Maxance Vincent
While Charles Edwards does appear in the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power as Lord Celebrimbor, his arc is not set in motion until season two, where his character is the main point of focus, as he is manipulated by Sauron, who disguises himself as Annatar, in forging corrupted rings.
It’s not only a massive responsibility to become the main narrative arc of the season, but also huge for the repercussions this will have for the future of the series, as it sets the rest of the events of the Second Age in motion. In working on Celebrimbor’s journey in season two, Edwards, who recently spoke to Awards Radar on Zoom, tells us that “it didn’t feel pressurized in a bad way. It felt pressurized in a very exciting way, particularly because we knew where the story was headed. When I took the role, you know what becomes of him. However, the way they took us there in season two, down these twisty, turny psychological cul-de-sacs and mind games, I thought they did a beautiful job.
The more scripts came in, I went “Oh, God, this is so cool,” especially when the world falls apart at his doo, but he hasn’t got a clue. I just thought that episode seven, for me, when it all starts to unravel and come together, his realization was the most thrilling part of the whole thing. Working with Charlie Vickers, the two Charlies, for those months was incredible. Unbelievably, those scenes were mostly shot in order. To go to that set every day with a crew that was starting to get into the story and couldn’t wait to get back to work the next day was a satisfying piece of work, and I’m very proud of what we did with it.”
Shooting most of these scenes in chronological order was, for Edwards, “a huge benefit for the way the story developed. And it was very theatrical in a way, because it was, as I said, just the two of us on this huge set. It felt like a piece of theater. It’s so satisfying, especially when there are quiet, still scenes, and everybody’s listening. It was a great way to work.”
In representing Celebrimbor’s downfall, Edwards explained that “You try and do it by little moments of realization. I tried to set it up in what little there was of me in season one. I knew I would be ready for a fall later, so I had to set up moments of ambition, vanity, pride, and blindness. I tried to hint at all those things I knew were going to come tumbling down later on and be his own undoing in a way. But when I was working with Charlie, he became someone else when playing Annatar. Remember Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs? That stillness and what he did with his eyes? Charlie kept reminding me of him because it’s just so mesmerizing and terrifying all in one, but very seductive.
I was at a comic con the other day, and a little kid said, “Why did Celebrimbor believe him when he came out of the fire, and why was he so silly to believe him?” And I said, “Yeah, but you’ve got to understand that he’s now a God. He’s presented himself as this all-powerful God, and of course, you’re going to do what he says.” But the kid still couldn’t quite buy that, and he queued up again to ask the same question 10 minutes late. However, that’s the reason he goes with it, because he believes a beneficial superpower is leading him. I never had any issue with him being gullible or anything like that, because I think he believed what he needed to believe in order to further himself and his own interests in a rather vain way.”
Of course, there was much more to talk about in our fifteen-minute-long conversation, as Celebrimbor’s time in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has now come to a close. Check out our full interview below, and be sure to watch all episodes of this incredible series on Prime Video today:
[Some of the quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity]
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