Ismael Cruz Cordova said he “loved the nerve that I pinched” among racist trolls who weren’t happy to see him cast as the first person of colour to play an elf in the Lord of the Rings franchise.
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Cordova, who is Puerto Rican and African descent, plays prominent Silvan Elf and main protagonist Arondir in Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power. He became the first person of colour to play an elf in the entire 70-year history of the franchise.
Despite this landmark moment, he was met with “pure and vicious hate speech” in his DMs “nearly every day” as soon as it was announced he was joining the cast.
The harassment extended to real life as well, as he explained on the “Just for Variety” podcast. “My phone got hacked. I had bank account attempts of being hacked. My PayPal got hacked. My friends got messages. I got death threats. I got things mailed to me. People found out my address. It was a lot of that.”
The abuse got so severe that Amazon brought in an on-set therapist for him. “You need support when this happens because the voices are so loud and they’re coming at you from so many places,” Córdova said at the time. “I loved seeing her there,” Cordova added of the therapist, “even if we didn’t speak. I knew there was someone there seeing me completely. It wasn’t just as an actor.”
With the second season of the show premiering on Amazon Prime later this month, Cordova says he now welcomes the discourse that comes from fans out of him being “the first elf that wasn’t white.”
On the Entertainment Weekly ‘Brave Warriors’ panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, he said: “My character is not in the lore of the Lord of the Rings, and that was an issue for some people.
“[It was] a big controversy of me being the first elf that wasn’t white. I loved the nerve that I pinched. I really do. I was so excited to create something new. A lot of people speaking on behalf of Tolkien, I don’t know if they understand the spirit of Tolkien. His work speaks of the times.”
He added that the “spirit of Tolkien” should encompass anyone who can see themselves in the world he created. “It is necessary to revise things and represent and exist. I think a lot of people look at us to affirm their own existence, so I’m happy people can look at that and look at any of us and see themselves in this beautiful world we all should belong in — fantasy.”
The series has also featured plenty of other actors of colour, including Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Tar-Miriel, the queen regent of Numenor, and Sophia Nomvete, who portrays Princess Disa, a Dwarven princess of Khazad-dum.
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