‘A Knight of Seven Kingdoms’ Actress Responds to Racial Backlash About Her Role

Fandom reaction to HBO‘s debut season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been nearly universally positive.

But there’s one ugly element of the show’s praise that’s largely flown under the radar.

Late in the six-episode-season’s run, a narrative began to take hold on social media that the show was doing well because it was “non-woke” compared to certain other recent fantasy and sci-fi shows because it centers on two white male characters, Dunk and Egg (played by Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell), both of whom are portrayed in a very positive and heroic light. One part of the show that didn’t align with this viewpoint was the casting of Tanzyn Crawford as Tanselle, a traveling performer from Dorne who charms Dunk, and some on social media have griped about the actress being in the show.

Talking to Wonderland magazine, the Australian actress addressed the issue for the first time.

“It was intimidating to step into something that people are so connected to, love so much and have a lot of opinions about,” Crawford said. “I definitely did get some negativity around race, but at the end of the day, I’m employed — and I’m following my dreams.”

She added that saga creator George R.R. Martin assured her she was precisely what he imagined when he wrote the character in his novella, The Hedge Knight.

“[Martin told me] ‘you’re exactly what I pictured [for Tanselle]’,” Crawford said. “The beauty of Tanselle in this series is she’s a softer outlet. The rest of the show is very manly, quite harsh and brutal. I think she’s self-confident and has her own little passions and worlds that are very separate from everyone else. Of course, her storyline involves Dunk (played by Peter Claffey), but she has her own thing going on.”

Tanselle doesn’t appear in the second Dunk and Egg novella, The Sworn Sword, which is being developed into the second season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. But Crawford does have a high-profile new gig in the works, having signed onto Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the game Assassin’s Creed.

Meanwhile, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finished out its first season with its first season finale getting season-high ratings last week, earning 9.5 million viewers over its first few days. The show has also grown its viewership nearly every week during the six-episode season. Since its Jan. 18 premiere, the show is averaging 26 million viewers worldwide.