Charlie Vickers explains the “Rings” showdown between Sauron and Celebrimbor

Photo: Ross Ferguson / Prime Video

Spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Second season finale, “Shadow and Flame” below.

Charlie Vickers loves torturing and murdering elf lords. From a purely artistic point of view.

“When I shot Celebrimbor, I thought: Yes, that’s cool,” says Vickers with a grin Rings of power Final scene of the second season in which Sauron, the Dark Lord he portrays, turns against his betrayed Elvish collaborator, played by Charles Edwards. Sauron spends most of the season in the guise of an angelic visitor named Annatar, working with Celebrimbor to create the Seven Rings of Power for dwarves and the Nine Rings for men. In the finale, Sauron kills his collaborator—and nearly slays the elven commander Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), the closest thing Middle-earth has to an equal—to pursue the rings and bring the peoples of Middle-earth to the fall of his control.

“It’s such an iconic image from the books, Celebrimbor’s body impaled with arrows. The scene is so rich, there are these big swings and turns of emotion and action, Charlie has that wonderful dying speech, so much happens between the characters – but being able to recreate that image has been my highlight of the series so far.”

This isn’t just sadism on the Australian actor’s part: if you want to play author JRR Tolkien’s “portrayal of evil,” as Vickers calls his character, well, you have to take this kind of evil seriously. The murder of Celebrimbor in the finale was important to him not only as an actor but also as a reader: “Now that I’m a big Tolkien fan after watching this show, I have my own idea of ​​what these events would have been like. We just tried to bring it to life.”

Throughout the season, Annatar’s merciless manipulation of Celebrimbor made him the rarest of prestige TV villains: a straight black hat with no shades of gray. But Vickers argues that pure evil is very complex, even as it drives you further and further away from humanity.

Her scenes with Charles Edwards in the second season almost seem like a psychological thriller within the series, with Sauron slowly wearing down the poor, friendly Celebrimbor. What influenced the creation of this feeling of growing anxiety on set?
Gaslight. The showrunners really wanted us to use elements of that film. certainly the topics apply. Because we were able to film everything chronologically, we were able to really understand the disintegration of Celebrimbor, from the moments when he fights back to the moments when I turn the screw on him. We had a lot of fun filming. It’s dark and there are some heavy things, but we didn’t stay in that darkness.

Celebrimbor finally turns the tables on Sauron in his final moments, saying that the creation of the rings actually only made him their prisoner. It’s strange to think about the “motivations” of a Dark Lord, but it’s as if he has a driving need to prove how smart, smart and impressive he is, even to the guy he’s psychologically tormenting. Hence the rings.
It’s a lack of self-awareness to say that about a demigod or angel or whatever, because he falls into the same trap that Celebrimbor falls into. He is a slave to these rings because he will stop at nothing to achieve them, even if it could jeopardize his own journey.

But I hesitate to embrace the humanizing side of such a villain. It’s a theme in contemporary media that villains are becoming three-dimensional. I think the character Is In what Tolkien wrote, the three-dimensionality is enormously three-dimensional, but the attempt to explain this three-dimensionality in human terms becomes somewhat tenuous. His hubris and arrogance is hidden in the idea that he is the one who will heal, save and rehabilitate Middle-earth.

It is telling that when Sauron considers what is best for Middle-earth, he replies, “Of course I do.”
Before he was Sauron, he was Mairon. He loves beautiful things, he loves crafts. He believes that he is the only one who has all the skills to make Middle-earth a beautiful place and remake it in the image of Valinor. Even Morgoth Couldn’t do it. Sauron believes he can do better.

As a Tolkien nerd, I grew up wondering why Sauron would risk putting so much of himself into the One Ring. Even though it increased his power, it created this immense vulnerability, whether he realized it or not. But when I see him portrayed as a person with a drive to prove he’s the best he ever can, I get it now.
I’m not sure when he created the One Ring he knew that if he lost it he would lose much of his own power. But risking this possibility at all is a sign of this compulsion. I have to control everything and do it my way.

That’s why the moments he loses Controls are interesting. Celebrimbor says: “Control the rings You“ Sauron gets so upset. He needs Celebrimbor at this moment, he needs him to find out where the Nine Rings for Men are, but he’s so overwhelmed that he just kills him. I always find that very un-Sauron: the chaotic, chaotic rage that occasionally comes to the fore.

Could he have shared control? In his battle with Galadriel, he says he made her Queen of Middle-earth. Was he serious?
He definitely has a connection to Galadriel and is fascinated by her because she’s somehow on his level. You see it in there The Lord of the Ringsin the Mirror of Galadriel. But ruling with her is a step he would never have taken. He could never share this level of power with anyone. Maybe she would have been a figurehead, a mascot for the public, but I don’t think they would have been king and queen if she had said yes. It would have been him as king and her as his assistant.

Last season, Sauron posed as a half-Rand, a human. This season he is Annatar, a visitor to the gods, and he looks exactly the same. Did you feel a difference when you walked onto the set with these clothes on – the ears, the wig, the dress?
Yes definitely. The costumes shape your movements. Half-rim was kind of ragged and earthy – you literally can’t move like that in a dress because you’ll trip. Even something as simple as these lenses I wear that are green and orange and make my eyes look distant. I can’t see when I wear them. (Laughs.) All I see would be a green haze, and I have no peripheral vision. Just the fact that I wore them on set had the strange effect of making me feel otherworldly. Everything is blurry and it was a useful tool: Maybe a Maia sees things that way.

I worked with a movement trainer to develop the way Sauron moves. I wanted everything to be economical. We tried to describe it like this: Because he is this angel, human gestures are too matter-of-fact, too commonplace. If he talked like that (gesticulates with his hands while speaking), things would fly around the room. He has all this power within him and every movement is well thought out. He doesn’t do anything unnecessary.

In The Silence of the LambsYou know that scene where the film pans down the corridor and you see Anthony Hopkins standing there for the first time? He stands there almost like a pin. His legs are very close together, his arms are at his sides…it’s disturbing. I remember seeing this and thinking: That’s really cool. I can use an element of that. He didn’t blink once during the entire performance. I sometimes blink with the intention of showing vulnerability just to reassure people. But there are certainly scenes where I thought: I won’t blink because it’s more intenseor I’m really trying to get a message across. There is this eerie feeling with a camera.

Speaking of horror, the series reconnects Sauron with his monstrous roots. In the books he is associated with vampires and werewolves; We’re reintroduced to him as this puddle of vampiric slime that sucks the life out of the living and can command giant wolves.
I love the stories of Beren and Luthiénwhen Sauron takes on all these different forms, one of which is a vampire. I look forward to doing more with this connection to these beings of pure hatred and evil that were invented back in the First Age. When playing Sauron, there is so much canon that the possibilities are limitless.

“Pure Hate and Evil” – You mentioned earlier the tendency for dramas to have morally complex villains or anti-heroes. But I can’t imagine Sauron going to his therapist after a murder like Tony Soprano, you know? Your Sauron lies constantly, constantly, to intentionally hurt people. As a book nerd, I think: Yes, that’s my Sauron.

The only major prestige TV character he reminds me of is Walter White from late-season Breaking Bad, in “No one stops this train” mode.
This character’s storyline was an inspiration for JD Payne and Patrick McKay, the showrunners. Something else I always try to remember is the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. There were parts of this performance where I just thought: Yes, that’s the mood I’m going for in some places. (Laughs.)

Rings is a truly massive production and your character finds himself in the middle of the biggest fight ever. But for most of this fight, he and Celebrimbor spend their own little world. You mentioned how much that helped your performance – what was it like going from that calm environment to all-out war?
Even though it was just us on set and it was essentially a two-man drama, you feel The resources that the show has also inside, because you are in a completely interactive forge. You stand there and still notice the extent of the production, because They built the forge.

But then you go outside and it really hits you because things explode. As I walk along the parapet, I try not to flinch because things are exploding around me, and Sauron wouldn’t flinch at explosions. And these explosions are real. The inner courtyard in the city – it’s all real. Only the horizon is CGI. It fulfills every dream you’ve ever had as an actor to be able to act in a world like that. It’s easy to get caught up in the budget, expectations, or narrative that comes with taking part in a project like this. In particular The Project. You see how many people are there to tell Sauron’s story. But at the end of the day, we are kids who play on this set every day. Whenever you are burdened, whether by pressure or expectation, all Charlie and I had to do was look at each other and say, “Look at your ears!” That’s amazing!”

Sauron’s name during Middle-earth’s prehistory before he became evil. It is Elvish and means “The Admirable One”.

Sauron’s overlord, defeated at the end of the First Age.

A heroic couple who fought against Sauron in the First Age.