That moment when Helnik started to blossom.
By Lyra HaleMay 18th, 2021, 4:53 pm
You can’t talk about Netflix’s
Shadow and Bone series without mentioning Nina and Matthias, played by Danielle Galligan and Calahan Skogman. These two … well, their characters are enemies, to say the least. Nina has grown up hearing stories about the big bad Fjerdans, and Matthias has grown up being taught that Grisha like Nina are an abomination that should never exist. Despite all of that and the history their people have about one another, Nina and Matthias click, according to director Mairzee Almas.
It wasn’t easy. Let’s make that clear. These two are as different as two people can be, so it was a balancing act that needed to be earned, and for Almas, that started when they were in the water together after the Fjerdan ship sunk. Alone, on the brink of death, they leaned on each other, Almas told us in an interview: “So they’re both using each other in the very beginning. Nina’s not completely benevolent by waking him up. She is waking Matthias up so he can kick and save them both. So she absolutely has an ulterior at the top of the sequence. And he’s very distrustful of her.”