From elaborate costumes and questionable horsemanship to the complicated ambitions of Kemen, New Zealand actor Leon Wadham offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the third season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Being compared to Joffrey from Game of Thrones might not be everyone’s idea of a compliment, but for New Zealand actor Leon Wadham, it’s all part of playing one of Middle-earth’s most frustrating characters.
As Kemen, the ambitious and increasingly troublesome son of Pharazôn in Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Wadham has managed to make himself remarkably unpopular with audiences. So unpopular, in fact, that fans have taken to approaching him with some rather unusual compliments.
“There were some fans in attendance [at the premiere], and now and then someone will stop and be like, ‘Hi, I just want to say I love you, and I can’t wait to see you die on the show,'” Wadham laughed. “Thanks, thank you, mission accomplished.”
Despite the attention, Wadham makes a conscious effort to avoid reading too much into the public’s reaction to his character.
“I feel like I actively avoid hearing anything good or bad,” he explained, preferring to hear only the things his friends pass along, particularly when they make him laugh.
For Wadham, however, Kemen is far more complicated than the villain audiences have come to despise.
“Weirdly, though, I think people find me more frustrating because he doesn’t need to be evil. He’s not like a malevolent entity. He isn’t that. Just a guy with a daddy complex.”
It’s this combination of insecurity, ambition and questionable decision-making that makes the character so interesting to play. While viewers might find themselves wishing for Kemen’s downfall, Wadham has developed a considerable amount of sympathy for him.
“I empathise with him so heavily. I always understand where he’s coming from,” he said.
“He postures so hard that he stops acting like a human being sometimes, and I feel for the guy. I want to be like, just take a breath. Count to 10.”
There are moments when Wadham believes Kemen’s instincts are right, but his insecurity inevitably gets in the way.
“There are times when I think he’s on the money, and there are other times when he acts impulsively because he is insecure, and I understand how he got there, and I hope he can stop getting there.”
With the series returning for its third season, Kemen’s relentless pursuit of recognition is far from over.
At the end of Season 2, the character was effectively exiled, tasked with overseeing the construction of an armada in the Southlands after disappointing those in power. Naturally, Kemen chose to interpret the assignment somewhat differently.
“He’s messed up and has been sent away to the Southlands to sort of manage the construction of this armada,” Wadham explained. “He’s played it off like a promotion. He’s turned up being like, ‘I’m in charge.'”
For Wadham, the humour of the situation was part of the appeal.
“That was a really fun scene to play because I knew I was there because I had done a bad job, but everybody else there was like, ‘Well, I guess this is our boss.'”
Season 3 picks up five years later, and Kemen believes he has finally earned the recognition he has spent so long chasing.
“Five years later, he has done everything he had been assigned to do. He’s returning in his mind, having proven that he is capable, that he can be trusted and that he is ready for more.”
Unfortunately, the path to power is rarely straightforward.
“Very quickly he’s given a new assignment, and the success or failure of that assignment will determine his fate.”
While the political ambitions of Middle-earth might be complicated, the realities of bringing the fantasy world to life can be considerably less glamorous.
Wadham spoke fondly of Kemen’s wardrobe, particularly the luxurious silks and relatively comfortable clothing he wore while other cast members endured heavy armour and elaborate costumes.
This season, it seems his luck may have run out.
“I still think I have a pretty good run of it. In the first episode, I am wearing a very heavy cloak,” he said.
“I believe that day I was wearing four layers of leather and wool, and we were shooting during a heatwave, and I had to come down a hill, mount a horse, and gallop away.”
The sequence proved particularly memorable, although perhaps not for the reasons he had hoped.
“They use the bit where I trot away because it’s funnier.”
The combination of heavy clothing, physical exertion and soaring temperatures was enough to make Wadham reconsider his earlier enthusiasm for the costume department.
“I sweat through every layer to the point where the leather changed colour,” he recalled. “That was the day when I thought, am I being punished for boasting about how my costumes were the most comfortable?”
Beyond their practicality, the costumes offer another window into Kemen’s personality, particularly his desire to emulate his father.
Wadham believes the character’s wardrobe has evolved to reflect his growing sense of self-importance, although the results are perhaps more revealing than Kemen realises.
“They’re so beautiful as always, but this time round, to my eye at least, it looks like he’s trying to take cues from his dad in a way that is both sweet and endearing, and tragic.”
The details, he explained, suggest a man desperate to display achievements he may not have entirely earned.
“It’s sort of inventing almost medals for himself that have no meaning. It’s going, what if I was in this regalia because I had succeeded at such a level that I had to acknowledge it in my outfit.”
It’s a subtle but telling extension of Kemen’s personality, with the costume department’s craftsmanship helping communicate the character’s ambitions without a word of dialogue.
“I’m in that outfit most of the season, and it takes a beating.”
Of course, the physical demands of Season 3 extended beyond uncomfortable clothing. Wadham also found himself confronting a rite of passage that many New Zealand actors might consider inevitable: learning to ride a horse.
“This year it was riding the horse,” he said. “I hadn’t done it before, and I knew that eventually this day would come.”
“As a New Zealand actor, you’re always expecting someone to ask you if you can, and somehow I ended up on the show without having to do it.”
Fortunately, the production provided plenty of opportunities to learn, with Wadham taking lessons at stables that have trained actors for major film productions.
“I had so many lessons. I would go out to the sort of famous stables that have been training people in horse riding for years.”
He recalled riding the same horse that Olivia Colman had trained on, and that Paul Mescal had worked with ahead of Gladiator II.
The lessons helped build his confidence, although the combination of a heatwave and several layers of costume made the eventual filming day more challenging than anticipated.
“Still on the day, because I was so hot, I was not quite as confident as I wished, but I managed to get that horse to canter twice, and I was really proud of myself.”
Away from the horses, elaborate costumes and political intrigue, one of Wadham’s favourite parts of the production remains the people involved.
With The Rings of Power spanning multiple locations and storylines, the cast members don’t necessarily spend much time together, even after several seasons working on the same show.
“God, I love the cast so much, and because we’re all so segmented into different worlds, moments like the premiere last night are such a treat because people I’ll never get to interact with, or at least haven’t so far, I get to catch up again.”
Among those he particularly enjoys seeing are Megan Richards, who plays Poppy Proudfellow, Ismael Cruz Córdova, who plays Arondir, and Robert Strange, who portrayed the Orc Glûg in Season 2.
For Wadham, these opportunities to reconnect are part of what makes the experience special, particularly when their characters’ journeys rarely overlap on screen.
As for what audiences can expect when Season 3 arrives, Wadham is understandably careful not to reveal too much. However, he believes even those who think they understand Kemen, and the wider world of Middle-earth, should prepare for a few surprises.
“Short answer: yes, but not just for Kemen. All over the map this season, people make choices and face consequences that I had not seen coming.”
And that is coming from someone who has spent years immersed in the story.
“I’ve been living with these stories and these characters for a couple of years. But even in the first two episodes, things transpired that I could not have predicted.”
“It’s a really exciting arc for everybody involved.”
For now, Wadham is enjoying returning to a character who continues to surprise him, even if audiences are considerably less enthusiastic about Kemen’s continued existence.
And if the increasingly elaborate costumes, questionable decisions and unexpected horse-riding adventures are anything to go by, Middle-earth’s most frustrating son is far from finished.
