The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Why Charles Edwards is ready for his Power play
Charles Edwards admits he was rather obsessed with Middle-earth as a child, so much-so that he even wrote a The Lord of the Rings play.
Yes it was “bascially copying the dialogue down” from the 1978 animated movie of J.R.R. Tolkien’s tale (which covered the first two books in the trilogy), assisted by the film tie-in comic-book (“stills from the movie with speech bubbles”), but it served as nine-year-old Charles’ introduction to becoming interested in acting and writing.
Sadly, it was never performed.
However, four-and-a-half decades later, the British stage and screen actor is finally getting his Middle-earth moment playing elven smith Celebrimbor in Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Back for a second eight-part season, the J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay-created series is set thousands of years before Rings and inspired by material from Tolkien’s weighty tome’s appendices.
Edwards, best-known for playing Downton Abbey’s Michael Gregson, Sir Martin Charteris on The Crown and starring opposite Rebecca Gibney in the Kiwi-shot dramedy Under the Vines, confesses he didn’t actually know what character he was auditioning for when the opportunity to put his name forward for The Rings of Power came about.
“As has become much more common now, you get given dummy scenes with a dummy name. You’re often not told what the project is and you sign endless NDAs [Non-Disclosure Agreements]. As actors, we’re kind of getting used to it. It’s kind of annoying, but you just have to go with it.”
After doing his take on the scene given, he says he spoke to the showrunners, who gave him an outline of the character and hinted that his “really good storyline” would come in the second season. “And then, finally, I was allowed to know what the character was. They told me over the phone and I said, ‘can you spell that please?’
“I went on Google and went, ‘oh great, that’s a really good part’. Because he [Celebrimbor] is a Tolkien character – he’s canon.”
Does that mean though, he feels just as much a responsibility as if he was playing a real-life person like The Crown’s Charteris? “I kind of feel, with this character, fans obviously know who he is – and will have their version of him. The other thing was, when I learned who the part was, I came across all kinds of fan art. I thought, ‘hold on, that’s not me’.
“However, I feel justified and excited about choosing the way I want to go with it. People have said to me ‘well, he’s not this and he’s not that’ and I’m like, ‘well, he is actually, if you read this bit of Tolkien’. So I’ve felt I’ve had Tolkien backing me up on certain things. He [Celebrimbor] is vain and ambitious.
“But it is a gift to play a part that people know who he is, but no one has played him before. That’s something I’ve really welcomed and enjoyed. I’m very happy with it. I’m very proud of it, particularly the work in this season.”
So how does one find your inner-2000-year-old elf? “You’ve got the ears, the ears are always a good starting point. But what’s was great about shooting this is that you are immersed in the world.
“I was lucky enough to have a storyline that we shot all in order, which never happens. And the set we had – a Cathedral-like forge – was simply extraordinary to look at and to act on.
“Then there’s the costumes, what you wear on your feet, your bearing – all those things help – and your voice.”
Edwards says, that compared to some of his colleagues, his couple of hours in the make-up chair each morning was a breeze. “Poor old Owain [Arthur], who plays [dwarf prince] Durin is always banging on about how long it takes. I do love his description that his beard ‘is as heavy as a small baby’. Really though, they are the best times of the day. Because we’re all chuffed and excited to be there.
“The make-up and the prosthetics truck next door – it’s gossip, it’s chat, it’s bacon sandwiches, it’s coffee and seeing everybody. The relationships we build in those chairs and with everybody in the trucks are very valuable.”
Just as importantly, Edwards says he felt comfortable being able to suggest things about his character. “It is very collaborative. You can say, ‘what about this?’ With costumes, I like to honour their vision, although I will say if it’s uncomfortable. And there is certainly plenty of time on set to say ‘how about if we did that?’ I love that. It has been a very joyous, satisfying process.”
Of course, for New Zealanders, there has been one sad, slightly sour note about the production of the second season of the show. After production wrapped on the first season’s 18-month shoot (elongated by a certain pandemic) in Aotearoa, Amazon Studios decided to relocate to Britain for round two.
While Edwards admits he doesn’t know the machinations for the change, “there were certain benefits for those of us who live in the UK” and that “the relationships that we forged in New Zealand, have served us so well going forward”.
“With Covid and the lockdowns, while a handful of us had homes to go to, most of us were errant travellers in hotels, so you form – particularly over such a long period of time – a very close bond with people which has set up beautifully for the rest of it.”
When asked if he noticed much difference between the Kiwi and UK productions, Edwards says “in terms of walking onto set, a set is a set really”.
“In terms of walking outside the set, it’s hugely different – a muddy, disused airfield compared to New Zealand. There are the obvious differences and the obvious things we miss, but I get my fix in other ways,” he smiles, alluding to his regular trips to our shores to film the Central Otago-based Under the Vines.
As for why Tolkien’s tales have proved to be so enduring, Edwards believes one of the main reasons is because “the world he creates is so total and all-enveloping – every detail is covered”.
“I mean what an extraordinary creation Middle-earth was, is. Yes, it is fantasy, but having been in the war, in the trenches, he believed that we needed fantasy more than ever. Then there’s the extraordinary characters. It’s difficult to describe, but there is something really magical about Gollum and the Hobbits.
“It is such a departure from our world and, yet, so familiar in many ways. The Shire is similar to countryside I walk around and I see Tolkien in trees everywhere. And Mordor must have echoes of the trenches.”
So, finally, what can viewers expect from season two?
“I think it differs from season one, in that the die is cast. The game is afoot. We know who everybody is and where they come from. As we’ve seen, that takes time to set up, but now we can play in the world that we’ve created,” Edwards says, finishing with the tantalising flourish of a hint that “the primary difference is, it’s chiefly about villains this season”.
Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuts on Prime Video on August 29.
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