When Nori Brandyfoot actress Markella Kavenagh discovered Gandalf might be a part of “The Lord Of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” she had no qualms about getting showrunners to spill the beans.
“So, the very first rehearsal I had with [Daniel Weyman] who plays the Stranger, I asked him in front of one of the showrunners, Patrick, if he was playing Gandalf,” Kavenagh said at a recent “Rings of Power” panel hosted by Variety. “Wrong move. Definitely bad. Wrong question at that stage. But Dan said something really cool, which was that at that point, The Stranger didn’t know who he really was, or what his journey really entails. And I honestly never thought about it again.”
For Kavenagh, Season 2 of “Rings of Power” was an opportunity to explore a more world-weary Nori: “Season 1 Nori was in such a different place. She’s seen a bit more of the world in Season 2, obviously when she meets the Stoors that was something I was so excited to explore because it was so unexpected. I had no idea where they were going to go with Nori and the Stranger.”
Where Kavenagh’s excitement for “Rings of Power” Season 2 was for the unexpected, Sauron actor Charlie Vickers was eager to tell a familiar story: “I was excited to tell this story,” Vickers said. “I know it sounds a bit biased, but the story of Sauron and Annatar and Celebrimbor, it is such an iconic story in Tolkien’s work. We’ve become massive Tolkien fans just from doing this show, but there’s a whole community of people that have had images in their mind about this story for so long, so for us to bring that to the screen and be the gatekeepers of the story has been very cool.”
Charles Edwards, who plays Celebrimbor, was similarly looking forward to unpacking Sauron and Annatar’s mind games: “The most exciting realization about where they were going with it was when we found out about the trick he plays on Celebrimbor,” he said. “Altering his entire reality, putting him into a thrall, like a spell. When war is raging outside his door and he has no idea. He’s still in this sunny world filled with birdsong and sunlight. That, I thought, was a really smart way to show the total destruction of his mind.”
While Edwards was reckoning with the destruction of Celebrimbor’s mind, Isildur actor Maxim Baldry was focused on grappling with the giant spider Shelob in one of the season’s most memorable fight sequences.
“Yeah, I put my body on the line for that one — why are you laughing? I did! It was the first time I had to do wire work. I had to get back on the horse — actually, I had to learn how to ride a horse,” said Baldry. “There were prosthetic artists creating little Shelob babies that sprung out of every hole and every orifice in the cave. It was disgusting, really. And then I had to just get covered in mud. That was a four day shoot for two minutes, if that.”
For Owain Arthur, who plays Dwarven Prince Durin, the role was just as much of a psychological challenge as a physical one.
“It’s very difficult to get your head around growing up knowing you’re born to be a king. I’m sure we’ve all seen ‘The Crown,’ it’s that,” said Arthur. “You have duties. It’s complex, But there’s a grounding to the dwarves that I think is relatable for us. There’s a physicality to it. Back when we shot Season 1, because they’re so grounded, I asked Kate [Hawley] for a heavy boot so that it could keep my feet on the ground and it would effect the way I walk. My gosh do I regret saying that.”