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A toxic relationship can take many forms. Even the relationship between a Dark Lord and his ringmaker elf friend (doubtful). Amidst all the gaslighting and manipulation, Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards have formed a partnership that is worth cherishing. They play Sauron and Celebrimbor in Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, the second season of which will release on August 29.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Charlie spoke about his transformation from the ‘human-like’ Helbrand to Sauron’s beautiful form, Annatar, in the second season, about his approach to portraying pure, unbridled evil on screen, and judging his characters based on their deeds.
A big LOTR fan, Charles takes us back in time and talks about the play he wrote about this iconic fantasy series and the unfortunate fate of Celebrimbor this season.
Excerpts from the interview:
My first question is to you, Charlie. In India we have an actor named Nawazuddin Siddiqui. He plays a lot of villainous characters, mainly gangsters, serial killers, murderers.
Charles: So he gets all the good characters.
Yes. He’s one of our most brilliant actors. And he often talks about his approach to these characters and he says he never judges them as good or bad. They’re human beings, and he has to treat them that way. If he judges them it will affect his performance and his approach to them. Now that Sauron has gone full-blown evil, and he’s having a lot of fun with it, what is your approach to playing him?
Charlie: I think so too. I think you have to understand the role of the character in the story, right? And I know Sauron is the villain of this story, but for me it’s not helpful to look at it that way. I think I look at it from the perspective of what is the core of the character, what does he want? And what are the obstacles in his way to getting what he wants?
And often the obstacles in the character’s path determine their behavior. So it seems like you have to act irrationally sometimes to get what you want. Some people will do that. And it’s always hard to think of Sauron as a human being because he’s not human. But I think we see him through the lens of humanity. But I don’t find it helpful to think of him as good or bad. I think it’s all about trying to achieve what I want to achieve.
Charles, I was watching some of your interviews before the Season 1 premiere, and you talked about writing a play on JRR Tolkien. What was it about?
Charles: When I was a kid there was a movie that came out in 1978 that was an animated version of Lord of the Rings.
Charles: Yeah, absolutely. And I was very, very obsessed. And I bought a little book that was like a comic book of the movie. And it had pictures from the movie and little speech bubbles. And the dialogue from the movie was in the speech bubbles, so it’s like a comic book. I just copied them all onto a typewriter, and wrote the play.
Was it ever displayed?
Charles: Haha, no.
Charlie: Who was the main character? Is it just a movie?
Charles: It’s a stage movie. It’s the story of Lord of the Rings. Well, I was supposed to play Sam and that role and he definitely became the main character. His part was increased a little bit.
Watch the video of the interview here.
And fans will know that Celebrimbor’s future isn’t good. If you could rewrite his fate, what would you want it to be like?
Charles: Can I rewrite his fate? What a great question. Of course, without revealing what his fate is. Ummm… I think I’d probably keep him on this path, but with some resolution. I think I like the fact that he’s gotten dirty as a character. I think it’s interesting.
Charlie: Somewhat in the dirt.
Charles: (laughs) Yeah. Yeah, in the mud. I like it. I mean he’s morally dirty. I think it’s interesting to play and watch, but I would like that to be resolved into maybe a different reach, a different outcome.
When the trailer was launched, a lot of people had different reactions to it, but the biggest thing was how amazing Charlie looked as Annater. I read one comment… it was really funny.. ‘My mom was asking me, “Why did they change the actor?”‘
Charlie: That’s good. A few people have said that to me and I really like it. I think it’s really cool.
Charles: But you know what? Acting with Charlie feels the same. It feels totally different.
Charlie: Thank you. I think that’s what I’ve always loved about acting, is not being myself. And I think that’s a lot of fun.
But did you ever fear that maybe it could have a Clark Kent effect, that if you put on a blonde wig you would become someone else?
Charlie: It’s the way the show runners planned it, because yes, I feel and look quite different, but my face is the same. But I think the way the show runners have written it is that Celebrimbor doesn’t know anything about what I did. Because Galadriel is so ashamed, and she’s the only one who knows about Sauron and she couldn’t bring herself to tell him.
People were confused about how they would introduce a new form of Helbrand and then the elves wouldn’t understand that it was him. But I think it’s been managed very well in the first few episodes, the logic is very good.
Charles: Yes. Once you see how they did it, yes.
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