The Wheel Of Time Actress Madeleine Madden Claims TV Show Is “Celebration Of Not Only Diverse People, But Diverse Ways Of Thinking And Perspectives”

Pictured (L-R): Marcus Rutherford (Perrin Aybara), Madeleine Madden (Egwene al’Vere) Credit: Jan Thijs Copyright: © 2021 Amazon Content Services LLC and Sony Pictures Television Inc.

The Wheel of Time actress Madeleine Madden, who plays Egwene al’Vere in Amazon’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s book series, recently claimed that the show is a “celebration of not only diverse people, but diverse ways of thinking and perspectives.”

Madden’s comments came in a long-ranging interview with British outlet The Guardian.

At the beginning of the article, The Guardian’s Jenny Valentish describes Madden’s first time walking into the casting room for the show as a “sea of white.” Madden commented, “Yep, standard.”

However, the casting room she walked into wasn’t actually The Wheel of Time casting room. Madden detailed, “Then I walked into the actual room and it was such a diverse room of people, I just felt so relieved.”

She continued, “For so much of my life I was the odd one out. Here they’d done a worldwide search and brought in people from all over who they felt they were the best for the job.”

Related: The Wheel Of Time Showrunner Rafe Judkins Admits Game Of Thrones Style Scenes “Always Felt Wrong,” Included Them Anyways

Later in the interview, speaking directly to the show, Madden claim the show delves into Nynaeve and Egewene’s lives and way of thinking.

She explained, “Particularly with Egwene and Nynaeve, we really get insight into their thinking and their lives, which we may not necessarily get in the books.”

“Women are at the forefront in this story, and it’s such a celebration of not only diverse people, but diverse ways of thinking and perspectives,” she added.

She would go on to claim that Egwene’s thinking is similar to her own saying, “I’ve been raised by strong women in my life, who have sacrificed a lot for me to be where I am. And I think that’s the same with Egwene.”

“You know, literally what doesn’t kill her makes her stronger, and I feel that’s something that I also take on,” she asserted.

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As the interview came to a close, Madden went on to claim that her entire life is politicized because she’s an Aboriginal woman and that she must her platform to change the world.

She says, “It’s been instilled in me since I was young that I have to use my platform to change the world. That’s something that’s part of my DNA.”

“I think also that just being born as an Aboriginal woman, my life is politicised, so that’s something I’ve dealt with every day of my life,” she detailed.

To that effect, Madden detailed that after she gave a speech at the age of 13 calling for better employment opportunities for indigenous people on behalf of activist group Generation One that she became the target of “nasty things.”

Madden recalled, “I just remember being like, this is something that I could get behind as a kid. I didn’t really understand the gravitas at the time, or the scale of what this was.”

“Obviously, this brought out some nasty things from the woodwork, and that was quite shocking, being a 13-year-old kid. And having adults come for you, which was just insane,” she stated.

Related: Amazon’s The Wheel Of Time Critic Scores Just Dropped

The Wheel of Time is currently airing via Prime Video.

The first three episodes have already been released with subsequent episodes being released on Fridays with the final episode of Season 1 airing on December 24th.

What do you make of Madden’s comments?

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