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https://nerdist.com/article/the-rings-of-power-cynthia-addai-robinson-miriel-interview/

Queen Regent Mìriel chose to follow Galadriel across the sea to Middle-earth in season one of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. She led her people from Númenor to the Southlands, right into a war. Things did not go in their favor, and especially not in Mìriel’s favor. When Nerdist visited The Rings of Power season two set with a small group of reporters, we talked with Cynthia Addai-Robinson about what’s ahead for Mìriel and her kingdom.

When season two begins, how is Mìriel processing everything that happened?

Cynthia Addai-Robinson: Where do I even begin? At the end of season one, we find Mìriel in a very vulnerable position. Not only has she lost her sight, she has been defeated in battle. Many Númenórean lives were lost. Her father, the king, has passed. That’s a lot to end on. So really, season two, specifically to Mìriel and Númenor, is trying to find strength in loss. There are a lot of implications for how people feel around her taking Númenóreans into battle.

In season one, we were already starting to see divisions in [Númenórean] society. There’s a deepening of that as we continue into season two—so lots of very dramatic things. And on top of that, in season one we see Queen Regent Mìriel. It stands to reason that with the king’s passing there would be a progression of things.

What are the challenges of building and playing a character when you and the audience know the journey?

Addai-Robinson: Obviously, the meatiest roles allow you to demonstrate vulnerability and strength simultaneously. You welcome the challenge and obviously you want to give it something that feels relatable. Here we are in this fantastical Middle-earth, but a lot of the things that Mìriel is navigating, or any character in a giant genre story navigates, are things that are understandable. The passing of a loved one, civil strife—things that I think are particularly resonant right now.

It’s also a place to think on these things for myself, just as a human being. It’s a place to put those feelings. Certainly when I first started on this journey as the character of Mìriel in the midst of lockdown and an ever-changing world, it was a place that felt safe for me because I just had a swirling storm of thoughts and feelings on any given day. But what I really appreciate and love about Mìriel is that sense of integrity and strength. She’s a moral compass for her people. At the end of the day, the decisions that she’s navigating are bigger than her. It’s really about guiding her people and trying to make the best decisions and choices for society, not just for herself.

Was there anything you learned from season one that you wanted to carry with you into season two?

Addai-Robinson: Once you’ve got a first season of a series under your belt, you’ve had a lot of intensive time spent with a character, spent in a world, spent with your fellow characters and castmates. You want to approach a season two and beyond trusting in all of those things. We put a lot of work and thought and heart into making sure that we were representing this story in the most honest way that we could. A lot of us have ownership over these characters. We feel a sense of protecting them and shepherding them, not just through the story, but just out there in the world.

Mìriel developed what seemed like a friendship with Elendil in season one. What can you share about their relationship in season two?

Addai-Robinson: You’re going to see a continuation of this dynamic of two people who have both experienced profound loss and are now trying to really have that sense of, “Let us not have this loss be in vain.” It’s really an exploration of, I would say, their worldview within Middle-earth. As they’re returning to Númenor with those divisions in society and those differing worldviews, you’re going to see how the second season navigates that.

For the two of them specifically, it’s a dynamic that my lovely dear Lloyd Owen and I have enjoyed exploring. We really wanted to make sure that with these two characters, that their relationship from where it starts in season one, very unsuspectingly, and how it continues to progress through the second season, that there really is a change. These people are forever changed by their circumstances.

How did Mìriel losing her sight affect the physicality of your performance in season two?

Addai-Robinson: I was told early on that this would be something that happens to Mìriel. And in fact, I started my first day with one of the scenes where I was already blind. So it was an interesting way of working where I had to start with some of those scenes, then I jumped back to the beginning, and then jumped back to working with the blind element. The difference now is she has acclimated to this situation. There’s this sense of not wanting to have this be something that people can perceive as a weakness in her ability to lead, that there is an awareness as a leader that there’s a perception of conveying strength and representing that for your people, for society.

At the end of season one, you see Elendil and Mìriel and he’s still going to be at her side. Ultimately it’s an exploration of working with someone where it isn’t about depending on them, but they both need each other in this moment to help each other see figuratively and literally. That’s a really interesting and beautiful thing that we get to further explore as the season goes on.

But in terms of the physicality of it and returning to that place, I was mindful of, at this point, she has made it her mission to learn to move through the world in a new way. So, it isn’t about struggling through that so much as acclimating to it, if you know what I mean. That was probably true for me as well.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two premieres with three episodes on Prime Video on August 29.

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The post THE RINGS OF POWER’s Cynthia Addai-Robinson on Queen Regent Mìriel’s Season 2 Journey appeared first on Nerdist.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/tyler-james-williams-and-hayden-panettiere-star-in-amber-alert/

An ordinary rideshare becomes a high-stakes game of cat and mouse when Jaq (Hayden Panettiere) and Shane (Tyler James Williams) receive an alert of a child abduction on their phones. Quickly realizing they are behind a car that matches the description of the kidnapper’s, Jaq and Shane desperately race against time to save the child’s life.

In select theaters and on demand Sept 27th.

https://www.essence.com/news/ohio-police-officer-charged-with-murder-for-shooting-of-pregnant-black-woman/

Walton+ Brown, LLP/AP By Kizzy Cox ·Updated August 15, 2024

An Ohio police officer has been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of Ta’Kiya Young, a pregnant Black mother accused of shoplifting at a Kroger supermarket last year, NBC reports.

Blendon Township police officer Connor Grubb was charged with four counts of murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, and four counts of felonious assault for the deaths of Young and her unborn daughter, who was due in three months at the time of the shooting.

The shooting occurred on August 24, 2023, in a Kroger supermarket parking lot. Body cam footage shows Officer Connor Grubb and another officer approaching Young in her vehicle and ordering her to get out of the car. When Young asks why, the accompanying officer tells her that supermarket employees have accused her of shoplifting and that she can’t leave. Young remains in her vehicle while Grubb and the other officer repeatedly tell her to get out of her car. Eventually Grubb walks to the front of her vehicle and draws his weapon. He yells “Get out of the f—ing car” Young then says “No,” “Are you going to shoot me?”

At that point, the other officer bangs on the driver’s side window and reaches inside the vehicle. Young then turns her steering wheel and appears to inch the vehicle forward slowly, at which point Grubb fires one shot into the car windshield. According to the Associated Press, the police said they tried to save her life, but Young later died at the hospital.

Grubb is still employed by the Blendon Township Police Department, where he has worked since 2019 but has been on paid administrative leave since the incident.

Young’s grandmother, Nadine Young, 61 said in a press conference that seeing the bodycam footage “tore me all the way up.” She also revealed that she’s been raising her late granddaughter’s two sons, ages three and six just as she’d helped raised Young and that this past year had been heartbreaking for her. “It’s been like a whirlwind of just hurt and pain,” she said.

Sean Walton, the family’s attorney, said that Grubb should never have drawn his gun or jumped in front of the vehicle “Everything he did escalated that situation, and that’s why Ta’Kiya was murdered,” he said.

However, Officer Grubb’s lawyers, Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens said in a statement that evidence will prove his “actions were justified” because the video shows the vehicle hitting him, reports the NY Times.

Blendon Township Police Department’s own use-of-force policy, advises officers to move away from an approaching vehicle rather than shoot at the car or its occupants, according to AP. A firearm should only be used if “the officer reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others.”

During the press conference, Walton also vehemently opposed the argument often heard when Black people are killed by police: that Young should have simply complied or that her alleged shoplifting justified a death sentence. “In no scenario does somebody shoplifting contribute at all to their murder by a police officer,” he continued “She bears no responsibility.”

Young is far from the only unarmed Black woman who police have killed in recent years. In 2020, Breonna Taylor was killed in her Louisville, Kentucky, home when officers burst into her apartment with a no-knock warrant and exchanged gunfire with her boyfriend, who thought the police were intruders. Initially no charges were filed against the policemen but nationwide Black Lives Matter protests later that year with the rallying cry of “Say Her Name,” elevated Taylor’s case and eventually led to federal civil rights charges against one of the officers–as well as three other officers who were charged with conspiracy.   

Last month, Sonya Massey was shot to death in her Springfield, Illinois home after calling police to her residence to report a possible trespasser. The officer in that case, Sean Grayson, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count each of official misconduct and aggravated battery with a firearm. Reflecting on the reality that all Black people, regardless of gender, are at risk for police violence, Massey’s father, James Wilburn, said in a CNN interview, “You’re used to having ‘the talk’ with boys, but now I guess we have to talk to our girls about … their interactions with the police.”

A story by Business Insider found that more than 50 Black women were killed by police between 2015 and 2021 and none of the officers involved were convicted of a crime.  

But Walton believes the culture of unchecked police brutality may be ending, citing the fact that several Ohio police officers are currently facing trials for murder. He said, “I think that what we’re seeing is a changing of the climate where we can actually see accountability.”

For Young’s grandmother accountability would be Grubb spending the rest of his life in prison.

“That would be justice for me, and our family and her boys,” she said.

The post Ohio Police Officer Charged With Murder For Shooting of Pregnant Black Woman appeared first on Essence.

https://nerdist.com/article/olympic-medalist-sammy-sullivan-interview-lego/

The Olympics captivated the world in July with incredible feats from talented athletes. Team USA had an impressive showing, including the US Women’s Rugby Team winning a bronze medal in rugby sevens—the first-ever medal for the US in rugby sevens. After the victory, the Instagram algorithm brought me several joyful videos from the new Olympic medalists. Those videos included one of Sammy Sullivan passionately talking about LEGO in an interview. I don’t know if I have ever related to an Olympian on this level. Or at all. I talked to Sammy about what got her hooked on building LEGO sets, how LEGO helps her unwind, and more.

Nerdist: Congratulations on the medal! I feel weird being like, you won an Olympic medal, let’s talk about LEGO!

Sammy Sullivan: Thank you! And no, this is great.

Tell me about what first got you into LEGO and what your first LEGO set was.

Sullivan: My very first set, OG was elementary, middle school time. It was the big SpongeBob where you open it, and it’s Plankton or whoever controlling him. That was my first set that I can remember. But my twin brother, Jackson and my dad were always super into Star Wars LEGO, and being boy and girl twins, I feel like he would always get the LEGO sets for birthdays and Christmas and I would get whatever else. So growing up, unless I bought it for myself with spending money, I didn’t get LEGO.

But my first adult experience with LEGO was early 2023, my second year with the rugby team. I was not in the best place mentally, just struggling with sophomore year blues. A lot of the times when people have really successful rookie seasons, their second season can feel like a lot. And my second season being the Olympic year, I was really struggling with coming home, worrying about practices, worrying about rosters, and everything.

My happy place growing up was walking around Barnes and Noble. So, I went to Barnes and Noble one day after practice to smell the books, read the backs of books, the whole vibe, and there’s a whole section of adult LEGO sets. And so I’m looking at these sets, and I was like, you know what? Maybe instead of spiraling when I get home, maybe it would be good to do something with my hands. Something tangible with a gorgeous end product. So, my first adult set was the Hocus Pocus house.

Really, from there, it was an instant obsession with the building process and collecting.

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Building sets can be such a mindful activity. Has it continued to be a go-to for unwinding and calming your mind?

Sullivan: Yeah. It is so soothing. It almost takes you back to a childlike mind because ultimately LEGOs are toys in a sense—obviously some are meant for adults—but it takes you back to a simpler time where you come home from school and have something fun to do outside of homework. I put on a good podcast or a good YouTube video game playthrough in the background and have that disconnection from adult life. It’s definitely a bit of escapism from the every day. I mean, at certain times it definitely becomes maybe a little unhealthy when I’m not looking at the clock and I look up and it’s two in the morning and I’m on bag 13 of whatever…

That is very relatable. Do you collect certain types of LEGO sets or is just vibes?

Sullivan: It’s mostly vibes, but I typically go for structure sets: the treehouses, houses, huts. I’ve really been liking the medieval sets recently. I just got done with the Lion Knight’s Castle. I built the blacksmith set with the beautiful blue roof and the Viking village. I’m looking to get my next one, the medieval village that complements the Lion Knight’s set. Oh, and the big treehouse that’s safari-like with the two tree houses connected with the drawbridge—that one is absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorites.

But I think my next venture into LEGO will definitely be the Technic sets. It looks really complicated, but in a fun, challenging way. So yeah, definitely looking to get my hands on some Technic sets moving forward, but structures for sure are my favorite.

What LEGO set will you be building next?

Sullivan: The Dayton Brick Shop in Ohio was kind enough to send me the Eiffel Tower set after they saw my plea to LEGO after the Olympics. It’s currently sitting with my neighbors, but as soon as I get home—, I already told Josh, my husband, don’t talk to me for at least four days because that’s all I’m going to be doing. This is my plan. I’m going to decompress.

The post We Talk LEGO with Olympic Medalist Sammy Sullivan appeared first on Nerdist.