CinemaBlend discusses “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” with the cast including Morfydd Clark, Trystan Gravelle, Charlie Vickers, Lloyd Owen, Maxim Baldry, Ema Horvath, Leon Wadham, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Benjamin Walker, Nazanin Boniadi, and Tyroe Muhafidin. Watch as Sean O’Connell gets their reaction to hearing their show will screen in theatres, working with J.A. Bayona, how long some of them would last in Middle Earth, and much more!
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00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - It is here, Galadriel.
00:04 The moment we feared.
00:05 (thunder rumbling)
00:08 (dramatic music)
00:11 - It was just announced that the first two episodes
00:21 are gonna be going to movie theaters.
00:23 I was curious what your reaction was when you heard.
00:25 Did you guys not know this?
00:27 - I don't know.
00:28 - So, I'm very cool.
00:29 - There's your reaction.
00:30 - Any thoughts you can tell us?
00:31 - They announced that the first two episodes
00:33 are gonna be played in movie theaters
00:35 as part of a special fan event.
00:37 - Oh, right. - Very cool.
00:38 - I heard about the fan event.
00:39 Okay, that's incredible and rightfully so.
00:42 I want people to have that experience like we did
00:45 of seeing it on a big screen.
00:48 It's very cinematic, so that's amazing.
00:51 - You're the first person I heard that from.
00:53 Great news.
00:53 (laughing)
00:54 Yeah, literally, that's the brand new news
00:56 right from you, right there.
00:57 You knew?
00:58 - I just heard that on Twitter, yeah.
00:59 - I don't know.
00:59 - You're on Instagram.
01:00 - No.
01:01 - Well, I am, but I don't look at it.
01:02 (laughing)
01:03 - Yeah, I found that out on Instagram.
01:05 - Bravo. - Same, same.
01:07 - That is very, very good news.
01:08 I know Corey Olsen, the talking professor,
01:10 was pushing for that, so obviously, someone did well.
01:13 - It's really cool.
01:14 I think the show is so cinematic
01:18 and the first two episodes,
01:20 J.A. Bayona, who directed it,
01:22 is such an amazing director
01:24 who works with the camera so beautifully,
01:25 so I think they'll really shine in cinemas.
01:30 - He is a film director, he's an auteur.
01:33 You know, there's very few, I feel like,
01:37 there's very few of those directors
01:39 still working at this scale.
01:42 There's a handful of those that believe in the process
01:45 from its inception, that get involved to,
01:48 you know, the end of it, like, see it through,
01:50 wanna run as long as the cameras need to roll
01:55 in order to find that nugget and that kernel, that essence.
02:00 And it was, that's what the process was like
02:03 for me to work with him,
02:04 and I had a particular closeness to him
02:06 as we both speak Spanish,
02:08 so I was able to meet that even more intimate J.A.,
02:13 and, 'cause I call him J.A. 'cause we're friends.
02:16 He did a thing that was very, that I found,
02:21 being more of a visual person
02:23 and the character being quite behavioral,
02:27 he would run takes without any dialogue sometimes,
02:30 and we would just run through the beats with looks,
02:34 he would play music to get you in that environment
02:37 of the character, so it just felt like working
02:39 with just a great film director.
02:42 - His imagination is just wild, and so is his ambition.
02:45 And yet also, he's very kind of silly
02:49 and lighthearted on set.
02:51 And that's a wonderful combination for an actor,
02:54 to be able to work with someone like that.
02:55 - Yeah.
02:56 - And I think also, this is a global cast,
03:00 which I think really suited the material
03:01 because Tolkien was obsessed with myth and legend,
03:04 and we had kind of all these different cultures
03:06 who kind of were bringing their particular imagination
03:10 from their particular place, and J.A.'s is just,
03:13 and also his links with horror.
03:15 I think that fantasy and horror
03:17 kind of go really well together.
03:19 - The beautiful thing about Tolkien
03:20 is that a new generation can continuously
03:21 find this material, and so I'm curious
03:23 how you would pitch this show to someone
03:25 who maybe saw the Peter Jackson movies once
03:29 and have never read the books.
03:30 - This is where you wanna start.
03:33 The films are Middle Earth in its adulthood,
03:35 and they stand on their own,
03:37 but this is the first chapter.
03:40 This is the first steps on these epic journeys
03:43 that you get to witness.
03:44 You don't need to know anything,
03:45 just turn on Amazon, you'll be happy.
03:48 And what you'll see is such a rich, rich set
03:50 of worlds and realms, 'cause each realm
03:53 is at the peak of its power.
03:54 Numenor, Khazad-dûn, the Elven kingdoms.
03:57 It's a brilliant time to come to Middle Earth
04:00 and discover what happened before
04:03 all those major events that we know quite well.
04:06 - The beauty about Tolkien's work
04:08 is that there's so many themes which are timeless
04:12 and still modern.
04:15 Themes of friendship, of hope, of love and despair,
04:20 and I guess sticking together,
04:24 believing that something better is coming.
04:28 And I think that's the beauty of this world
04:31 because it's so vast and so fantastic,
04:35 yet within it, it has these stories
04:38 which hopefully audiences will really be able
04:40 to connect to.
04:41 I think it's a really good combination.
04:43 - I think it's interesting 'cause Tolkien
04:44 was not a big fan of allegory,
04:46 but I think one thing that appeals to me
04:49 about fantasy is that it cushions you
04:52 in a world where you can comfortably explore
04:54 our existential longing, what it is to be human.
04:58 And those themes of love, of loyalty,
05:02 all these things are timeless.
05:03 They belong to all of us, they're universal.
05:06 And that belongs to this moment
05:08 as much as it did 20 years ago.
05:10 - I would say that the themes are mythological.
05:13 They are, where he started it was local,
05:16 but it's translated to the universal.
05:18 So any of the themes that we feel as humans,
05:21 the battle between head and heart,
05:23 the relationship to power, what happens to ego,
05:26 I mean, specifically in terms of Numenor,
05:28 there's people who want to live forever.
05:30 And there's another side of the island,
05:32 which is more of the faithful,
05:34 who would like to continue on with the gift of Iluvatar
05:39 and die and be mortal.
05:40 So there are many a theme.
05:44 And I think because Tolkien was a genius
05:48 and that he condensed lots of different mythologies,
05:51 that this will be relatable as a story
05:53 throughout the centuries probably for him.
05:55 I'm sure it's gonna be ongoing.
05:57 - Going into this, we were told
05:58 that there's a five season commitment to this,
06:01 which is great.
06:02 It's job security for you guys
06:03 and you can sort of plan out what you're gonna be doing.
06:06 I'm curious how much you asked
06:08 about the future of the Ark or where the story is going.
06:12 Did you wanna know any of that
06:13 or you're just focused on the now?
06:15 - I mean, of course, I mean, everyone kind of wants to know
06:18 like what their security is like, I guess.
06:21 But I think right now,
06:23 I think the person that Theo is in the first season
06:26 would be very different to what Theo is
06:28 when he's mid twenties, you know?
06:31 He's also the hubris, how people are elves
06:33 and they get to live a lot longer.
06:34 So I honestly have no clue what's going on,
06:37 but right now I've been set a task to do
06:40 and I think I don't really wanna get ahead of myself
06:42 too much and just kind of focus on doing the job for now.
06:45 And if I live through Theo as he's living it,
06:50 then I think that's where the best of it will come out.
06:54 - You won't be in your mid twenties,
06:56 five seasons from now, you'll be 19.
06:58 - Oh yeah, probably.
06:59 (laughing)
07:00 - Well, I guess we know who we're playing
07:01 in terms of Elendil, Earian, Kemen,
07:05 but some of the characters are canon.
07:08 So we know where the trajectory is
07:10 and Tolkien's written kind of signposts,
07:13 moments that we know for these characters.
07:15 But at the minute we're focusing on season one
07:18 and exploring the characters in their early beginnings.
07:22 Isildur, for example, isn't a warrior yet.
07:24 He's a sailor on the cusp of adulthood
07:28 who's trying to find himself and his place in Numenor.
07:32 It's quite exciting to kind of not know everything.
07:36 And I think also kind of the showrunners have,
07:41 as they've got to know us all as well,
07:44 had that influence how they've written
07:48 particular characters and stuff.
07:49 So it's exciting.
07:51 - I'm curious if you guys were able to keep up
07:53 with some of the storylines that were happening
07:55 in other kingdoms and other realms,
07:57 or were you guys focused primarily on what you were doing?
07:59 - I think you've got to focus on the world that you're in.
08:03 I think, yeah, I guess that there's no need really
08:06 for a sense of the macro.
08:08 You can just keep it to your world.
08:10 And I think that benefits your character,
08:11 depending on your storyline, of course.
08:13 And with myself, I think it was all things Numenor.
08:16 - I mean, we were primarily focused within our worlds,
08:18 but we had the gift of going to other people's sets
08:22 and seeing their worlds.
08:23 And that was really special.
08:25 I once saw a dwarf, a Wynartha, eating sushi
08:29 at lunch, and that is a very bold thing to see.
08:34 He had to kind of like take his beard and like lift it up
08:37 and then just swallow some sushi.
08:38 But like, yeah, seeing all the worlds was very special,
08:41 but we only fully saw the finished product a few weeks ago.
08:44 And that was an emotional experience
08:48 because we've all been so engrossed in our own worlds
08:50 and then seeing everyone else bring their A game.
08:52 And yeah, that was-
08:54 - It was great. - It was great.
08:55 - Whose review of "Rings of Power" means the most to you?
08:59 - For better or worse, my mom.
09:00 My mom, she introduced me to the book.
09:03 She's been a huge Tolkien fan as long as I can remember.
09:06 And, you know, I grew up in Wellington,
09:07 so Tolkien has been inescapable my whole life.
09:10 When I was in primary school,
09:11 Peter Jackson was making his first trilogy.
09:13 When I was at drama school in Wellington,
09:14 he was making the "Hobbit" movies.
09:17 You know, Middle Earth has been in the air my whole life.
09:20 I never thought I'd be part of one of these stories,
09:22 but now that I am, the person who has the strongest opinion
09:25 is, in fact, my mother.
09:26 - My mom.
09:28 - That's also my answer.
09:30 Your mom. - My mom.
09:32 My mother is one of the least overtly excitable people
09:37 about my career.
09:38 Not in a bad way.
09:40 She's proud, but she, you know, I am her boy, you know?
09:45 So there is all this mirage of fame
09:50 or big posters, stuff like that.
09:52 That really doesn't do much for her.
09:55 So having, I want to bring essence to the character.
10:00 And if my mother sees that,
10:05 I know that then I did it right,
10:07 'cause she knows my essence.
10:09 So I'm very excited to hear what she has to say.
10:12 - I found that I was terrified
10:14 for the characters at every turn.
10:15 It felt like there was a threat around every corner.
10:18 I personally don't think I'd make it about five minutes
10:20 in the world of Middle Earth.
10:21 How long do you think you would survive?
10:23 - I can't see very well,
10:24 so I'm sure- (laughing)
10:27 - You could get some glasses, surely, Middle Earth.
10:31 - Does anyone have glasses?
10:32 - We don't need them in Numenor.
10:33 We've got perfect eyes right here.
10:34 - Yeah, if I lived on Numenor,
10:36 I could last a long time, I think,
10:38 if I was in Middle Earth.
10:39 - She's got a lot of smarts, though, this one.
10:42 So she's got her way around it.
10:43 - No, you could go to like a wizard
10:44 and like get some healing. - Get some eyes.
10:47 - Yeah, get some new eyes.
10:48 - Like, could Ema go to a wizard and get some new eyes?
10:51 - An actor in Middle Earth with all these orcs.
10:56 Do you think I could say a sonnet,
10:58 like they'd leave me alone or something?
11:00 I don't know.
11:01 I'd like to think maybe a couple of weeks.
11:05 You know, I enjoy fishing.
11:07 I can climb a tree, but probably not very long,
11:09 to be quite honest, with all these warriors and everything.
11:11 And, you know, I'm used to my comfortable life
11:15 in the 21st century, so.
11:17 (laughing)
11:19 (upbeat music)