Entertainment editor Jenni Mortimer chats to the cast ahead of the season 2 premiere and finds out just how much they miss us. Video / Supplied
Entertainment editor Jenni Mortimer sat down with Charlie Vickers, Markella Kavenagh, Tyroe Muhafidin and Leon Wadham from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast, in Sydney, to talk about the upcoming season and what viewers can expect to see unfolding in Middle-earth this time around.
Wadham: “The studio was 30 minutes from my house. London is so far from my house.
“I really miss the crew, I really miss the team, no question. But we’re blessed to have a great one in London too.”
Leon, you were born and raised in Aotearoa but moved to London for the second season - what was it like shifting production from your home base?
Wadham: “It was bananas because it had never crossed my mind that that was a possibility.
“What was heartening was getting to London and all of these sets and costumes that had been made by incredible craftspeople in New Zealand were still there, we were still working these things.
“To walk into a studio I’d never seen before and still see stuff I remember from home - that was a great way to start.”
The first season debuted on Amazon Prime with 25 million viewers in the first 24 hours and became the streaming service’s most-watched series to date. Did the cast know the show was going to be as much of a success as it was?
Vickers: “You never know these things, right? Because of the circumstances in which we made the show - with Covid, lockdown - we all felt incredibly looked after and embraced by everyone in New Zealand.
“We were in this magical bubble making the show, and as Leon said, the crews were so wonderful, and it was like the repercussions of us making it didn’t really exist because we felt so locked away and looked after.
“And then all of a sudden you’re doing a press tour, and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, other people are going to watch this. It’s not just all of us in this amazing place in New Zealand’.
“You do slowly get to grips with how much people like it and that’s really special.”
The Rings of Power is an intense and, at times, dark show. Did the cast still manage to make room to enjoy funny moments on set?
Vickers: “I worked with Charlie Edwards the whole season, who plays Celebrimbor, and he’s hilarious, unintentionally hilarious a lot of the time as well.
“He trips over a lot, never really sits still. We have these robes that are really long and elves aren’t allowed to look down - there’s a very strict set of rules you have to abide by if you’re an elf, you have to sit up straight, you just have to be elvin’.
“So we can’t see where we’re going a lot of the time because the studios are dark and you can never look at your feet and he was falling down stairs.
“He didn’t actually fall down the stairs, but yeah, he does a lot of fun things.”
Charlie Vickers as Sauron in Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power, season two. Photo / Prime Video
Anything you couldn’t live without on set? Or creature comforts?
Vickers: “Well, actually, I’m sort of doing a campaign to get better chairs on the set because the chairs were terrible.
“You ever watched WWE? They were like the steel chairs that they use to smash people on the head with.
“And normally, when you think of a set, you think of a nice canvas wooden chair. That’s a creature comfort that I can no longer live without - a nice chair.”
What was the last book you read?
Muhafidin: “Can’t remember the last book I read.”
Vickers: “The Riders by Tim Winton.”
Wadham: “If it was four days ago, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.”
Did any of you manage to steal anything from the set to keep as memorabilia?
Muhafidin: “I’ve got an ear of Arondir from season one. I think it’s sitting in my mum’s wardrobe.”
Kavenagh: “How did that even happen?”
Muhafidin: “I think he just ripped it off and went, ‘Here you go buddy’.”
Charlie, you have some pretty intense scenes, especially playing the main antagonist of the show. What do you do to get yourself into character?
Vickers: “When I was at school and university, I was always cast as villains. But that’s because there are no real villains anyway. In school plays, you all get cast as older people, they’re generally villainous. And I thought, well, I’ll probably never get cast that in my career.
“But I have been [cast] quite quickly as Sauron, so maybe there’s something inherently villainous about me that just works as a villain.
“I don’t know how I get into character. I kind of just imagine, what if? It’s hard to [get into character] with Charlie Edwards as well, because we weren’t serious a lot of the time.
“I think when you’re doing really dark, intense stuff, I find that if you’re living in that dark, intense place, particularly when you’re filming for eight months, you just go crazy. So you have to joke in between. That’s what I find at least.”
Charlie Vickers as Sauron. Photo / Prime Video
Any special messages for Kiwi fans waiting for the new season, or for those who haven’t seen it before?
Wadham: “It’s good stuff, you should watch the show.”
Kavenagh: “What would I say to people to watch? I would say please have a go at watching it, and I hope you love it as much as we loved making it.”
Vickers: “I second that. We put a lot of love and effort into it and it’s a continuation of the love and effort that everyone in New Zealand gave us. We felt so at home and I hope people love what we made in the second season as well.”
Muhafidin: “You guys will always be the heart of the show. You were the core and the foundations. We will never forget that. So much love and we feel your support and we just hope you enjoy the season.”
Give us one reason why people should watch the show.
Wadham: “[It’s a] good show, thrilling show, fun show.”
