Have you watched ‘Shadow & Bone’ on Netflix yet? If you haven’t, then you should do that now! If you have, then you probably already decided who your favorite characters are. For me, it was the Crows – hands down! They were witty, fun, and cool; and they all had such distinct and amazing personalities.

When we got to interview them via Zoom before the show was released on Netflix, I almost lost my cool. Aside from playing such cool characters, they were genuinely nice and humble. We asked them what their training was like for the show – because let’s face it: they were bad-ass – and here’s what they shared with us.

Amita Suman, who plays Inej, was one capable and strong woman in the show, so I was surprised to learn that she actually knew nothing that Inej was capable of. “I didn’t have the strength. I didn’t have the stamina. I never went to the gym before in my life,” she admits. “But I said to myself I love this character so much and I took it upon myself to put in as much training as possible, increase my flexibility, increase my strength, gain a bit of muscle.”

She didn’t have any specific knife training, either, but was given 14 knives to play around with and hold. “I did as much as I could,” she says – and it really shines through. To prepare for the role, Amita shares that she watched the film ‘Anita’ because she felt like Anita and Inej fight and move the same way.

Being an aerialist myself, I had to ask about her aerial skills, too. Apparently, she had a fantastic stunt double for the really cool things Amita wasn’t able to do because of health reasons and the pain that comes with doing it, but she did do some of the scenes and found it to be so much fun. “For Inej, her acrobatic and circus background means so much to her. It was her happiness before she was forced into her horrific things, so I tried to enjoy it as much as I could… regardless of how painful it was,” she shares.

Kit Young, who plays Jesper, on the other hand, admits that he isn’t nearly as brave as Jesper is. “I’m not really a good gunslinger,” he claims.”I can flick ’em around but actually hitting the target miles away? Not me.” For Kit, the books proved to be the greatest resource along with pop culture. Some of his influences for the role include Errol Flynn, Han Solo, Billy the Kid, and even Woody and Buzz from ‘Toy Story’. “There’s some joy and playfulness there that can be used in a lot of what is often quite dark and tricky scenarios,” he explains.

Freddy Carter, who plays Kaz, shares that he doesn’t actually think he’s a natural leader, but still had loads of fun. “Because we’re massive fans of the books, we were all really eager to do a deep dive on these characters.” Since Season 1 follows the first book of ‘Shadow & Bone’, the trio was actually able to put in little Easter Eggs for ‘Six of Crows’ that they are really happy about.

Kit adds, “What’s really cool about it is that what we’re doing is that no one has ever seen it or read it. It’s completely brand new. That’s really exciting because you think you know the story but we’re giving you something extra. We’re laying the groundwork for who these characters will become later in the story. They’ll be recognizable, of course, but there are certain things that we get to do for the first time.”

Watch ‘Shadow and Bone’ on Netflix now!

Shadow & Bone

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