The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Interview With Charles Edwards, Cynthia Addai-Robinson
The stars of “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power,” including Charles Edwards (Celebrimbor), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Queen Regent Míriel), Ema Horvath (Eärien), Ismael Cruz Cordova (Arondir), Daniel Weyman (The Stranger), and Maxim Baldry (Isildur), discuss their new addition to the “LOTR” world in this interview with CinemaBlend. They discuss how their characters may or not meet in the show, joining this growing world, and more!
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00:00 we had no idea what all the other guys were doing in different levels.
00:03 That's what I wanted to ask. Have you guys shared scenes together or are you
00:07 meeting for the first time somewhat recently?
00:09 Well, that goes into secrets.
00:11 Nice try.
00:26 Before you guys dive into your own production at all, do you touch the Peter Jackson films
00:31 just to maybe set the tone for yourself or do you want to keep a distance from what exists?
00:35 I think, you know, I'll speak for myself. I think it's great to have the film as a reference,
00:43 as something that, you know, obviously is a classic set of films, but we very much were
00:50 intent on really creating our own thing. This is our adaptation and it's nice to have ownership
00:56 over that. For me personally, it's really about Tolkien's writing and always going back to the
01:03 literature and the lore. And obviously it's inspired many adaptations and so, you know,
01:10 we all get to coexist happily. So to me, you know, I know the comparison is a natural one to make,
01:17 but I think this feels like something that is a new, fresh take and you can enjoy our version and
01:26 you can enjoy all the other versions that are out there.
01:28 Charlie, to that end, with the lore, you could get swallowed up, you know,
01:33 as much as we want to. So how much do you just rely on the script, you know, what's in front of
01:39 you to get through it and how much did you branch off and deep dive into?
01:43 I branched off once I arrived on set. A lot of my work was with Rob Arameo, who's a very,
01:50 he's a very smart guy when it comes to Tolkien. And so I did a lot of reading, but my character
01:57 exists in a key, but in a very minimal way in our usable source material. So as far as
02:04 Celebrimbor is concerned, I did all the research I could, but Tolkien gives us a sketch essentially,
02:11 in terms of my character. And it's up to me and everyone else, all the heads of department and
02:16 the showrunners to contribute to the character, bring the wardrobe, the design of the studio,
02:23 all that stuff. So I have since done a lot more reading, but the reading I did
02:30 before I started adapting the role was purely focused on the character.
02:34 Gotcha. Emma, when there are so many characters in a series like this and so many storylines,
02:39 it can be tough for the audience to keep it all straight and try to follow different plotlines
02:45 and how things are grouped. How does this show in particular work to maybe avoid some of that?
02:49 I think the worlds are so separate and rich and beautiful in their own ways. I think there's,
02:56 I remember we saw the first three episodes a few days ago and each world has its own very
03:02 distinct color palette and atmosphere. And you can feel it coming from the first shot when we
03:08 switch to a different storyline. So I think there's no trouble there.
03:11 Maxim, your character is best known for not destroying the One Ring when he had the opportunity
03:16 to do that. Sorry guys. But I mean, so now this gives you an opportunity to explore a different
03:24 aspect of that character. That's primarily what he's known for. So what was it like having the
03:28 ability to go down different roads with him? I mean, the privilege and an honor,
03:32 definitely felt the weight of expectation of people's interpretation of this character. But
03:36 we're kind of at the beginning of his journey almost. And I was grateful to be able to explore
03:43 him finding himself and not wanting to pursue his father's dream of becoming a sea captain and kind
03:51 of wanting to do something else and take it in a different direction. And I think in turn, it makes
03:56 him a lot more relatable and maybe you can understand him down the line. Right. A little
04:01 bit more. I hope so. We'll see. Daniel, I want to talk about fan theories if I could.
04:06 Sure. There have been some fun ones out there about your character, primarily being associated
04:10 with what they call the Meteor Man. Right. How much have you read up on this? I'm not going to
04:16 ask you to clarify anything unless you want to right now. But do you have fun sort of exploring
04:20 fan theories? Yeah, when it all started, I did. And now I think it's so massive. And actually,
04:27 it's sort of so exciting that people are having those discussions quite aside from anything
04:30 that I'm saying. So I'm sort of letting that all cook away. But I'm really excited that when we,
04:35 you know, in under nearly under a month, we're going to we're going to be able to start showing
04:38 people what we've got in terms of this character. And then those discussions are going to start
04:42 really honing in. And that's when it'll get sort of even funner, I think. So I'm waiting for that.
04:47 Are you sort of fending off from friends and family? Yeah. But that's because I've seen that
04:52 that's been going on for, you know, two years, because for all of us, really, we've been trying
04:57 to keep a lot of funder up so that when people see it on screen, it's the first time they're
05:00 experiencing things. Sure. And to that end, Ismail, what was the moment when it actually felt
05:06 the enormity of it all felt real to you on set? I was gonna say the enormity of it, a whole H.
05:11 First time I'm assuming? Yes. What did that feel like? Rock star moment. Yeah, yeah.
05:18 Rock star moment. It was so great. Can you see far out? You can, but you definitely can feel
05:24 that wave of energy. You really can. And it's like, and for the most part, it feels, I mean,
05:29 it feels positive. You just feel like you're there to be celebrated and embraced. But for me on set,
05:36 the enormity of it all, to be honest, first day on set, I got in full costume, full prosthetics,
05:46 and just saw this incredible world that they have built inside of soundstage in which
05:51 every aspect of it was thought out and obsessed over and thought about. Even things that, you
05:58 know, they're not going to make in camera. Okay. So, but it was all part of the environment. And
06:03 that's the commitment that I think is the through line for the show and the through line for the
06:09 characters as well. So, Tolkien, when he was writing Lord of the Rings, had a lot of parallels
06:14 to World War II at the time. And I'm curious how you guys think the show speaks to our modern age,
06:20 if it does at all. Well, I think it does. I mean, I think all art is representative of
06:27 the times and it's not really that the art doesn't have to speak to the times. I think
06:31 the times speak to the art and people have the lens of what's happening right now. They will
06:35 definitely feel and they will definitely find their own attachments, their own metaphors,
06:41 their own stories. I think because it is so driven by humanity, it's so driven by truth and honesty,
06:47 that is going to be universal in that sense. Right. When you guys were filming, did we get a
06:52 sense of what content was going into each episode? Could you guys, like, could you think of an
06:57 episode that you can't wait for fans to see? Or when you were filming, it was just one massive
07:01 story? Well, I know for me, my first day was toward the end of the season. So I had this
07:08 interesting process of almost working backwards a little bit. This story really ramps up and in
07:17 each of the worlds, there's a real sort of build to a crescendo. And so there's some stuff toward
07:23 the end of the season that I know I can't wait to see. And what I really take pleasure in, again,
07:30 is that, you know, I'm excited for what happens in my own world, but I love watching my friends
07:35 in their worlds, sort of just have these amazing stories and they just bring these characters to
07:41 life. I know these people, I'm continuing to get to know them. I love them so much. And it's just
07:46 exciting to just sort of watch your friends do their thing and really bring a true sense of who
07:51 they are to these characters. And that's something that we've only been afforded recently, very
07:56 recently. We had no idea what all the other guys were doing in different worlds. That's what I
08:00 wanted to ask. Have you guys shared scenes together or are you meeting for the first time
08:05 somewhat recently? Well, that goes into secrets. Nice try. But what is a character moment,
08:16 Charlie, that you can't wait for fans to experience? Whether it may be a meeting
08:20 between certain characters or... That's difficult to talk about. But I think for him, for me,
08:30 I'm so excited to be playing this role that has never been, to my knowledge, been played before,
08:35 other than in a video game. But I don't play video games, so I don't know what he's like in
08:40 that game. But it's... And it will be his first appearance, I think. Because when you see him in
08:49 situ in his workplace and you know what may be coming later in the show, it kind of sets the
08:58 scene. And that's very exciting to be part of. I will get you guys out of here on this.
09:02 How do you guys feel about binging versus waiting a week in between or waiting for some time in
09:08 between? Good things come to those who wait. I think it's, you know, let it linger and maybe
09:16 watch it again. You know, I think it's, you know, I know it's like, imagine someone's setting a
09:21 really delicious pie in front of you and you could eat the whole pie, but that would be a lot.
09:26 Wouldn't you rather spread it out over the week? I think it would do a disservice to binge it.
09:34 I think it's such high quality. The conversation is going to be so big that you're not going to
09:40 be able to get away from spoilers. I think every week people should tune in at time and like,
09:46 enjoy it and be part of the conversation. And actually to watch it communally, I think will
09:49 be... Because I was thinking, yeah, actually I want to watch this. I know Amazon do the watch
09:53 parties, but I think that kind of communal watching could be really great. It's fun watching it
09:57 together. Because one of the issues about when a full season drops is you never know where anybody
10:04 is in it. And the first question you always ask is like, how far have you watched? You know,
10:07 what episode are you on? Kind of thing. So I do really appreciate when everybody's at the same
10:11 point in the story and then people can talk about it that way. So I can't wait till we
10:14 can all start experiencing it. Thank you guys for coming by.