Maxance Vincent
One of the most shocking reveals of the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the realization that Halbrand, who has been at Galadriel’s side for some time, was, in reality, Sauron, the primary antagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world. In the second season, in order to successfully manipulate Celebrimbor into forging corrupted rings of power, he must take a different shape and present himself as someone else. That person becomes Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, who bestows to Celebrimbor the responsibility of becoming The Lord of the Rings.
In approaching a character who changes appearances, actor Charlie Vickers tells Awards Radar during a Zoom press day that “it’s an actor’s dream, particularly this early in my career. I didn’t think I’d ever get a role like this in my wildest dreams. When I was training as an actor, I got this toolbox of things you can do, and you leave thinking, “Well, am I ever going to use these transformation tools that I’ve been given?” Yet, being cast as a character whose nature is transformative is what I love about acting. It’s really cool.”
In developing the narrative arc and emotional progression of Sauron’s corrupted partnership with Celebrimbor, Vickers explained that his collaboration with Charles Edwards was very close, stating, “We spent so much time together, developing it and working together. We knew that it was the make-or-break part of the season, because it’s an arc that so many people who know this time period have been waiting to see. It’s famous amongst people who are fans of The Lord of the Rings. We wanted to get that right, but also we wanted to create something interesting for people who have no idea about the world and just want to watch a good piece of television with two characters’ psychological interplay.”
In attempting to portray Annatar, the actor explains that he “originally wanted to make him completely different. I thought it would be cool to play a character that shares nothing with another character. However, the further I got, the more I realized that, psychologically, they’re still the same character. They’re still seeking the same things. Physically, I decided to move differently and vocally, change the voice a bit, but not a completely different accent or pitch of voice. Yet, the further we got rehearsing, we realized that I should bring it back to a deeper pitch, and a more natural pitch for me, which helped unlock the character.”
As always, when talking about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, there was much to discuss, and you can watch my full interview with Charlie below:
[Some of the quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity]
Comments
Loading…