The Wheel of Time's Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney Dish on Playing 'the Strangers in Town'

Amazon Prime Video's new fantasy series The Wheel of Time is about to become the obsessive must-watch, not just for longtime devotees of author Robert Jordan's book series: viewers with a taste for epic sword-and-sorcery with a philosophical bent will likely be dissecting every nuance as each episode unfolds.  

And few characters come with more mystery and intrigue at the outset than Moraine Damodred, the legendary, powerful channeler of the Aes Sedai, a sisterhood of female mystics pledged to use their abilities to serve a greater purpose, and her Warder, Lan Mandragon, the skilled bodyguard, fierce protector, and devoted companion. 

As Moraine and Lan embark on an urgent quest with, naturally, the fate of literally everything in the balance, no less than the Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated actress Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) assumes Moraine's signature ring and shawl, while actor-model Daniel Henney (Criminal Minds) takes up Lan's swords. Both performers joined TV Guide to conjure up some details about diving into the sprawling world of The Wheel of Time, both on- and off-camera. 

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You had a couple of different rabbit holes you could have gone down in preparation for this. There's of course the characters and the magic and all the rules of The Wheel of Time world that apply, and then there's the franchise history, which is just as much of a deep dive. What did you need to know for a project that has this much scope and backstory? 
Daniel Henney: For me, it was more about the team that was going to be involved, and having Rafe Judkins at the helm, who was a Wheel of Time superfan, was definitely a big factor for me. And of course, the amazing woman sitting next to me, so to know that you're in good hands moving into a world like this is incredibly important. 

Rosamund Pike: Yeah, I second that. I had my first conversation with Rafe and he told me that he'd taken the writers room out on a writing retreat, I think, in Bali to say that they could really learn in a kind of deeper way about reincarnation and second lives and previous lives. And I thought "Okay, this is being approached with integrity and depth." This Eastern philosophy that obviously underpins a lot of Jordan's ideas were being injected in a very real way into the show, and I just thought it boded well. And I liked where he was coming from, and he seemed to like where I was coming from, and [it] turned out to be a good collaboration. 

Daniel Henney: I also liked the idea of Prague as well. I thought that that was a very interesting choice for a city to shoot in and be based in. It's absolutely stunning and beautiful, the city as well as the countryside, and I thought it lends itself well to the Wheel of Time. 

You get to serve as sort of the guides to the world, where the other characters in the lead ensemble are the eyes of the audience as they're discovering things that happen. What's fun about playing these mysterioso characters that get revealed as time goes on, rather than the fresh-eyed innocents walking into the situation? 
Pike: I think we're well past playing the fresh-eyed innocents, certainly — I mean, not that we wouldn't do it if we were asked. [laughs] I think the idea of being the strangers in town sort of suits us both, as characters and as people, I think we're both quite comfortable in the space of leaving people undecided and trusting that they'll find out our intentions later. 

Henney: Leaving people somewhat uncomfortable, being mysterious, is always fun to play. It's kind of tough to play the young, nice, "everything's fine" [roles]. It's nice to be the strangers in town. 

When you step into a project like this, it's almost like having to learn a second language, in terms of how this world operates, how the magic works. Tell me about wrapping your head around what you were going to be required to do to make these characters come to life, and to inhabit their abilities and their powers. 
Pike: Well, obviously there's a lot of lore and logic and rules to the world of The Wheel of Time, and there are amazing companion guides, which anyone who gets interested in the series, I think, will relish reading. There are a couple – there's an illustrated companions to The Wheel of Time, and also a non-illustrated one. They help you refer backwards and forwards and if you ever want to kind of deep dive into exactly what the brown ajah represents or exactly what an angry owl does, or any of these things that feature but not perhaps in your reading today, you can deep-dive in there.  

It's really important to know the history. It's important for us to know New Spring, which is actually the prequel book to The Eye of the World, which does the backstory of Moraine and Lan, which is both a graphic novel and full novel. So I think for us, almost, that was more important than the subsequent books to The Eye of the World. 

Henney: I just see us at sunset or holding up the companion, reading it like our Bible. 

Pike: Yes, and also we have book experts working on the show, but I just don't think you can be lazy with it with a project like this. You've just got to dive in and you've got to own it and you've got to understand it, and you've got to be able to explain it. 

Daniel Henney: Yeah, it's been surprising as well, because I think for Lan, to know what the demands are going to be — the physical demands of the character. I thought I went into it thinking "Okay, I've got this. I can handle this." And I was challenged very much throughout the course of the first probably three episodes. And I had moments where I thought "Maybe I can't do this." Which sounds kind of arrogant, but it was a first for me with action; I can handle myself. And it was very, very challenging, so it's been a real journey. 

The relationship between the two characters is so intriguing when we meet them because there's so much history there, but they keep a lot close to the vest. Tell me what was fun about finding that rapport between the two of you and developing how you interacted and defined their connection on screen. 
Pike: There's a later episode where another Aes Sedai and her Warder joke about how awful our dinners must be because we barely speak to one another. Which I find quite funny, because we have this communication that goes beyond words, it's a very sort of in-tune, very comfortable dynamic. 

Henney: I can only imagine us and the end of this long journey, having not spoken for hours and hours, and feeling completely fulfilled. Like we've communicated the whole time. I don't know: I think it was probably smart for the writers to put us naked in a bathtub for the first episode because it really broke the ice quickly. And after that, it felt like we had nothing left to hide. 

Pike: [Laughs] Indeed! There's more to that relationship that the audience, I think, are going to feel, and then obviously The Wheel of Time fans will understand that the new fans won't fully get the picture of what Aes Sedai and Warder means. And they might agree with Rand's analysis that the Warder is a lapdog with two legs, and think that there's some kind of sense of servitude going on, which there isn't. There is a sense of serving, but on a much sort of higher level than we're used to dealing with. 

Henney: We both want the same thing. 

Pike: Yes, we're both servants of all, or servants of the world, or servants of a cause. But the relationship between us is much more subtle, and obviously has this depth by which we can feel what one another feels. 

Henney: We're hoping with the first episode – with the winter night, the action sequence – that people will be able to see the connection between the two characters and the sort of dance that happens during that flight. And we worked very hard to make that feel connected and natural. 

Pike: And a sort of synchronicity that you could that we were aware of one another's body in space, very much so. It's like a sort of telepathic communications grown over time. So when doing battle we can give each other space to accomplish our goal to the best of our ability, and I think it really reads and we're very proud of that sequence. 

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Even with all of the established lore, what do you feel you got to bring to the table, as far as like a spark of inspiration in your with your character in your performance or an idea you shared on set with the team? Was there something that you felt was sort of like your original contribution to The Wheel of Time?
Henney: Oh, for me, with the costuming, it was very important to me for Lan to have in his costume a Korean influence. So I know that Isis [Mussenden], our costume designer, was playing around with the idea of making it quite Japanese in theme, and I understood that but it was very important to me that it looked more like a Korean hanbok. So a lot of the textures you'll see in the way kind of fits Lan is very Korean inspired, and it's a point of pride for me. 

Pike: That's lovely — I didn't know that! That's very nice to hear. I don't know — I mean, yes, in terms of interpretation, but I try and stay true to what I feel from the books. But I think these are books that mean different things to different people, so I suppose my interpretation of Moraine is what the character means to me. And I found I, think, with the channeling — that's probably my biggest contribution to the way that first episode looks, is in how the channeling looks. Both in terms of the sort of final development of how the weaves looked and the gestures.  

I mean, that was just what I felt had to come out of Robert Jordan's writing, because he writes so viscerally about the One Power and the way it enters the body, and the way when you're channeling you feel it in a vascular way in your veins, and it floods you and it almost overpowers you, and it's toxic as much as it's delicious. And I just thought he's so vivid in the writing of this that I need to embody this. I need to sort of see it enacted, I suppose. So, you know, might not be to everyone's taste, but I like it [Laughs].

The Wheel of Time Season 1 premieres Friday, Nov. 19 on Amazon Prime Video. 

Watch The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime Video Season 1 Premieres Nov. 19