Legend of the Seeker - Craig Horner Interview

If you like swords, magic and the fantasy tales crafted by Terry Goodkind, Legend of the Seeker is a show you can’t miss.  It’s been a while since fans of the genre have had a series they can call their own.  And taking the works of Terry Goodkind, in particular, the first book in the Sword of the Truth series, Wizard’s First Rule and adapting it into a TV series is an ambitious undertaking.  But with the likes of Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert involved, both who, aside from other notable contributions to our illustrious pop culture, honed their fantasy chops on such beloved shows as Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules (heck Tapert is married to the lady!), the series was in good hands.  We got a chance to chat with the “Seeker” himself, Richard Cypher aka Craig Horner, while on location in New Zealand.  Here’s what he had to say about learning to handle a sword, shooting down under and comparisons to those other fantasy shows of days ago…

UGO:  For those unfamiliar, tell us a little bit about Legend of the Seeker

Craig:It’s kind of an action, adventure fantasy show.  It’s adapted from the book Wizard’s First Rule and it’s a new world for fans of the book and an easily accessible show for anyone into fantasy.

UGO:Were you a fan of the series before you signed on?

Craig: Yes! I was a really, really big fan fan of Wizard’s First Rule, the novel, and I was also a fan of Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi’s work - stuff like Evil Dead, so I was very excited to work on both sides of the production.  I have a friend who happens to be a writer and as soon as he heard about the show and that I was auditioning for it, he was like you’ve got to do it!  I went to LA and a week later I had to ship out to New Zealand!

UGO: Tell about your character, Richard Cypher.

Craig: He’s kind of a simple young man, growing up in a simple world.  He’s a woodsman, he’s people orientated but he has a bigger destiny and something he doesn’t know about until he meets a great wizard and what’s called a “Confessor,” - a girl who is seeking him out to tell him about his destiny.  He learns that he’s destined to kill this tyrant of evil, so he starts off as a young man and eventually matures into the man he is fated to be.  As a an actor, I’ve got 22 episodes to take a boy to a man and I’m kinda at the age where I can do that, so it’s really fun.

UGO: As far as learning to swing swords around and handle yourself on a horse, what kind of training did you get?

Craig: We were lucky when we got here (New Zealand). The production was pushed back three weeks because the scripts weren’t ready so myself and a fellow castmate were here with nothing to do so they filled up our days with horse riding and fight training and all this kind of stuff.  It was really cool!  We dont get much time for training now with shooting - it’s a bit hectic - but in between set ups we’ll go and learn how to shoot a bow or something of that nature because we have to do it for a scene.  And all the stunt coordinators are same people who worked on Hercules and Xena, it’s all the same folks and they’re really amazing people. Also we’ve got the horse wrangler from Lord of the Rings, they’re just great people to work with.

UGO: What’s it like shooting on location in New Zealand?

Craig:It’s amazing! It’s like this prehistoric, untouched dinosaur land and you don’t have to go far from Auckland to get to these incredible places and you get out there and it’s just all this green.  I’m from Australia and it’s kind of a dry country and when I got here there’s all these green rolling hills and sheep everywhere, cows and cattle.  And the forests are amazing with these big scary looking trees and beautiful waterfalls.

UGO: There’s been a lot of comparisons made to shows like Hercules and Xena.  What sets Legend of the Seeker apart from its predecessors?

Craig: It’s been something like nine years since Xena ended and I remember when I was a kid when it came out and back then, that kind of show is what the world needed at that time, it was like we can’t take ourselves too seriously, it was tongue in cheek, a bit of fantasy fun.  But I just think the world has changed now and if you try to do that stuff people now want something a bit more serious because we’re in crisis now.  People want fantasy back but this show does that and takes it seriously.

UGO: What kind of reaction have you had from fans of the books?

Craig: I’ve notice a 50/50 split but I think lately fans are starting to come around to the show.  I, myself, had to make the adjustment when I got the script.  We love the characters and we were given permission from Terry Goodkind to work with this world and really develop it.  For example we had an episode that aired a few weeks ago called “Denna” and we had a really positive response from the fans.  We were true to the book - the costumes and everything and we do try to give the fans a few wink winks here and there.

UGO: What can fans of the show expect for the rest of the season?

Craig: Oh man there’s a lot of revelations coming about who and what Richard is and there’s a lot of interesting confrontations with enemies.  I’ll be facing two very formidable foes so watch out for that!

Source If you like swords, magic and the fantasy tales crafted by Terry Goodkind, Legend of the Seeker is a show you can’t miss.  It’s been a while since fans of the genre have had a series they can call their own.  And taking the works of Terry Goodkind, in particular, the first book in [...]

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