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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00:00It was just announced that the first two episodes are going to be going to movie theaters.
00:23I was curious what your reaction was when you did you guys not you guys not know this?
00:31Announced that the first two episodes are going to be played in movie theaters as part of a
00:36special fan event. Oh, I heard about the fan event. Okay, that makes that's incredible. And
00:41rightfully so. I want people to have that experience like we did of seeing it on a big
00:46screen. There's it's it's very cinematic. So that's, that's amazing. You're the first person
00:52I heard that from. Great news. Yeah, literally, that's the brand new news right from you right
00:56there. You knew? I saw that on Twitter. I don't know. You're not on Instagram. No. Well, I am,
01:01but I don't look at it. Yeah, I found that out on Instagram. That is very, very good news. I know
01:08Corey Olsen, the Tolkien professor was pushing for that. So obviously, someone did well. It's
01:13really cool. I think it's I think the show is so cinematic. And the first two episodes,
01:20J.A. Bayona, who directed it, is such an amazing director who works with the camera so beautifully.
01:26So I think they'll really shine in in cinemas. He is a film director, he's an auteur, you know,
01:34there's very few, I feel like there's very few of those directors still working at this scale.
01:42There's a handful of those that believe in the process from its inception that get involved to,
01:48you know, the end of it, like see it through, want to run as long as the cameras need to roll
01:55in order to find that nugget in that kernel, that essence. And it was that's what the process was
02:02like for for me to work with him. And I had a particular closeness to him as we both speak
02:07Spanish. So I was able to to meet that even more intimate J.A. and because I call him J.A.
02:18He did a thing that was very that I found being more of a visual person and the character being
02:25quite behavioral. He would run takes without any dialogue sometimes and we would just run through
02:31the beats with looks. He would play music to get you in that environment of the character. So it
02:38just felt like working with just a great film director. His imagination is just wild and so
02:44is his ambition. And yet also he's very kind of silly and lighthearted on set. And that's a
02:52wonderful combination for an actor to be able to work with someone like that. Yeah. And I think
02:57also like this is a global cast, which I think really suited the material because Tolkien was
03:02obsessed with myth and legend. And we had kind of all these different cultures who kind of were
03:08bringing their particular imagination from their particular place. And J.A.'s is just and also his
03:14links with horror. I think that fantasy and horror kind of go really well together. The beautiful
03:19thing about Tolkien is that the new generation can continuously find this material. And so I'm
03:23curious how you would pitch this show to someone who, you know, maybe saw the Peter Jackson movies
03:28once and have never read the books. This is where you want to start. The films are Middle Earth and
03:34it's adulthood and they stand on their own. But this is this is the first chapter. This is the
03:41first steps on these epic journeys that you get to witness. You don't need to know anything. Just
03:46turn on Amazon. You'll be happy. And what you'll see is such a rich, rich set of worlds and realms
03:51because each each each realm is at the peak of its power. Numenor, Khazad-dûn, the Elven kingdoms.
03:57It's it's a brilliant time to come to Middle Earth and discover what happened before all those
04:04major events that we know quite well. The beauty about Tolkien's work is that there's so many
04:10themes which are timeless and still modern. The themes of friendship, of hope, of love and despair
04:20and I guess sticking together, believing that something better is coming. And I think
04:29that's the beauty of this world because it's so vast and so fantastic. Yet within it, it has these
04:37stories which hopefully audiences will really be able to connect to. I think it's a really good
04:42combination. I think it's interesting because Tolkien was not a big fan of allegory but I think
04:47one thing that appeals to me about fantasy is that it cushions you in a world where you can
04:53comfortably explore our existential longing, what it is to be human. And those themes of
05:00love, of loyalty, all these things are timeless. They belong to all of us. They're universal.
05:06And that belongs to this moment as much as it did 20 years ago.
05:10I would say that the themes are mythological. Where he started it was local but it's
05:17translated to the universal. So any of the themes that we feel as humans, you know, the battle
05:22between head and heart, the relationship to power, what happens to ego. I mean specifically in terms
05:28of Numenor, there's people who want to live forever and there's another side of the island
05:33which is more of the faithful who would like to continue on with the gift of Iluvatar and die
05:40and be mortal. So there are many a theme and I think because Tolkien was a genius and that he
05:49condensed lots of different mythologies that this will be relatable as a story throughout the
05:54centuries probably for him. I'm sure it's going to be ongoing.
05:57Going into this, we were told that there's a five-season commitment to this which is great.
06:02It's job security for you guys and you can sort of plan out what you're going to be doing.
06:06I'm curious how much you asked about the future of the Ark or where the story is going.
06:12Did you want to know any of that or you're just focused on the now?
06:15I mean of course, I mean everyone kind of wants to know like what their security is like I guess.
06:21But I think right now, I think the person that Theo is in the first season would be very different
06:28to what Theo is when he's mid-20s, you know. He's also the hubris, how people are elves and
06:33they get to live a lot longer. So I honestly have no clue what's going on but right now,
06:39I've been set of tasks to do and I think I don't really want to get ahead of myself too much and
06:43just kind of focus on doing the job for now. And if I live through Theo as he's living it,
06:50then I think that's where the best of it will come out.
06:54You won't be in your mid-20s five seasons from now.
06:57You'll be 90.
06:58Oh yeah, probably.
07:00Well, I guess we know who we're playing in terms of Elendil, Eärinn,
07:05Kenin but like some of the characters are canon. So we know where the trajectory is and Tolkien
07:11has written kind of signposts moments that we know for these characters. But at the minute,
07:16we're focusing on season one and you know exploring the characters in their early beginnings.
07:22Isildur, for example, isn't a warrior yet. He's a sailor on the cusp of adulthood
07:28who's trying to find himself and his place in Numenor.
07:32It's quite exciting to kind of not know everything and I think also kind of the showrunners have,
07:41as they've got to know us all as well, had that influence how they've written
07:48particular characters and stuff. So it's really exciting.
07:51I'm curious if you guys were able to keep up with some of the storylines that were happening in
07:55other kingdoms and other realms or were you guys focused primarily on what you were doing?
07:59I think you've got to focus on the world that you're in, I think. Yeah, I guess there's no
08:06need really for a sense of the macro. You can just keep it to your world and I think that benefits
08:11your character depending on your storyline, of course. And with myself, I think it was
08:15all things Numenor.
08:17We were primarily focused within our worlds but we had the gift of going to other people's sets
08:22and seeing their worlds and that was really special. I once saw a dwarf, a Wynartha,
08:28eating sushi at lunch and that is a very bold thing to see. He had to kind of take his beard
08:36and lift it up and then just swallow some sushi. But yeah, seeing all the worlds was very special
08:41but we only fully saw the finished product a few weeks ago and that was an emotional experience
08:48because we've all been so engrossed in our own worlds and then seeing everyone else bring their
08:52A-game and yeah, that was great. It was great.
08:55Whose review of Rings of Power means the most to you?
08:59For better or worse, my mum. My mum, she introduced me to the book. She's been a huge Tolkien fan as
09:05long as I can remember and you know, I grew up in Wellington so Tolkien has been inescapable
09:10my whole life. When I was in primary school, Peter Jackson was making his first trilogy.
09:13When I was at drama school in Wellington, he was making the Hobbit movies. You know,
09:17Middle-earth has been in the air my whole life. I never thought I'd be part of one of these stories
09:22but now that I am, the person who has the strongest opinion is in fact my mother.
09:28My mum. That's also mine. It's your mum. My mum.
09:32My mother is one of the least overtly excitable people about my career.
09:40Not in a bad way. She's proud but she, you know, I am her boy, you know, so there is all this
09:49mirage of fame or big posters and stuff like that. That really doesn't do much for her.
09:59I want to bring essence to the character and if my mother sees that, I know that then I did it
10:07right because she knows my essence. So like, I'm very excited to hear what she has to say.
10:13I found that I was terrified for the characters at every turn. It felt like there was a threat
10:16around every corner. I personally don't think I'd make it about five minutes in the world of
10:21Middle-earth. How long do you think you would survive? I can't see very well so...
10:29You could get some glasses surely. Middle-earth. Does anyone have glasses?
10:33We don't need them in Numenor. If I lived on Numenor, I could last a long time, I think,
10:38if I was in Middle-earth. She's got a lot of smarts though, this one, so she's got her way around it.
10:43No, you could go to like a wizard and like get some healing. Get some new eyes.
10:48Like could Emma go to a wizard and get some new eyes?
10:52An actor in Middle-earth with all these orcs. Do you think I could say a sonnet like
10:59they'd leave me alone or something? I don't know. I'd like to think maybe a couple of weeks.
11:05You know, I enjoy fishing. I can climb a tree, but probably not very long to be quite honest
11:10with all these warriors and everything. I'm used to my comfortable life in the 21st century.