Ismael Cruz Cordova “loved” stirring up trolls as first elf of colour in Lord Of The Rings

nme.com:

Lord of the Rings franchise.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.