling, and if so can you talk at all about how you developed that?
PB: So, I have had like a fair amount of dance recitals growing up and everything, so a lot of that was based on my work with the movement choreographer as well...it's all muscle memory, and I wanted to bring in an element of an organ-ism to her, you know? So, when they say, bring your animal, and I'm like okay...here's an opportunity where you're not a dancer, you're not a witch, you're not like doing magic potions or anything, but you have to bring in something that comes from within, that it's just so natural. So I wanted to bring an organ-ism to her movements. So that's what I was channeling.
WiC: I wanted to to ask you a little bit about the way the show is depicting polyamory as well with Alana, which I think it's doing a really wonderful job with. When you joined the series, what kind of conversations did you have around that? Did you know you were going to have this huge arc that would essentially turn Alanna and her Warders' relationships into arguably, I think, one of the most positive and thoughtful depictions of polyamory onscreen in recent years?
PB: Oh, thank God...because, you know, the worry is always right now to do it correctly. Back in the day when I was growing up, there was nothing correctly. It was all so under the pillow, under the thing, people were hanging out, making out...like, you know, we were part of, like, this commune where people were just dating each other irrespective of the conversations around it. Now there's so much conversation around it that I'm almost always worried that I'm going to say something very silly and ignorant, but I am here open to educate, being educated. And the fact that this show did not enforce me to, you know, nod with someone else's theory...they helped me actually bring what I used to be when I was 15 or in my 20s to actually have like a non-binary mindset, saying that we are who we are, and there doesn't have to be a conversation about it, you know?
And I know it's very sensitive time and it's a very wide range of things, and in no way am I going to say that I'm the spokesperson for any queer politics out there. I'm not. But can we engage in this, whatever this dynamic is, as complete human beings, that we are just people and we just happen to be in this little setup. Which I'm just like...it is for you to discuss polyamory, but we are not discussing polyamory. You know what I'm saying? We just blend.
A huge thank you to Priyanka Bose for taking time to talk all things Alanna with us!
Only one episode remains in The Wheel of Time's third season. It premieres this Thursday, April 17.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.