Ayoola Smart Says Her Co-Stars “Had a Lot Of Fun Beating” Her Up in ‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 2

The Wheel of Time Season 2 pulled off the narrative magic trick of not only deepening the fantasy show’s universe, but expanding it at the same time. Case in point: the introduction of the Prime Video show’s first major Aiel character: Aviendha (Ayoola Smart). Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins stole another Aiel character’s introduction from the book for Aviendha, allowing the fierce warrior the chance to connect with none other than Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) before meeting the rest of the Two Rivers gang. From the jump, Aviendha was spirited, courageous, and fun as heck — exactly as she appears in Robert Jordan’s beloved novels.

Because The Wheel of Time Season 2 grafts the plots of the second and third books together, Aviendha and her fellow Far Dareis Mai, aka “Maidens of the Spear,” Bain (Ragga Ragnars) and Chiad (Maja Simonsen) got to accompany Perrin all the way to Falme. Along the way, they introduced the Wetlander to the strange custom of toh, their secret sign language, “handtalk,” and the ideas that battle is a dance and death is simply waking up from a dream.

Book readers already know that Aviendha has a pivotal role to play in the upcoming storyline and she’s on a collision course with characters like Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and Elayne Trakand (Ceara Coveney). When Decider got the recent chance to talk with Ayoola Smart, we quizzed her on embracing the strange ways of the Aiel, her intense introduction, and if she’s willing to tease anything about Aviendha’s future storylines…

DECIDER: I’m a huge Aviendha fan from the books. The Aiel are such an iconic and very specific culture with a lot of different aspects to it. What was your favorite part of that culture to sink into? Was it the fighting, the costumes, the handtalk? I’m curious what you loved the most.

AYOOLA SMART: Yeah, I mean, there’s so many. Like you said, it’s very specific and there are so many great things within that. I think definitely the fighting was a massive pull and a very specific way of getting into the role. So that was a lot of fun and a lot of work. Really, to play a character where that’s really part of her DNA and that’s how she’s moved through life her whole life to this point. Inhabiting a character who’s so comfortable with being physically skilled and in a combat state was really interesting to me.

And the handtalk, yeah. Getting to be part of the creation of the language and getting to have a secret language and to do stuff with the girls whilst we’re filming. To kind of have this whole world that we haven’t really seen yet in The Wheel of Time and be part of the start of that story is, yeah, it’s been really special.

As a fan of the books, I’m always so curious how much the actors know about their characters’ storylines because the show seems to hint at a lot of stuff. Sometimes I also see cheeky social media stuff where I’m like, “Oh, do they know what’s coming?” So I’m curious how much you know? Are there any details that you’ve wanted to hint at? And specifically what is your understanding of what Aviendha and Elayne’s relationship is going to be down the line?

So I do know the broad strokes of Aviendha’s arc and, like, yeah, there is information that I have that will affect her later down the line. And I’ve read the first, like, four and a half books. So I have that perspective, but I made the choice to read the books as we shoot. So as we go along, I’ll read the most relevant books to whatever season that we’re shooting at the time. Just so I don’t have so much information ahead. One, [her story on the show] could change anyway, but also just to be more present in what her story is at the moment. And what she knows at the moment as well.  I don’t want to have too much.

But, yeah, it’s kind of impossible to avoid getting more information when you have books that have been out for such a long time. Yeah.

And with Elayne, I think I’ll leave that to the unknown. Let’s see what happens.

Speaking of changes from the books, the show version introduces Aviendha sort of how we meet Gaul in the hanging cage. How logistically uncomfortable was that? Did you find it a fun challenge or was it like, “Oh my gosh, get me out of this cage!”

It was, logistically, uncomfortable, I would say. That was my very first day of shooting. And as I was saying earlier, I think I spent like, I don’t know, at least four hours or something in that cage, like [going] up and down. And it is the size that we see. 

I think I had this just moment where, you know, I’m in this incredible set. It was also a night shoot. So it was like three or four in the morning and it was freezing. Like the ground, everything was frozen over. It was like minus degrees. We had to stop shooting on some days because the lake or the water behind, that Perrin pulls the boat out of, was iced over. We had to keep trying to break up the ice. So it was very, very cold. I had just this moment of like, “What am I doing? I am locked in a cage at 4 AM in Prague and I’ve just signed up for the rest of my life.” And it’s amazing.

It was amazing. It was such an instantly world-changing space to go into. It really made it a lot easier to kind of step into the world and step into the character. Also to have the physical discomfort there is actually just quite helpful.

The show also introduces the content of toh by showing us Bain and Chiad beating Aviendha for letting the team down, so to speak. Did that make sense to you? And did you like bonding with your co-stars in that respect?

Yeah. Yeah, it does. I think as the audience will get to experience more — but you know, for anyone who has read the books, we already know toh is such an important part of the Aiel culture. So being able to give an example of how that would affect the Aiel, specifically within their own unit, I suppose, outside of the Aiel waste, I think was a really interesting thing to do. Because it is also like, “What’s happening?” Like, you know, we see Perrin’s reaction of like, “This is crazy! Why are you beating her up?”

I think it’s just really interesting and then you want to know more and you’re like, “Well, what is this world here? Who are these people? Why is this such an important thing to them?”

And yeah, we had a lot of fun. They had a lot of fun beating me up over and over again in all of our practice sessions. [Chuckles]

I understand that Marcus bonded really greatly with the wolf dog that was playing Hopper. What was it like for you and Ragga and Maja to work alongside Hopper as well?

Lovely. My family pet dog that I grew up with looks a lot like Hopper and she died a few years before. She’s Utonagan, which are a breed that look like wolves, but aren’t. So I found it really lovely to be able to be on set with this beautiful creature.

There are so many different characters in this world. Some of which are not human. So to be able to work with animals in a safe and well-cared-for environment was really nice.