Exclusive Interview: Anna Leong Brophy Talks Shadow and Bone S2, Bringing Her Lived Experiences to Tamar, and More

Anna Leong Brophy is a dynamic storyteller who is best known for her transformative performances in projects including Ragdoll, Sifu, and Traces. This spring, she joins the cast of Shadow and Bone as the fan-favorite character, Tamar.

Based on Leigh Bardugo’s worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels, Shadow and Bone returns for a second season of new friendships, new romance, bigger battles, epic adventures — and a shocking family secret that could shatter everything.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Anna about her journey in the industry, joining the cast of Shadow and Bone, bringing her lived experiences to her character, and more.

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts and storytelling?
Anna: I was always an attention seeker. I have a big, noisy family on both sides. I was like, “This is my niche.” It was probably around the time that my brother was born, I started thinking, “What do I need to do to be noticed?” But as far as realizing that I wanted to do this as a career, I was quite academic. I kept moving towards performance against everyone’s ideal situation. So, I was always drawn to it, and I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Anna: That’s a good question. There were definitely people from the drama school. Also, I worked with Ken Campbell, who was this strange, esoteric theater maker who has now passed. He really freed me up. He was the first person who taught me how to improvise and freed me up from the idea of having to be this perfect, pretty girl and embrace the rough edges.

I’ve also always been really inspired by Simon McBurney. His theater company, Complicite, was where I was like, “You can make really exciting art, put it on stage, and it can be really interesting, playful, and challenging.” That’s where I started.

PC: You’re one of the new cast members joining Shadow and Bone Season 2. When you’re playing a character who has existed in another medium, what’s one thing you wanted to make sure was translated from page to screen? What’s something new that you brought to her to make her your own?
Anna: When it came to preserving what was on the page, it really stuck out to me that she was very single-minded and resolute when it came to the point of being obstinate. When it came to following the direction that she’s chosen to travel in, I really wanted to keep that straight-line directness about her and her physicality and in the way that I approached the character.

In terms of bringing myself, I wanted to bring as much of myself to the character as I could. It’s important to ground fantasy characters in as much reality as you can. I have a brother. I’m mixed race. I’m quite front-footed in terms of speaking my mind. I thought it was more about bringing the characteristics of Tamar into my space rather than the other way around, so it would sit quite easily on the screen. That was my plan.

PC: This is such a unique role in which you’re getting to play a twin and have all of your history and backstory shared with another person. What was that collaborative process like working with Lewis [Tan] as you approached this very specific bond and making the character choices that you did?
Anna: We were very lucky that we clicked straight away. When we had the chemistry read, I was like, “That was good. That felt really good.” We met up to prep a few months before we actually started shooting. We started thinking about the backstory and the shared history that we had to come up with because it needed to sit easily. We both had the same mindset because they have to have that twin connection; they have that heart render connection. They’re extremely close. They work together. They live together. You don’t want to show that; you want it in an outward way. You want there to be an ease between them. We both have siblings. We know no one’s constantly going, “Hey brother, we’re so connected.” You want it to feel natural.

We hung out a lot, which I think is a real blessing to be able to be at ease with each other, make jokes, and be physically comfortable and tactile with each other. That was the main thing: cultivating an ease with each other. He calls me big sis and stuff like that because we were like, “That’s what we are now to each other.”

PC: You’ve also said in a previous interview that you are both mixed race and you felt that connection during the chemistry read. Did you channel your own individual experiences with your identity and traversing this industry into these characters? How beneficial was it to have that as your initial stepping stone as you approached this dynamic?
Anna: It goes back to bringing elements of Tamar into me. I didn’t have to channel it because that is my life. That’s my lived experience. It’s very rare that you get to live in a character with the same experience that you have had personally. That was a blessing and a rare opportunity to go, “I don’t have to imagine. I know how it feels to be someone between two races and never quite fitting in wherever you live or go, wherever you end up, in the eyes of other people.” No research was required. It’s a lived experience.

Lewis and I immediately shared that. It’s like when you meet someone in the same community, especially someone in the same mixed race as you or someone who you can relate to. It’s a shorthand that we got to have. Like I said, it’s a real blessing to portray a character who can sit in that space.

PC: With Season 2 out now, is there a scene in particular that you were really excited for audiences to see? Which was the most challenging to film?
Anna: There were so many. There were a lot of challenging shoots because there were a lot of weather issues and quite a lot of physical exertion. I loved the fighting that Lewis and I got to do on the Bovoni, the ship. That was great because we were working together, and we were getting to show that choreographic style. We don’t even have to think about each other. We know where everyone is.

All of the battle scenes at the end were very challenging. There were huge setups, boiling heat, and a lot of racing around, but there was a really fun stunt that I got to do where I basically fly backwards through the air horizontally and dig my axis into the ground to slow myself down. So, in the middle of an extremely busy shoot day, I got to strap into a fun harness and slide around like I was on a roller coaster. I was like, “Let’s do one more take…one more take of that.” That was really fun. It made me laugh when I came on screen.

PC: There are so many different colors and shades to Tamar. As an actor, how did you create the space for yourself to bring each of those different nuances to the forefront and highlight that contrast?
Anna: It’s different because TV is an editor’s medium, so you have to be aware that whatever layers you are playing, you can’t play too much of one note any time because you don’t know what’s going to end up in the final edit. Hats off to the writers because they’re writing for such a huge ensemble cast and trying to bring everybody’s humanity to the surface. I’m trying to trust the writing and be as natural as possible and trust that the character as a whole will shine through and not try and play, “This is a comedy note. This is an emotional note,” because I thought you might lose that as they’re putting it all together and you’ll be taking your character out of a dimension of their personality. That was my aim.

PC: Outside of this project, what’s next for you? What’s left on that bucket list?
Anna: There’s always something left on the bucket list. Tamar was such a gift to relieve my childhood fantasy. My playground fantasies of good versus evil and kicking ass. That’s the stuff you grow up on. I suppose the next thing would be nice to counterbalance that with something quiet, introspective, and emotion-driven and maybe more in the naturalistic, realistic side, and maybe not quite so many explosions. Although, I do love an explosion.

I’m working on a live show with my comedy partner, so we’re working on an hour-long show that’s going to be going to the Edinburgh Fringe and then to London. That’s nice because it gives me an immediate creative buzz that you get in front of an audience making people laugh and creating something that’s silly and fun just for you in a way. I’m getting another flavor of the dish.

To keep up with Anna, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Shadow and Bone on Netflix today.

Photo Credit: Niko Mitrunen // Makeup: Maria Asadi // Styling: Jennifer Michalski-Bray