“I haven’t been able to say how great I am at archery.” –Morfydd Clark
The epic second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiered on Prime Video this Summer. The three-episode premiere began streaming on August 29, with new episodes airing weekly until the finale on October 3.
With all episodes of the second season now available to stream, last week I had the fantastic opportunity to chat with series stars Morfydd Clark (Galadriel) and Charlie Vickers (Annatar/Sauron) to discuss their characters and their journeys.
The duo happily chatted with me about spoilers from the latest season, archery skills, and what they feel are defining moments for Galadriel and Sauron.
Watch the full interview with Morfydd Clark and Charlie Vickers below:
[*Please note: The Rings of Power spoilers ahead. ]
The death of Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) is one of the most pivotal and poignant scenes in the second season of The Rings of Power. Annatar/Sauron (Vickers) manipulated the elven-smith to help him forge the Rings of Power, allowing Sauron a pathway to create the One Ring. However, Celebrimbor’s fate ends after the forging of the Rings of Power this season.
“Charlie [Edwards] and I were really lucky. It doesn’t happen often – we got to film everything chronologically, so it was all in order. And this was one of the last scenes we filmed, if not the last, and certainly on that set. And also because they had to destroy the set to make it so it had to be the last thing that we filmed there. So we had a huge amount of anticipation.
“And also, it was a very challenging scene, because he had to be up the pole, up the pillar on a rig, and then somehow back on the ground, and then I had to walk up to him come away. And yeah, so we had to film it all sequentially so that he went up the pole at the end,” Vickers said.
Despite the excitement about filming that last scene between Sauron and Celebrimbor, Vickers said he did have some mild disappointment when his character isn’t seen firing his arrows at Celebrimbor.
“The only bit I was disappointed in is that you never actually see me fire the arrow. It cuts into him, getting the arrow. So the arrow was in him, but then he goes poof! And then it cuts back to me, and I put the bow down, and I can’t tell whether that was, a slight on me, as like, my archery was so bad that they just didn’t want to put it in. Morfydd, if you ask her about her archery, she’s really good at archery,” Vickers shared.
After, Clark admitted, “I was really quite good. Surprisingly! I wasn’t expecting it.” I had to know more and asked if she had a lot of archery training so far during the series’ first two seasons.
“Yes. So, I had loads of archery training, and I am amazing. I can’t throw a ball, can I? So that was, like, the surprise. So I was like, ‘I’m actually okay with this.’ And apparently, it’s a bit different type of hand-eye coordination,” Clark shared.
Archery aside, Clark and the rest of The Rings of Power cast and crew felt the loss associated with Celebrimbor’s demise, as it meant a set without Charles Edwards.
“But in terms of that final scene where you kill Celebrimbor, the makeup department were devastated about it. It was like, ‘And next week, Charlie’s dying!’ Because you’d done it all chronologically as well. Like, everyone had fallen so in love with Celebrimbor. And, like, everyone was so behind him. And also, just Charlie Edwards is such a gem. It was such a loss, not just for Middle-earth but also for The Rings of Power crew and cast,” Clark said.
Throughout The Rings of Power, Galadriel’s journey includes trials and triumphs. However, by the end of this season, the character displays hopefulness that will likely resonate with the series’ viewers. Clark said that she endeavours to do this in her own life, and it was wonderful to play that out in the magical world where the show takes place.
“It was a big relief. And I love this idea. I remember crying when I was watching the Game of Thrones episode where they’re all in that supergroup going off to bring back one of the…not white walkers, but one of the kind of undead people. And I think it’s, it’s Jon Snow talking to, I forgot his name, but basically where it’s like, ‘We keep fighting, even though we won’t win.’ And that’s something that I think – I think cynicism is one of the best kind of weapons of someone like Sauron, and to see her kind of fight against that and be hopeful was I found it kind of it’s the type of thing that I like to kind of endeavour to do in my own life; it was wonderful to kind of play that in this magical world.”
Lastly, as their characters go through many changes between the first two seasons, I wondered if there was a particular moment that their characters went through or experienced that they felt was their characters’ most defining moment.
“That’s a really good question. There’s quite a few. But I think maybe the first thing that comes to mind is when the rings work for the first time. In that, I see it’s actually quite a small scene, but when Mirdania, she puts on the ring and she sees me and sees my action. It’s a big scene, but like, it’s just jumped out to me. She sees me, and she doesn’t realize she sees me, but like there is some kind of magic, the unseen world that has been accessed here. This is working. Let’s keep making more of these,” Vickers revealed.
“And I think for Galadriel, it’s when she admits to Celebrimbor that she did want something that Sauron offered,” Clark shared.
“Finally,” Vickers added with a sly smile.
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