'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' | Variety Studio presented by Google TV
Morfydd Clark, Charlie Vickers, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Sophia Nomvete step into our video studio at San Diego Comic Con 2024.
Presented by Google TV
Presented by Google TV
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00:00Ninety percent of my shoot is in mud and under the rain at 3 a.m.
00:04I always feel very lucky because I feel like I'm always inside. I'm not working at night.
00:08Sorry. I feel very spoiled. And then yes, we get to see the chiropractor on set.
00:30I'd like to go through everybody and just get a sense of where your character was at the beginning
00:34of season, where your character is at the beginning of season two. Morpeth, we'll start with you.
00:39Where's Galadriel at the beginning of season two? So we find Galadriel kind of having been proved
00:44right in the worst possible way. And she's kind of, she's been deceived by the Great Deceiver,
00:51which I think must be, he's pretty good at that. So we can't be too cruel to her. But yeah,
00:58she's got to redeem herself. Great Deceiver sitting right behind you.
01:07And Cynthia, where do we find Miriel? So Miriel at the beginning of season two,
01:14she's really starting from a place of loss. She has lost her vision at the end of season one.
01:20She has lost her father, the king, and she has lost a battle. And in turn, there are many
01:27Numenorean losses. Thanks to this one. She told me to do it. And so really season two for Miriel
01:35is going to be about navigating and overcoming these losses, but also trying to convince
01:39the people in Numenorean society that she is the one to lead them in the right direction.
01:45And there is a great divide in Numenor, in Middle-earth really. And so it's really going
01:53to be about Miriel overcoming the odds and stepping into her greatness, I think.
02:00Right. Ismael, where's Arondir at the beginning of season two?
02:06With Arondir in the beginning of season two, we find him at a great crossroad. There's a pivot
02:14that his circumstances have obligated him to face. And I think there's loss, there's
02:22fear, and also there's a deeper darkness within himself. And I think there's also
02:31a struggle between his humanness and his elvenness, even though he is fully elf.
02:38But he's very, very, very keen of humans. And it's what kind of path does he follow,
02:50and what is his vendetta? I have to go around where you find him to protect the
02:59storyline a little bit, but that's it.
03:03Charles, where's Cerebrimbor at the beginning of season two?
03:06So we left him at the end of season one. The three elven rings are done. So he's waiting
03:13to hear how that's gone. But he feels quite abandoned because he hasn't had any...
03:22All he's had from Galadriel was that we must not treat with this man anymore. Nothing about Sauron,
03:29nothing about any of that. But when he first meets Helbrand in the forge at the end of season one,
03:39that's when Sauron's spell has been cast. So we're waiting to see
03:44how that web is going to be, how he's going to be trapped in that web, which we will see.
03:52Sophia, how's Disa doing in the beginning of season two?
03:56End of season one, she makes a promise, I guess. The Mithril is ours.
04:04And so we really start to see that ambitious drive when everything's been stripped from
04:10Prince Durin. And of course, the relationship between Prince Durin and the king is very fractured.
04:15So opening season two, they kind of have nothing, but she is keeping optimistic and strong,
04:22as Disa does. But with that, the existential crisis of Khazad-dûm is looming over her.
04:33The kingdom is in trouble. It's a real matter of life and death. And so she is pulling out
04:38all the stops in whichever way possible to make sure that the kingdom survives. And
04:45you know, the rings are here and they provide solution, but they also come
04:50with lots of problems, particularly when she meets these two.
04:57So Charlie, your character is named Sauron, but he also goes by several different names.
05:02So what is his name at the beginning of season two, would you say?
05:07Depends who you ask. I think at the start of season two, for all intents and purposes,
05:12he is Halbrand. So we leave him at the end of season one, walking down a cliff into Mordor.
05:21And he starts season two with nothing. He's lost his friend, his only friend.
05:31Well, he deserved that.
05:34He's got absolutely nothing, but he still has an idea. And he has just come from meeting
05:40Celebrimbor, the greatest of elven smiths, for the first time.
05:44A huge celeb.
05:45And he wants to go back there. So he has to hatch a plan to get back to Eregion and get back in and
05:53try and get this idea happening.
05:58So you guys shot season two in London. And a lot of your storylines are sort of off on their own
06:06paths while they, you know, and not a lot of interaction. So I'm wondering, as actors,
06:13what is the level of interactivity that you get to have with each other while you're making the show?
06:18Well, it's very different in London than it was in New Zealand.
06:22Entirely worlds apart, literally, but under entirely different circumstances, because
06:28many of us came to New Zealand from all over the world to film it.
06:31And when you're filming something like that,
06:33a long way away from home, you spend all your time or a lot of your time with your castmates.
06:38Particularly as it was the first, it was that establishing,
06:41establishing, getting to know each other.
06:42And there was a COVID hiatus.
06:45In London, it's different for all of us, but speaking for myself,
06:50you know, you go to work and then you go home. So you see, but the grounding that
06:54was created during that first season for the cast has been absolutely invaluable.
06:59And it's moments like this, we come together and it's honestly,
07:03we could be, in terms of the dynamic between us, we could be back in New Zealand.
07:07Because it is, you know, many of us are at home, myself as well, when we're shooting in London.
07:12And so it is kind of work home and we're with the people that we share scenes with.
07:18But, you know, it's not often we look forward to these moments where we can come together
07:22and we just pick up where we left off.
07:24And that is for the foundation that we built in New Zealand.
07:27So, yeah, we're grateful for that, I think, I hope.
07:30We get to sneak onto each other's sets, which is fun.
07:33Yeah, we're not really allowed to do it.
07:35No, so that makes it extra special.
07:38Undercover.
07:39It's one of my favourite things to do, to be found in someone else's set by the producer.
07:46What are you doing here?
07:47My first set sneak, we were on the iced wall.
07:52That was my very first set sneak in New Zealand, is what I thought.
07:56I'm on it.
07:59So in that vein, what would you say was like the most impressive set for season two?
08:06Like when you watch and you're like, oh my goodness, this is incredible.
08:09You're spoilt for choice, aren't you?
08:10Well, yeah, we are.
08:12And also each of us will have a different answer because we're all different sets.
08:15We're pretty limited.
08:16Charlie and I were basically in one set the whole season.
08:17It's a great set.
08:18It's an incredible set.
08:20But it felt like we were doing a play because it was just the two of us in a room.
08:23In this huge cathedral like forge.
08:27Which when they need to move the cameras in, you could move a bit of the wall away,
08:30get the camera in, put the wall back.
08:32So you feel like you're in a room.
08:35You guys were in Windsor Great Park a lot, weren't you?
08:38Yeah, we were in the woods in the middle of winter.
08:42How lovely.
08:45We were having quite different experiences.
08:48Very varied experiences.
08:50Same.
08:52Wonderful to feel at one with nature.
08:53Yeah, 90% of my shoot is in mud and under the rain at 3am in the show.
09:00Like rarely in a set.
09:01But because I did sneak into a lot of sets, I would say, I mean,
09:06their set and Numenor are just breath taking.
09:10Well, Numenor has always had the really lush deluxe set.
09:14I always feel very lucky because I feel like I'm always inside.
09:16I'm not working at night.
09:20Sorry.
09:22I feel very spoiled.
09:23And then yes, a chiropractor on set.
09:26We also have incredible locations as well.
09:28So for Numenor this season, we got to go to Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
09:33So yeah, we had a bit of coastal Mediterranean deluxe vibes.
09:36I'm so sorry, guys.
09:37I feel terrible.
09:38She's not sorry.
09:39She's not sorry at all.
09:42Well, we're a little bit out of time.
09:44But the last question I want to ask you that we've been asking everybody who's coming in here
09:48is what is on your watch list?
09:51What are you watching right now?
09:53Shogun for me.
09:55Shogun is just...
09:56And ironically, Charlotte Brandstrom, one of our directors, directed an episode of that.
10:02I love where we're at technologically speaking, just with visuals,
10:07what streaming and television has the capability to do.
10:10And some of these really expansive stories to see the ability to bring,
10:14whether it's historical or fantasy, to really honour the scale of it.
10:20I'm incredibly impressed with that series.
10:23So I highly recommend if none of you have seen it.
10:26The Jinx, part two.
10:27Oh, yes.
10:29Oh, it's so good.
10:32I'm watching Goliath on Amazon Prime.
10:36Amazon Prime.
10:38I just watched Monkey Man, Dev Mittal's directorial debut,
10:43which he also wrote and starred in.
10:44And I think it's one of the most wonderful films I've seen forever.
10:47And just kind of what it's exploring within that genre.
10:50And yes, recommend for everyone to watch it.
10:53And I also just love that Dev pretends so much of the stuff he's done
10:57is got a mother loving her son at the beginning.
11:01And I think that's something really beautiful about the stuff he's chosen to do.
11:05I'm doing a Studio Ghibli retrospect.
11:09I've been kind of just watching everything.
11:11I love animation.
11:12And I love that genre.
11:14And I think when I'm shooting, I gravitate towards that.
11:17It makes me like make more sense of the world, I feel.
11:22And like activates a little bit of that sense of wonder
11:24that you need when you're shooting,
11:26especially I'm like locked into gritty stories in my career.
11:33But yeah, Ayame Azaki.
11:37I just watched the first couple of seasons of Line of Duty on BBC.
11:40The last from the past of English crime drama.
11:44So that's what I've been watching.
11:45Good.
11:46It's great.
11:46It's so good.
11:47First season is particularly cool.
11:49Yeah, it is.
11:49The life is crime drama.
11:50Great.
11:53Guys, thank you so much for coming in.
11:54Have a great rest of your Comic-Con.
11:56Thank you very much.
12:10Bye.
12:40Bye.