At long last,The Wheel of Timeseason 3 has introduced the sons of Andor. Early episodes of the season saw Queen Morgase Trakand visiting the White Tower to check up on her daughter Elayne, and in tow were her sons Galad and Gawyn. Notable swordfighters and eye-catchers alike (in Jordan’s books, Galad was commonly referred to as the most handsome man alive), Elayne’s brothers are huge players in the overall story ofThe Wheel of Timeand in the lives of its characters.
Galad and Gawyn are brought to life by Callum Kerr and Luke Fetherston, respectively, who coincidentally played brothers in another project (Flowers in the Attic) before finding their way toThe Wheel of Timeseason 3 cast. When not swordfighting or shooting off stern looks as Galad, Kerr is a singer/songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee with songs like “Tamed by Tennessee” and “Tequila Therapy”. Fetherston brings to the role of Gawyn a history of performing as a dancer, which allowed him to do many of his own stunts in the series.
ScreenRantspoke with Callum Kerr and Luke Fetherston about their work representing theKingdom of AndorinThe Wheel of Timeseason 3. The actors discussed auditioning for mystery roles, reading for both Gawyn and Galad at the same time, and stepping intoThe Wheel of Timeuniverse as a whole. Plus, they reflected on their awkward ADR recording sessions for THAT through-the-wall bedroom scene.Note: This piece is compiled from two separate interviews–one with Kerr, and one with Fetherston.
There Were Layers Of Secrecy Woven Into The Casting Process
Long before audiences watched them strut down the halls of the White Tower as Gawyn and Galad, Luke Fetherston and Callum Kerr auditioned for two characters with very different names.“It was all code names,”Luke Fetherston shared.“I kind of suspected it was The Wheel of Time,”Fetherston continued,“so I’d managed to watch all of season one before auditioning, and then I was Googling these names. I was like, ‘Who?’ It was something like Gerron and Gerwig—they made up names, and I could not find those names anywhere.”
Even wilder is the fact that the actors auditioned for both parts at the same time.“I can’t remember what the code names were,”said Callum Kerr,“but it was basically Galad/Gawyn, so I was kind of reading for both parts.” “When I read for it,”Kerr continued,“I went for one [take] one way, and one almost the polar opposite way–one was really cocky [and] one was quite stoic and a little more reserved … they were like, ‘All right, the more stoic one–that’s Galad, and that’s who you’ll be playing.’”
The casting is interesting, especially given the actors’ ages–Kerr, who plays the elder brother, is actually seven years younger than his co-star Fetherston.“He was not happy,”revealed Fetherston, with a laugh. He continued,“[and] this is not the first time Callum and I have played brothers. We played brothers in Flowers in the Attic, and again, I was Callum’s younger brother. So, both times I’ve been cast as his younger brother whilst being significantly older than him in real life.”
There is a big silver lining for Kerr, though, as Galad is considered to be the most attractive man inThe Wheel of Time’s expansive world.“That was something I saw on Twitter,”said Kerr,“and… God.” “It definitely put the burners on for me trying to get into shape,”the actor admitted.
Learning Readers’ Feelings About Gawyn Sent Luke Fetherston Into A Spiral
“I Quickly Stopped Reading”
When asked how much he was told about Galad as he took on the role, Kerr revealed he wasn’t given a ton:“they said ‘They’re going to follow their sister to save her, per se, and bring her home’, and then they didn’t really give me much information after that, so I wasn’t sure where it was going to go. They have said [Galad] is prominent throughout the book series, and as long as they keep getting to write the show, he’ll always be involved as per the books.”
Fetherston’s experience was a little different.“I got the offer of Gawyn, and they kindly sent me a whole character arc, up until the moment where he leads the final battle.”
Editor’s Note: ForThe Wheel of Timefans who are wondering if Fetherston just spoiled a big change to the Last Battle (I’ve seen your comments), that was not the impression I got from the conversation. It felt more like an acknowledgment of a leadership role for Gawyn in the future.
“I had full visibility of roughly what was going to happen,”Fetherston continued,“They didn’t go into a huge amount of detail, but it was a page worth of information with some really great character traits in there. That was really helpful.”
But Fetherston didn’t stop there:“Then, of course, I Googled Gawyn,”the actor said,“and very quickly resigned to my fate of being hated by the entire fandom. [I] was like, “Oh, here we go,” before I’d even started … I quickly stopped reading, because I didn’t want to approach this role with the preconceptions of other people’s feelings of Gawyn. As an actor, it’s not my job to judge his motivations, but to approach them with as much nuance as they deserve. So, removing myself from the noise was a quite helpful tactic.”
In the end, according to Fetherston,“I gratefully accepted the challenge, and I’m absolutely thrilled to be playing Gawyn.”
There Was Plenty Of Bonding Done On- And Off-Screen
Image via Prime Video
Because Galad and Gawyn are introduced much later inThe Wheel of TimeTV series than they are in the novels, there hasn’t been much time to establish the Andoran Royal Family’s dynamic to audiences. Based on Kerr’s take on the first scene between the brothers and Elayne, the writers tried to do as much as they could as quickly as possible:“What I liked about that first scene where we all see each other again,”Kerr said,“[is that] it immediately feels like a family.”
He explained:“Gawyn’s posted up with his feet on the side of the couch, back to gossiping and being pretty and best friends with his sister, and meanwhile Galad is just eating the food, [being] annoying, and asking all the awkward questions.”Kerr also revealed he had plenty of experience to pull from, saying,“There’s a line where [Elayne] says something [about Galad] like, ‘I see he’s not got any less annoying’. I’m an older brother in real life, I have a younger sister, and that’s probably what she would say.”
For Fetherston, when acting out his place in the Andoran Royal Family,“the focus, for me, was Gawyn’s oath to protect his sister.”As to how he accomplished that, he shared that“what was fundamental to me was establishing that chemistry with Ceara [Coveney] offscreen. I think organic chemistry onscreen is bred authentically offscreen, so spending as much time with Ceara as possible outside of filming was what I chose to do. And Ceara is now one of my best friends.”
Fetherston also shared a hope for Gawyn’s future:“I would like to see the relationship between Gawyn and Morgase developed a bit more. We didn’t really get a huge amount of time together.”
Spoiler Alert For The Wheel Of Time Books
Gawyn’s most important relationship in Robert Jordan’sThe Wheel of Timenovel series is arguably that with Egwene. If the show were renewed for a season 4, Fetherston shared that“Exploring, perhaps, [Gawyn’s] relationship with Egwene would be pretty amazing.”Just like their characters, though, Fetherston and Egwene actor Madeleine Madden haven’t met yet, with Fetherston saying,“It’s such a huge set and we were never together so I haven’t met Madeleine, but I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about her.”
Fetherston even hinted–or, at least wished–that Gawyn’s long-running resentment of Rand al’Thor inThe Wheel of Timebooks might come to blows in the series:“I think it’d be quite nice for Gawyn and Rand to go head-to-head. I think that’d be pretty awesome. I’m a skilled swordsman now, so let’s go. I’ve learned how to throw a punch.”
Mat’s Iconic Quarterstaff & Brotherly Duels Broken Down By Kerr & Fetherston
“I Really Wanted To Be Beaten”, Said Fetherston
One of the standout moments ofThe Wheel of Timeseason 3 episode 3 was the long-awaited fight between Mat Cauthon and the Andoran princes. It was one of two fight scenes that Kerr and Fetherston shared in the Tar Valon training yard.“We trained for a month,”Kerr revealed,“and it was quite nice, because I think we’d only filmed a couple of non-fight scenes within that month. We had a lot of time. Every morning, we would wake up, get in the car, go to the gym, train [for the] stunts, go home, eat healthy, [and] learn lines.”
Both Kerr and Fetherston were primed for their combat moments in different and opposite ways. Kerr has“always done martial arts and played sports,”but is“not a good dancer at all,”while Fetherston is a trained dancer who has“never thrown a punch”.Meeting in the middle, both actors put on a true show during Galad and Gawyn’s duel, with Fetherston even performing a flip off of a wall by himself.
When it came to the Mat fight, Fetherston shared he was“so happy that the fans got to see that.”He continued, saying“I really wanted to be beaten the crap out of. I was like, ‘Let’s go for it. This has got to look insane.’ I hope everybody agrees that it does.”
Fetherston even took time out to praise Dónal Finn’s work as Mat:“Dónal’s performance in that is just exceptional. He really did make it look as effortless as he does on screen. It was wild to me–you couldn’t even see the stick, it was moving so fast. The quarterstaff–I shouldn’t stay ‘stick’, although Gawyn probably refers to it as a stick.”
Fetherston & Kerr Reflect On Recording Episode 2’s Bedroom Scene
“Oh My Goodness”
Despite relatively minimal screen time, Galad and Gawyn have made a memorable arrival toThe Wheel of Timeseries. One scene in particular helped cement their presence early on, despite the fact that neither of them were on screen.“Oh my goodness,”Fetherston said when asked what it was like to record the scene in which Mat hears Galad and Gawyn having sex with women through his bedroom wall,“Doing ADR for that was interesting."
“I was actually in South Africa filming something else,”Kerr said on the subject (the “something else” wasOne Pieceseason 2, in which Kerr plays Smoker),“and I had to go to an ADR studio.”While the session also included Kerr recording audio for Galad’s fight scenes,“at the end, they were like, ‘So, there’s this scene that we need sex noises for’,”the actor said, continuing,“and so I was just in a studio in South Africa on my own, trying to work out how to do sex noises. [I had] a good laugh doing that.”
In the spirit ofGame of Thrones’ portrayal of Jamie and Cersei Lannister’s sexual relationship, plus a brotherly love storyline occurring in another popular HBO series, the topic of what exactly was going on in Galad and Gawyn’s bedroom was broached.“In my head, I didn’t know how many folk were in there,”Kerr said,“it might be more than four. Honestly, I have no idea.”Fetherston also weighed in on how many partners may have been involved:“I’d say probably one for me. Maybe more for him.”
As for exactly how close Gawyn and Galad might be, Fetherston said“I would imagine [they were] separate. I think Galad probably wouldn’t let that happen,”before asking,“What did Callum say?”For his part, Kerr said,“I don’t think it’s with each other.”
