#interview: adetomiwa edun

[bbcmerlinvault]

[Article] “Merlin’s knights of the round table banter, tease, and discuss Tom Hopper’s arms – Interview”

by Julia Hass for cliqueclack.com, first published 17:12 EST January 26th 2012

[Original source]

The following is a copy/paste of the article followed by screenshots.

'Merlin's' knights of the round table open up on favorite scenes, fan interactions, Tom Hopper's arms, and what exactly Eoin Macken does to keep his hair looking so great.

“Let us not go to Camelot,” King Arthur famously said in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “’tis a silly place.” If this is just as true of the Camelot of Merlin, this is almost entirely due to the resident knights of the round table — Adetomiwa Edun (Elyan), Tom Hopper (Percival), Eoin Macken (Gwaine), and Rupert Young (Leon). The four of them were kind enough to host a “round table” (hyuck, hyuck, hyuck) phone interview and answer a few questions.

What do you most enjoy about your roles? TH: I get to do quite a lot of physical stuff, which is a lot of fun … I get to do a lot of fighting and look cool with a sword, which is always a lot of fun. AE: I’m right behind Tom when he says it’s a lot of fun getting stuff in with the action. You’ve got a couple of good ones in this season. EM: This is Eoin speaking, and I concur. RY: This is Rupert speaking. What does “concur” mean?

Is there anything in the upcoming episodes that the fans should be looking for that you would like them to see? TH: You should probably look to see how many hair flicks Eoin Macken does in an episode. EM: I think you should try to spot the episode where Tom wears anything on his arms. That would be epic.

You mean besides young children. EM: Wow, you said that, not me!

Did any of you actually watch Merlin before you got cast in Merlin? EM: I did, because Merlin is a wonderful show and I’d heard about it so often. AE: I actually did watch Merlin before … sorry, I’ve got Eoin Macken here making some extraordinary faces, it’s quite distracting. EM: I just want to know what episodes you watched before you were cast. AE: I watched the whole of the first two seasons. EM: What happened? AE: You wanna bet? EM: Do you wanna bet? TH: Okay, episode one … [all laugh] RY: When you audition for the show, you normally… I had a couple of days, so I tried to watch as many as I could. So I also watched — I’ve been seeing it even more … TH: [imitating Rupert]“Because I’m in it.” RY: Because my mum makes me. TH: We all now watch the show, because we’re all narcissistic.

Speaking of auditions, I was wondering if you could each tell us about your initial audition for Merlin and getting started in your respective roles. TH: Basically, I just did, when I had a go for Percival, I just sort of did a lot of research into the character, which actually came to not a lot of avail to what they actually decided to do with the character in the show, it’s slightly different what slant they took on it. But yeah, basically the audition consists of — and I imagine this is the same for the other boys as well — is that you get your script for it and you read it through with the director, and if you’re right for the part, then they’ll give you the offer. RY: When I first auditioned, I was up for two parts. One was the role of Sir Leon, which I play, and the other was another part, who actually dies, another knight. Luckily, they cast me as Sir Leon, otherwise I wouldn’t be employed anymore. AE: Well, then you’d be dead. RY: And I was only meant to be in a couple of episodes, and then they kept writing me back. So I kind of developed the character with the writers, so that’s been quite exciting. EM: I just sent a video of being topless in a bed, alone, and that was my audition. It’s true! AE: I went in and met with the director of the block I was cast in, and yeah, I kicked down a door in the offices of Shine, who make the drama. It seemed to have the desired effect. EM: I did consider a form letter, asking to be in the show, because I thought it was so good.

Can you tell me a little bit about some of the acting challenges you’ve found working on the show, and then maybe how have you seen your characters grow and develop as you’ve been playing them this season? RY: I think as to the second part of your question is what’s been lovely, or nice, has been the group of us working together is the writers have managed to get the kind of relationship we have off-screen into the characters. It’s quite nice to get that group dynamic that the writers found and that we found off-screen, so that’s really quite fun. EM: I think the characters have regressed since the year began. I think they were really written very well and then we came in and ruined it. So they might save it with some really, really solid editing. AE: [Laughing] Speaking for Tom and myself when I say that I think we can agree we beg to differ. I think one character has gone down the wrong path, and it’s plain to see. But personally, one of the challenges I’ve found is shooting in Wales. I — EM: Are afraid of Welsh people? AE: — I love all that stuff out in the forest, but it can be quite cold. And I’m definitely, you know, solar powered. EM: Yeah, sometimes it gets as low as about ten degrees Celsius, down there, so it’s really difficult.

Was it tough with special effects, I know there was a lot, especially with the Doracha? RY: I think what’s quite interesting is when you’re filming them, you don’t actually know what you’re trying to attack. Like, someone tells you, “Attack from all sides, right, look here, in this general direction, and hold the flame.” And so you do it to nothing, so it’s not until you actually watch the episode that you go, “Oh wow, that is actually quite scary.” EM: What I found about working with the Doracha is — when you’re acting, acting is like reacting. You need to react off someone doing something to you, so it’s hard to act off. RY: It’s like working with Eoin. [Laughter]

For each of you, what was your favorite scene to do? EM: My favorite scene personally was myself and Rupert have a really great scene coming up in I think episode … eight? Seven? Where it’s just a really interesting, it’s an episode that basically mainly focuses on the knights. So I’m sure the fans will look out for that, because we’re pretty brilliant in it. And the scene — it’s quite interesting because there’s a lot more conflict between the knights in terms of creating a different dynamic to our relationship. So I enjoyed the scene with Rupert which we had in the forest, which it got quite heated. It was quite fun. AE: Tom and I did a little bit at the opening of the series, which was quite fun. Rescuing the children from the Doracha, that was good. And then following on again from what Eoin said, I think that, um, if I may call it “the Knight’s episode” has some really nice stuff, some interplay between the four of us, which was a lot of fun to do. TH: Certainly my favorite has to be saving the kids with Adetomiwa in episode one, that was a lot of fun. And same again, really, I think the knight’s episode, which I believe is episode eight in this series. So I think for all four of us that was a really fun episode because we got to get a piece, a hint of something that was, you know, really on the storyline of the episode. So that was a lot of fun. RY: Same. That episode is the first time we all go out as a group without Arthur. It was just nice because I  think the characters developed a little bit, as Eoin said, conflict. So that was fun to shoot.

I was wondering what kind of feedback you get from fans about your characters? TH: I think it varies, really. I mean, three of us are on twitter and you get kind of mixed feedback. I mean obviously there’s some girls or guys that, I guess, have an attraction towards some of us, and there’s some that just want to know every single fact about the show, and to be honest, I think they know more about the show than we do. But generally, yeah, the feedback is good, you know? It seems like we have some very nice, loyal fans. AE: Yeah, it’s really nice. It seems like the show has a really supportive family, which is awesome. I think a lot of girls are very jealous of Eoin Macken’s hair. I get a lot of questions about what products he uses. Um, Pantene Pro-V, I believe. EM: Head and Shoulders. AE: Head and Shoulders, sorry. RY: He has dandruff. EM: Yeah, pretty much. AE: And I get asked as well how I feel standing next to Tom’s arms. And as I always tell people, if they let me get my arms out, you know? EM: What Adetomiwa is talking about is not euphemistic, he’s actually been taken on literal.  Myself, Rupert and Tom are all on twitter, so we have a really good interaction with the fans. Adetomiwa doesn’t ever use twitter, he’s not very tech-savvy, but we’re trying to teach him. And it’s, I think the fans have actually been great. That’s my feeling, when they come to France to have a chat. And being on twitter and so forth has allowed me to engage with some of them. I’ve actually learned a lot more about the show from them, as Tom said, they do know everything about it. And when we don’t know what’s going on, they remind us. RY: I think that’s the amazing thing about the fans of the show, is it’s all ages. You do see, there are a lot of children, but the age goes up to eighty. So it’s a family show, and there are loads of different people. So what’s interesting is seeing that dynamic, and seeing people all around the world who love the show and know the show. And it’s, it’s just exciting to be a part of. EM: It’s genuinely fascinating, because Merlin has such a wide-reaching fanbase, it goes through all demographics, that we do get people all over the world. Which is … yeah. It is great, because you get to see how everyone’s got a different subjective take on it, from all the different countries in the world, and because we all seem to be connecting with it. Yeah. It’s great. Sorry, Rupert Young is trying to distract me.

Can you talk about working with Bradley James and Colin Morgan? TH: Who do they play? EM: Are they in this show? [Laughter] TH: Yeah, you know, they’re great. I mean, obviously as you can tell, there’s a lot of banter between the boys here, and it’s all a lot of fun. So having us all together, working with those two, and they’ve sort of just, you know, they’ve really started off what we’ve joined. And it’s been great working with those guys, on their journey of making the show. They’re good people, you know, and very good actors. EM: Colin and Bradley — that’s actually genuinely great about working on Merlin is that the actors are all of  really high caliber. I mean bring on some great guest stars and so forth, like Nathaniel Parker. But the actors on the show who are the main focus, which would be Colin and Bradley and Katie [McGrath], they are fantastic actors. And Colin and Bradley in particular are both brilliant, and it is always great working for them. And as people, Colin’s Irish, and Irish people are generally great, and Bradley’s British, and that’s cool too. So it’s great working with them. RY: When you turn up on the show, you can see — I mean, Colin Morgan, and Bradley, both of them, they’re the hardest-working people I’ve met. I know it sounds like we’re sucking up to them, but they genuinely are brilliant, and the show wouldn’t be a success without them. I haven’t met or worked with people who work that hard, and they’re working flat-out for eight months, and so they make us raise our game. So they’re two great people to work with. AE: I guess our interaction with them, as a group, it’s slightly different. Bradley is, if I may say, he’s one of the lads, and we have a lot of good banter with him. And Colin is, like, one of the warmest, nicest, most generous people you’ll ever meet.

Since you guys are such a diverse group, if you had to assign superlatives to each other, what would they be? EM: I would call Adetomiwa enigmatic … and superlative. I would call Rupert beard-y. AE: Tom “Big Guns” Hopper, I think … what would I say? Sound as a pound, you know. Good man to have in your corner. RY: I’d call Eoin confusing.

Do you guys ever think you’ll get a love interest, or do you think Arthur’s going to continue to get a monopoly on the only girl in Camelot? EM: I was going to say that, because wondered where all the women were! I think Gwen just kind of got rid of them, personally. AE: Look, I’m sure you know that the show is influenced by fan feedback. so I mean, if the fans are interested in some sort of love interest, we’ll get them. EM: There should definitely be more sex scenes. AE: That was Eoin Macken. EM: No, that was Rupert Young. He does a great Irish accent, apparently.

[elyan-fest]

Elyan Appreciation Fest 2021 Masterpost

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to participate in the first ever Elyan Appreciation Fest! Seeing all of your creations has brought me so much joy. Additional thanks to all of the rebloggers and supporters even if you didn’t create something. Your contributions and appreciation of the hard work of this fandom is really what keeps it going.

I appreciate Elyan all year long, so you are welcome to continue submitting Elyan-centered works to both the Collection and using our tag, #elyan appreciation fest

The masterpost is under the cut so that you will always look at whatever version is current in case I update it later.

Please enjoy all of these amazing works and don’t forget to leave appreciative comments if you’re able!

Gifs:

Character Alignment, @the-mother-of-lions Runaway, @the-mother-of-lions if other universes exist, @the-mother-of-lions He’s just one of those people, @thebookluvrr1816 Elyan + Round Table Carving, @camelotsheart We fight in your name, sire, @the-mother-of-lions Elyan + Low-Cut Shirts, @the-mother-of-lions Tenderly, @the-mother-of-lions Elyan + The Knight’s Code of Chilvalry, @thebookluvrr1816 he is half my soul, @the-mother-of-lions Elyan/Percival & Elyan/Gwaine, @thebookluvrr1816 for i can’t help falling in love with you, @camelotsheart OT3 x Bi Flag, @the-mother-of-lions he will tear your city down, @the-mother-of-lions Elyan + Hoodie, @thebookluvrr1816 Adetomiwa Edun and Angel Coulby, @bellamyblakru Sibling Dynamics, @the-mother-of-lions Gwen & Elyan, @thebookluvrr1816 Elyan is a Slytherin, @the-mother-of-lions Elyan Character Profile, @thebookluvrr1816 Merlin/Elyan AU, @the-mother-of-lions

Fics:

holdin’ out for a hero, @merlinoutofcontext It Doesn’t Come Easy, @veshkrisk Linen and Chain, @veshkrisk I’ll keep you safe, @donttouchtheneednoggle Bliss, @donttouchtheneednoggle For Want of Company, @veshkrisk Six Pints and a Packet of Crisps, @little-ligi Kiss Kiss, Y’all In Love, @the-mother-of-lions Sunrise By The Oak Tree, @veshkrisk Hoodie-less but still happy, @donttouchtheneednoggle The risk I took was calculated, but man did I ignore the answer, @donttouchtheneednoggle Bob’s your uncle, @excaliburstark That We May Live Free, @owlswithfins A Funny Feeling, @shana-rosee E, @gremlinbehaviour the sun bows for you, @scionofgwenpendragon

Graphics/Manips:

King of Spades, @unmarkedinlife Confidence, @unmarkedinlife Ace Solidarity, @unmarkedinlife Swords Before Sex - Elyan, @unmarkedinlife Sir Elyan, @unmarkedinlife Swords Before Sex - Elyan, @unmarkedinlife Conversations, @unmarkedinlife The Past is Paint, @unmarkedinlife

Interview with Rolling Stone, @loanmeadragon Interview with GQ, @loanmeadragon Icons, @merlin-fic-server and @yarniac13

Art:

Trans Elyan, @aradia-pendragon Elyan and Gwen, @merlinonthemoon Blacksmithing, @admiralsushishin Royalty, @gwainegender

Again, thank you so much for everyone who took the time to participate! I hope to see you next year!

[p-isforpoetry]

Master poetry playlist

Each of these links will redirect you to the relevant playlist on my non-monetized Youtube channel (new video every other day)

By actors

Tom Hiddleston (Words and Music, Ximalaya FM, Coriolanus watchalong with Josie Rourke, Tom and the cast, interviews, Betrayal reunion)

Bruce Alexander, Sam Alexander, Nonso Anozie, Richard Armitage, Dame Eileen Atkins, Annette Badland, Kathy Bates, Xander Berkeley, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Richard Burton, Simon Callow, Robert Carlyle, Helena Bonham Carter, Kim Cattrall, Glenn Close, Sir William "Billy" Connolly, Ben Crystal, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ossie Davis, Dame Judi Dench, Vincent D'Onofrio, Brian Dennehy, James Earl Jones, Beatie Edney, Mark Ebulue, Ralph Fiennes, Kate Fleetwood, Jodie Foster, Polly Frame, Morgan Freeman, Stephen Fry, Michael Gaston, Sir John Gielgud, Aidan Gillen, Rupert Graves, Eva Green, Sir Alec Guinness, David Harewood, Tom Hollander, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons, Alex Jennings, Toby Jones, Jude Law, Robert Sean Leonard, Damian Lewis, John Lithgow, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Helen Mirren, Richard Mitchley, Alfred Molina, Sir Roger Moore, Sam Neill, Al Pacino, Ron Perlman, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Sir Jonathan Pryce, Alan Rickman, Sir Simon Russell Beale, Susan Sarandon, Andrew Scott, Fiona Shaw, Michael Sheen, Gary Sinise, Dan Stevens, Sir Patrick Stewart, Mitchell Brian Stokes, Mark Strong, Natasha Richardson, David Tennant, Kathleen Turner, Eli Wallach, Dominic West and Samuel West.

In this playlist there is 1-1 poem read by Tony Amendola, Sebastian Arcelus, Mackenzie Astin, Gerry Bamman, Alan Bates, Gina Bellman, Cathy Belton, Edward Bennett, Tilly Blackwood, Claire Bloom, Lindy Booth, Peter Bowles, Eleanor Bron, Sir Michael Caine, Peter Capaldi, Sir Sean Connery, Lindsay Crouse, Ruby Dee, Adrian Dunbar, Lindsay Duncan, Noma Dumezweni, Adetomiwa Edun, Rupert Evans, Colin Farrell, Deborah Findlay, Edward Fox, Jonathan Frakes, Hugh Fraser, Jennifer Garner, Jill Gascoine, Annabeth Gish, Iain Glen, Ioan Gruffudd, Julie Harris, Josh Hartnett, John Heffernan, Douglas Henshall, Hozier, Sir John Hurt, Amy Irving, Sir Derek Jacobi, Peter Jacobson, Lennie James, Paterson Joseph, Rory Kinnear, Hugh Laurie, Sir Christopher Lee, Robert Lindsay, Ophelia Lovibond, Helen McCrory, Niamh McGrady, Sepideh Moafi, Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Tessa Peake-Jones, Dame Sian Phillips, Wendell Pierce, Rosamund Pike, Diana Quick, Jemma Redgrave, Iwan Rheon, Sebastian Roché, Hugh Ross, William Sadler, Kerry Shale, Imelda Staunton, Rufus Sewell, Jenna Stern, Juliet Stevenson, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Jo Stone-Fewings, Tilda Swinton, Peter O’ Toole, Harry Treadaway, Indira Varma, Dame Harriet Walter, Sam Waterson, Fritz Weaver and Carolyn Wickwire.

By poets

W. H. Auden, William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Robert Burns, Byron, Lewis Carroll, John Clare, E. E. Cummings, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, Robert Herrick, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Keats, Rudyard Kipling, Edward Lear, Robert Lowell, Christopher Marlowe, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Pablo Neruda, E. A. Poe, Christina Rossetti, William Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, William Wordsworth, W. B. Yeats and other poets.

Short scenes from movies/theatre plays

Coriolanus (Tom Hiddleston), King Lear (Sir Athony Hopkins), Much Ado About Nothing (Emma Thompson & Kenneth Branagh), Hamlet (Andrew Scott), Much Ado About Nothing (Catherine Tate & David Tennant), Macbeth (Sir Patrick Stewart)

[rocknvaughn]

Isn't it nice that the interviewer (from the last interview with Colin) asked him about Merlin? 😄 I was so so happy! I have a questionn, though! Not sure if you know, but are Colin and Bradley still close to each other? The entire cast actually, do they still hang out?

I was glad that the interviewer covered the vast majority of Colin’s career and not *just* Merlin, but yes, what Colin said about his experience on Merlin was really lovely!

Are Colin and Bradley still close to each other? According to a Q&A that Bradley did earlier this year, he admitted that he and Colin are not regularly in contact and only see each other once in a great while, like when he attends one of Colin’s plays.

Colin doesn’t seem to have any close contact with any of the Merlin cast anymore. This isn’t to say he’s had a falling out with anyone and isn’t happy to see them when they happen to cross paths; just that there doesn’t seem to be any continuing close bonds.

As for the rest of the cast...

It does appear that Bradley is still friends with Rupert Young, Adetomiwa Edun, Tom Hopper and Eoin Macken. Bradley has had a falling out with Alex Vlahos and unfollowed him on Twitter.

Alex Vlahos seems to be closest with Eoin Macken, though I’ve seen him interact on social media with Tom, Adetomiwa, and ocassionally Rupert. Also, interestingly enough, it appears that Alex has become friendly with Asa Butterfield, who played young Mordred to Alex’s adult Mordred.

Eoin Macken, Tom Hopper, and Adetomiwa Edun seem to pal around a fair amount.

I haven’t heard that Angel Coulby has kept in close contact with any of the cast.

Katie has spent the last few years mostly in Vancouver, Canada filming Supergirl. She seems to have stayed on at least somewhat friendly terms with Colin. She’s been to a couple of Colin’s plays over the years and went to the Q&A event for his TV series The Living and the Dead in 2016. At Armageddon Con in 2018, Katie said that she thinks of Colin as “like a little brother” to her.

I don’t claim to know all the connections, so anyone with other info I’ve missed may certainly tack on. But other than the falling out between Bradley James and Alex Vlahos, I don’t know of any actors who specifically do not get along.