Sara Zwangobani’s career has rocketed to new heights after starring as Marigold Brandyfoot in Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. However, she almost talked herself out of auditioning.
The Canberra-based actress is a self-professed fantasy nerd, having first read J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels when she was eight years old.
Yet when she went to record her initial self tape in early 2019, she asked herself: “Why am I being called in for this? It’s not going to have people of colour.”
Months later, she got called to self tape again, this time for another character. She was in Los Angeles at the time and happened to be incredibly busy on the day. She almost didn’t do it; she didn’t want to rush it and wasn’t sure the stress was worth it for a part she felt unlikely to get.
More months passed. Then she got a call from her agent advising her she needed to fly to New Zealand in three days time; she was going to Middle Earth, immediately.
“I was laughing quite hysterically because I just thought ‘This is so weird, what is happening right now?’ I went straight to my agent’s office, and all of us sat there quite stunned. It just came so quickly out of the blue,” she tells IF.
While on the publicity circuit, Zwangobani has told the story of her casting many times, often recalling how quickly it seemed to happen. However, with more reflection, she realises it has been “20 years in the making”.
Prior to starring in The Rings of Power, reportedly the most expensive series ever made, Zwangobani had regular gigs across stage and screen, with credits including Love My Way, Monarch Cove, Doctor Doctor, All Saints, Packed to the Rafters, Home and Away, and Sydney Theatre Company’s In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), A Streetcar Named Desire, The Crucible, Summer of the Aliens and Antony and Cleopatra. She also toured Australia playing Mark Antony in the Bell Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Julius Caesar.
“This has been a lifelong endeavour, to get to something of this calibre. Everything that I’d done in my career led to that moment. That’s why the feeling of getting cast in a show like this, for anyone, does feel so huge – especially if you’ve been in the industry for a while – because it’s actually the culmination of all your work thus far,” she says.
Arriving in Auckland, she got a crash course in all things Tolkien, much of which, given her love of fantasy, she laughs she had “significant self knowledge in”. Then she was on set almost straight away, shooting the first scene on the first day. Acting alongside was fellow Aussie Markella Kavenagh, who plays her daughter, Nori Brandyfoot.
“It was just so immersive. It was like a big cosplay. My inner child just kept popping out all the time. She was having an absolute ball,” she says.
As an actor, the level of detail in the production and costume design also helped significantly in creating character. For instance, if Marigold had to push a cart, it wouldn’t be full of empty prop pieces – it would be full of bed rolls, saucepans and things Harfoots might really use on migration.
“It felt like you could really delve into the details of what it was like to live in that world, because it was surrounding you constantly. By the end we really felt like little Harfoots traversing across the continent,” she says.
For Zwangobani it is “almost beyond words” to be a part of an overdue industry shift that has seen more and more actors of colour cast in fantasy and sci-fi.
“It is incredibly gratifying not to just see the change – which is much needed and fulfils a hole in my own soul – but amazing to be part of it. To be the first Black Harfoot amongst Lenny Henry and a couple of other people… to see Sophia Nomvete be the first Black dwarf, to see Ismael Cruz Cordova be the first Black elf,” she says.
However, the series did face a racist backlash for its diverse casting; something Zwangobani had expected. While she says she read and saw things that were “quite horrendous”, she was moved by the groundswell of online support and condemnation of what was happening.
Further, in the face of the racism, the full cast collectively issued a public statement that they drafted together. Stars of the Peter Jackson films, Elijah Woods, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, also lended their support in a photo wearing t-shirts that featured the ears of Middle Earth creatures in various skin tones.
“A lot of the non-people of colour, the white people were actually saying: ‘We are happy to take on this burden. If you all don’t want to speak about it anymore, we understand – it is a lot to carry and we want to take on the burden for you,'” Zwangobani says.
“There was a moment of being on that meeting and thinking ‘This is what the future holds, hopefully’. While there’s all that negativity out there, there’s also an incredible groundswell of positivity and people that actually want to make change. It’s not always about me talking about it or Sophia or Ismael, or people of colour being the ones to always talk about it and stand up for what’s right.
“That has been mind-blowing, and gives me hope for my little girl because there are there are definitely times where I have felt a sense of despair because I thought by now things would be quite different from when I was a kid. And sometimes it’s just not. However, that sense of hope does come back when I have these moments of real allyship from other people out in the world. That’s just incredible.”
While for some, to be a part of such beloved IP brings pressure, Zwangobani reflects: “The most pressure any actor feels is the pressure that they put on themselves at the end of the day.”
“I thought the outside pressure would be worse, but I didn’t find it difficult at all. In fact, I found again the love and outpouring from a huge amount of the fanbase was very nourishing, and particularly when you go on the publicity tour, or when you get to San Diego Comic-Con and there’s 6,500 people in a room.”
While working on Lord of the Rings has been a dream, Zwangobani reflects that all jobs, big and small, have pros and cons, and small jobs can be just as rewarding. The difference after being cast in a huge show, however, is that she has more choice over where her career can go.
“You start thinking about choices more. Whereas prior, all you’re doing is waiting for someone else to give you the opportunities.
“That’s not to say people are beating down my door yet, but definitely you start thinking about how you’re going to map your career.”
One of Zwangobani’s first gigs post the first season of The Rings of Power season 1 was an independent play, That Was Friday, staged by emerging company House of Sand in Canberra.
She realises some might be surprised by that choice, but she felt it stretched her as a performer; it was a contemporary work that saw her perform alongside artists, dancers and musicians.
“In an odd way for me at this stage – talk to me again in a few years, it might be different – because of the hugeness of Rings of Power, it was quite important for me to come back and do something grassroots, something in theatre, something that involves people that are passionate about the craft rather than all the bells and whistles.”
Looking ahead to season two, Zwangobani has also reflected for a long time on something that a fellow Rings of Power cast member said to her; that despite the experience, you’re still ‘you’ inside.
“That means all the amazing and incredible things about oneself, but also the flaws about oneself. When you get onto something like this, it’s not like you suddenly transform into this elegant swan. You still have to carry you around.
“That has been to me, a) really liberating. I don’t have to be anything other than myself. But b), really interesting, because I think if I was speaking to a younger actor or an actor who had not come to this point in their career yet, I would say ‘Just remember, at the end of the day, the work that you need to do the most is the work that you always do, which is on yourself’. That’s not going to change after you get a big show. It’s not going to change if you don’t get a big show. That’s the reality.”
Part of what keeps Zwangobani grounded is that in between acting, she also teaches high school; she gives similar advice to her own students. While she doesn’t necessarily advertise to them she is an actor, they do often find out.
“They get really excited about it for like a minute and then they’re like, ‘Anyway, back to me’, because they’re teenagers.
“And I can tell you that’s incredibly healthy. If you’re going to have any kind of an ego, go and teach high school, because it’ll get knocked out of you really fast.”