Ruby Cruz on feeling 'indestructible' after shooting for 'Willow'

Ruby Cruz, the leading lady of the fantasy adventure series 'Willow', has come out of the series feeling rather 'indestructible'.
The actress, who plays Princess Kit, in the series starring Warwick Davis in the titular role of Willow Ufgood, is joined by Joanne Whaley as Queen Sorsha and Dempsey Bryk as Prince Airk.
Explaining how her role as Kit is a spirited and willful young Princess, faced with several difficult choices, Cruz said, "I think at the core of it; she is just trying to figure out who she is.At the beginning of the series, she thinks she has a strong sense of who she is, but that’s all broken down. She is stripped of her identity and a lot of her ego that has been holding her back, and she finally learns she’s not the only person in the world."
Dempsy, on the other hand, said his character Arik in the Disney+ Hotstar series is the polar opposite. "Arik is a very fun-loving guy who wants to keep everyone happy. If you meet him, he is genuinely a ray of sunshine, kind of like a puppy dog who has had a number of romantic affairs," he quipped.
Unlike Cruz, who had to pick up her sword and go into battle, Bryk got to sit back and let the ladies do the fighting. Speaking about playing the 'damsel in distress', he said, "It felt great. I got to chill. When I met our showrunner John, when I was auditioning, he explained the character and the arch. So I was like 'I'm the damsel in distress'. That was the moment I got it. But that's beautiful because every character subverts expectations in a variety of ways, so I was doing that as the prince who has been kidnapped. But everyone got the opportunity to do something that hadn't been done before."
With Ruby's character Kit around to protect him, who wouldn't be at ease? Reacting to playing a new-age badass female character, the actress said, "It felt awesome, to step into my role of strong, powerful, opinionated, messy, contemporary young woman. It was cool. And yeah, we all got some sort of expectations and preconceived ideas and stereotypes of what these characters are.
When asked about what went into shooting these action-packed scenes, especially the ‘battle at the Inn of the Slaughtered Lamb’, Ruby admits it was very difficult to film. Shot at the Morlais Quarry in southeast Wales, Cruz said that filming the battle scene taught the entire cast that they could do anything.
"It took a lot out of us physically. You need a lot of endurance on long night shoots where you are filming the same fight repeatedly so we could get a wide shot and have every angle possible,” she said.
“In the end, the scene may look epic, but it was gruelling to shoot. We had many, many days with the rain machine, and all the actors had a very complicated relationship with it because even though it rains in Wales 24/7, the filmmakers wanted to manufacture rain as well, and it had to be freezing cold. But we got through it. And ever since then, I’ve felt indestructible, and every time we had a hard day or the rain machine came back for a surprise appearance, I was like, I survived the Slaughtered Lamb so that I can do anything," Cruz continued.
The series was released late 2022, along with a host of other fantasy films and web series. Telling us what made 'Willow' stand apart from the rest, Dempsy said, "I think it is a great time for fantasy fans because you have endless opportunity to watch what you love and experience magic. What Willow does, is it encourage some space in its comedy. I wouldn't say it is a fantasy drama, but a fantasy variety show. It has comedy, drama, action, but it really is very self-aware."
Unlike other shows, this one also gives represents to the dwarf community. When asked to share their thoughts on the same, Ruby said that the way forward would be to "cast more minorities and have more of them included among the people behind the scenes, making decisions. To have people tell their own stories."
Dempsy added, "And also by telling diverse and authentic human stories. There are a lot of types of diversities, like intellectual and racial, and I think that with John, everyone is a human being with faults and flaws and attributes. So in that way, I feel like people just need stories that are just natural, authentic and human."
The series also stars an impressive list of actors including Ellie Bamber, Erin Kellyman, Tony Revolori, Amar Chada-Patel, Christian Slater, Hannah Waddingham, Annabelle Davis, Graham Hughes, and Kevin Pollak.