How Rings of Power star Megan Richards found her footing as harfoot Poppy

Devan Coggan
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There are no hobbits in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Amazon Prime Video's massive fantasy series introduces plenty of dwarves, elves, and orcs, but the show is set far in the past, thousands of years before J.R.R. Tolkien's original halflings even existed. Instead, the show focuses on a group of early proto-hobbits, called harfoots — and these tiny, hairy-toed nomads have proved to be one of the show's biggest breakouts.

The first few episodes of The Rings of Power have introduced a whole community of harfoots, ranging from Markella Kavenagh's curious Nori Brandyfoot to Lenny Henry's stern leader Sadoc Burrows. But one of the most delightful surprises has been Megan Richards as Poppy Proudfellow, Nori's cautious best friend. Like the hobbits of The Lord of the Rings, Poppy is often funny, but she also has a strong moral compass and a fierce loyalty to her friends.

EW sat down with Richards recently for our All Rings Considered podcast to break down the first few episodes. Here, the British actress opens up about finding her footing in The Rings of Power and introducing harfoots to the screen.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Ben Rothstein/Prime Video Poppy (Megan Richards) and Nori (Markella Kavenagh) are two curious harfoots on 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Take me back to when you first got involved in the show, and the showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay sat you down and explained all about the harfoots. What excited you most about them?

MEGAN RICHARDS: Oh, so much. I think it was like day two that I was in New Zealand, and I had a meeting with JD and Patrick. They were talking to me about Poppy and her history and the history of the harfoots. I just remember hearing that it was such an incredible concept. The thing that stuck with me the most was the camouflaging and their survival skills. I remember thinking, I'm really intrigued to see how that's going to be put into practice. But there was something that really drew me in about it. Poppy just sounded like so much fun — which she is.

It was really exciting from the get-go, but it's difficult to describe the harfoots. It's much easier to have a visual. It wasn't until all the pieces actually came together at the end that I was like, Aha!

In the third episode, we learn about Poppy's history and how she lost her family when they fell behind. How did that detail affect your understanding of her?

It created a whole level of depth. They told me that in the meeting, and they told me which episode it was going to come in. So it was actually very helpful, preparation-wise. It made me understand that she's not just saying to Nori, "Don't do that, don't do that, don't do that." She follows rules for a very specific reason and that's because she doesn't want anyone to be left behind ever again. She's already lost so much, and she's seen so much and been through so much that she doesn't want that for anyone else. There's a whole level of worry for her, losing one of the most important harfoots in her life: her best friend. She doesn't want that to happen again, but she also doesn't want that to happen to Nori.

I've been saying in lots of interviews that the thing that moves her throughout this series is to stay by Nori's side because of the loyalty and love that she has for her friend. And that, ultimately, comes from the loss she's experienced before. Now that people have watched it, they also understand it, and it's given me a broader, deeper level of understanding of how that does affect her life and the way she lives it.

I remember when we watched it as a cast, we watched episodes 1, 2, and 3. I was sitting behind Owain [Arthur], and he was [so upset], like, "Aww! Now, she's pulling the cart by herself! Oh my goodness!" I forget that people haven't seen that. She is pulling it by herself, among all those families together. So, it definitely gave me a deeper level of understanding Poppy.

I loved what you said about the friendship between Poppy and Nori, and I love those scenes with you and Markella Kavenagh. How did you want to figure out that dynamic and approach that friendship on screen?

We did a lot of hanging out and getting to know each other, which was very easy. It was very nice to go have dinner and call it work. [Laughs] We had a lot of workshops with JD, Patrick and [director J.A. Bayona], before we even approached scripts. It was all about their backstory and how they are with each other. We then kind of delved deeper into how they met and what their circumstances are, the fact that they always make sure that their carts are next to each other. So yeah, we just kind of kept building, and we're still building it. It's really nice to be able to sit with a character for two years and really feel them and understand new things about them.

I love some of the detail in the production design and costume design. Tell me about figuring out Poppy's look, from her costume down to the leaves and twigs in her hair.

I think I just walked into a room and everyone else did things around me. [Laughs] I mean, that's literally all that I did. I just kind of stood there. The headpieces were from the costume department. I did my costume fitting first, before hair and makeup. To get my hair out of the way, they just plaited it, and then they put the occasional thing in my hair. Poppy also has a spoon on her belt, and I remember that wasn't there originally. [Costume designer] Kate Hawley just went, "We need something. Nothing that's too shiny because she wouldn't have anything shiny, but something."

Someone who was in the room was like, "We've got this spoon here. Should we just…?" And she was like, "Yeah, try it on!" And that was it. So it all kind of came from some random thoughts, of people saying, "We need something," and things just being available at hand.

There are several great scenes with you, Markella as Nori, and Daniel Weyman as the Stranger. How do you film those, where you and Markella are supposed to be half his size?

It's interesting. We did something called "scale academy," and I still don't really understand what they were talking about the whole time. [Laughs] They were basically giving us a whole PowerPoint presentation about the technology, which I didn't understand from the get-go. But basically, they were telling us that technology has advanced so far and so much that we were able to do some scenes where we were facing opposite each other, but they would do a take that was just for Markella, and then they would do a take that was just for Daniel, and then merge them together. I remember seeing them being edited at the same time they were being filmed. And I was just flabbergasted because I didn't understand how they were doing it. So that was one way of doing it, which was pretty incredible.

We also had wonderful scale doubles, who we created really close relationships with. For some scenes, we would do movement sessions together and then sort of work together on the day to get certain angles. A lot of it just depended on what the scene is. But we also had scale sets, too. We had two sizes of the boulder that the Stranger is lying on in the crater. One was to scale for Markella, and one was to scale for Daniel. So the shot depends on which boulder is used. It's honestly amazing. But we had to deepen our connection for the scale element to feel like it was getting in the way. It's an extra element. So I feel very connected to those two specifically.

The third episode has that moment with you and Lenny Henry as Sadoc Burrows, where Poppy helps Nori steal the book. What do you remember most about filming with him?

I remember feeling incredibly stressed. [Laughs] That was my one sort of heavy stress day, and I'm very glad that it turned out okay on screen. That was the first scene the showrunners had written that was sort of comedic. Like, you knew that it was a comedic scene. So immediately, I went, okay, I have to get this right. Secondly, I'm doing a comedic scene with Lenny Henry, who, you know, that's sort of his life's work. So I was a bit stressed!

But it was great. [Director] Wayne Che Yip was incredible and guided me through it, and we sort of worked it out. Obviously, Lenny was great to work with, and we had fun in the end. Some days you just have a build-up of things, and when you actually do it, it's fine! And it's fun.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

For more from Megan Richards — as well as Entertainment Weekly's breakdown of each Rings of Power episode — listen to EW's new Lord of the Rings podcast, All Rings Considered.

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