The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star conquers one interview series to rule them all.

Before his role in The Rings of Power, the closest Leon Wadham came to Middle Earth was when he was a student in Wellington, and the Hobbit himself showed up to a house party at his flat. “I know that Martin Freeman was by the door in my apartment, but then someone pulled out a phone, and then he left,” he said. “I don’t know if he ever made it past the lounge area into the party proper, because he was just like ‘these people are too hungry’.” 

Beyond that encounter, he never imagined that he would become a part of that universe. “No way, because to be in Lord of the Rings, you have to be able to ride a horse,” he laughed. “At least that’s what I thought.” Then along came Rings of Power and Kemen, son of Númenórean Chancellor Pharazôn, a charming and ambitious character packed with traits that Wadham instantly recognised from his time spent around aspiring young politicians in Wellington.

In season two, Wadham suggests Kemen is going to further step into his political potency. “Season one Kemen was really worried about losing what he had. He knew he had a great life, and his main concern was holding on to it,” he said. “But in between seasons, he’s got a taste of what else is out there. His dad’s been running the shop, and he’s suddenly seen what true power looks like. Suddenly, he’s insatiable – and that hunger causes problems for everybody.” 

With Rings of Power moving production from New Zealand to the United Kingdom for season two, Wadham described the “bizarre adventure” of the shift. “All the sets that were built by incredible craftspeople in New Zealand were still being used in the UK. So you’d go to the other side of the world, into an unfamiliar studio, and walk into the same incredible rooms you were shooting in two years ago,” he said. “That was quite comforting, it wasn’t like a whole new start.” 

When he’s not working on one of the most expensive television shows ever made, Wadham can sometimes be found much closer to home at The Spinoff, where he directed all three seasons (and two specials) of Alice Snedden’s Bad News. “It’s like going from a sauna to a cold plunge,” he said of the balance. “You’re on a show where you are one tiny cog in a massive machine, to doing Bad News, where there are sometimes five of us on set – but they’re both incredibly satisfying.” 

Speaking ahead of the launch of season two of Rings of Power, now available on Prime Video, we set Wadham the challenge of completing one interview series to rule them all: My Life in TV.

My earliest television memory is… As a toddler, I was famous for getting stuck under the TV cabinet. The TV was in this shelving unit, and I used to always crawl under it and not be able to get out. One of my earliest memories of anything is being stuck under there, looking back at everyone who was like, “No!” So yes, my earliest TV memory is being stuck under the TV.

The show that I rushed home from school to watch was… Pokemon. I don’t know how long it had a grip on me, because I’ve seen episodes from later in the series and I don’t recognize anybody. But those early episodes with Ash, Brock and Misty had such a grip on the youth at the time. That’s when everyone had Blue or Red on their Gameboy as well. It’s truly the only show that I needed to be home for. 

My earliest television crush was… There was an Instant Kiwi commercial where Daniel Gillies is a university student who hands in his paper late. He is wearing a puffer vest with nothing underneath it. I remember seeing this as a very young person in the 90s, and thinking “that is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen”. I watched it again recently, and I stand by it. Nobody has ever been that hot. Who has the confidence to just wear a puffer vest and nothing else? And then he bites this apple at the end and puts it on the desk, and I just could not believe how brazen this student was being. To this day, I’ve never encountered anyone with more charm. 

The TV moment that haunts me is… I did a post-coital scene on Go Girls. I’d never done one before, and I remember being really nervous about seeming too keen. We were shooting in a really hot and really small room, and they were like, “you can keep your track pants on”. And I thought, “I’m sweating. I don’t want to keep my track pants on, but if I take my track pants off, everyone will think I’m too horny”. So I kept my track pants on, and I spent the whole scene sweating into the bed and regretting trying to make everybody else comfortable. I watch it back and I am like “are you playing the scene, or are you caretaking?”

The NZ TV ad I can’t stop thinking about it… Daniel Gillies, Instant Kiwi.  

My TV guilty pleasure is… Samsung TV appears to have a 24 hour The Nanny channel. I watch that, but I feel no guilt – only joy that this is my life. 

My favorite TV moment of all time is… As a kid, when Ross was marrying Emily on Friends and said “Rachel” by mistake, my mind was genuinely blown. I was like, “this is one of the great works”. I haven’t seen it in a decade or two, but that is the first thing I think of. It was major. 

My favorite television character of all time is… I’d struggle to narrow it down from the full cast of 30 Rock. The greatest cast of all time. Maybe Dr. Spaceman? I always found the extremes of those characters and the music you could make with all of those really strong notes, so delightful. 

The most stylish person on television is… Daniel Gillies, Instant Kiwi. No but honestly, I have actually found, working in TV, that the most stylish people are always on the crew. They know who they are, and they know what they have to do that day. I’m talking about the grips, the people doing catering. Anyone who has had to wake up at 6am and reach for the thing they believe in? They are the hottest people on set. 

My favorite television project I’ve ever been involved in is… Bad News is obviously an incredibly important, incredibly special thing for me. I’ve been doing it for so long with my best friend in the world, and that’s hard to top. That said, I’ve never had a job like Rings of Power. I’ve never had demands of me as an actor like this. I’ve never had the perks of being in something that this many people have heard of. So often, as an actor in New Zealand, people say, “have you been in Shortland Street?” and that’s kind of as far as they can reach. This is finally something people have heard of. 

The TV show I always wish I had been involved in is… . In the first lockdown I watched the original Twin Peaks, and I thought, “god, this would have been fun”. Imagine getting to do something this wild at that point in time. If I could walk onto the set of Twin Peaks tomorrow, I’d do whatever David Lynch asked me to.

My most controversial television opinion is… TV should be fun. I feel like a lot of people watch things almost as homework, or a chore. You’re not doing right if that’s happening. There is great prestige TV out there. But if it’s not thrilling to you, if it’s not a pleasure for you, get out of there. There are so many other things you could be doing with your time. I feel like sometimes the pressure to keep up with the zeitgeist forces people to stick with things that aren’t for them. There’s a tonne of TV out there, and you don’t have to keep up with all of it.

A show that I will never watch, no matter how many people say I should is… My Mum keeps telling me to watch Normal People. Everyone tells me I will love Normal People and that is the best acting I’ll ever see. But there’s something about when it came out in 2020, and the kind of arguments I was seeing my couple friends have at the time, that made me think “that doesn’t sound fun”. And now when my Mum says “have you watched it yet?” and I keep saying “no” I feel like I need to continue staying strong, despite a sense that I’m missing out on something excellent.

The last television project I worked on was… Bryn and Kura’s Singles Club, a new show we are making at The Spinoff. It’s kind of a travel show, kind of a dating show, kind of a community project. Bryn[ley Stent] and Ku[ra Forrestor] leave Auckland to see how other singles around the country are finding community and finding each other. It has been such a pleasure to work on. We have about 75 hours of material to cut down into five episodes, and one more to shoot. I’m overwhelmed, but it’s nice to be spoiled for choice. 

The last thing that I watched on television is… Curb Your Enthusiasm. I was on the plane from London and I watched The Bourne Identity when we took off, and then I was like “what else is Matt Damon in?” so then I watched The Martian. Then I had half an hour left, so I thought I would see what the last season of Curb looked like. It looks the same and it is everything that I wanted. 

Watch Leon Wadham in The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power here