Amazon Prime's most anticipated fantasy series The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power finally premiered its first episodes on the platform last week, marking a strong start with breathtaking cinematography, excellent visual effects, a compelling story and a huge budget of reportedly US$60 million (2.1 billion baht) per episode, which is twice that of Stranger Things Season 4, and quadruple the cost Game Of Thrones' final season.
Long before Bilbo Baggins' outreach on Gollum, and before Frodo fell in with a burning ring of fire, there were the Harfoots and the beautiful kingdom of Númenor. The Rings Of Power is an epic drama set thousands of years before the events of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings. It brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and one of the greatest villains that ever flowed from J.R.R. Tolkien's pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.
The series is led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, and follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. The celebrated cast is led by Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Sara Zwangobani and many more.
Life recently caught up with three actors from The Rings Of Power -- Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Queen Míriel), Sara Zwangobani (Marigold Brandyfoot), Robert Aramayo (Elrond) -- in a virtual roundtable interview as they told us about their experience working on one of the most expensive TV series of all time.
Can you please give some introduction on your characters, and what you like about them?
Zwangobani: My character is Marigold Brandyfoot. She is Harfoot, and is a matriarch. She has a lovely husband Largo played by Dylan Smith. She is a surrogate mum and a parent of Elanor and Dilly Brandyfoot. Her main focus is protecting her family and her community and their way of life that they've lived for generations. They're migratory nomadic tribe, moving from place to place according to the seasons. What I love about Marigold is the love that she has for her family, and for her community and her strength.
Addai-Robinson: I'm Cynthia, and I'm playing Queen Míriel of the island kingdom of Númenor. Númenor is essentially Tolkien's take on the legend of Atlantis, so a sort of tragic bit of history and myth. She is somebody who is trying to thoughtfully navigate her people through societal shifts.
Númenor is at the height of its power when first introduced, and it has an incredible arc and incredible story. I think what I love most about my character is that even though it is a character Tolkien has created in his lore, it's an opportunity to really fill in the gaps of this character and really create a strong female character and imbue her with all these complex qualities. I'm very honoured and proud to get to portray her.
Aramayo: I play Elrond, a half elf. He's someone who comes from a big history, and he's going to achieve great things in his life. But how he gets there is a sort of collaboration between J.D. and Patrick, and all of the amazing people in New Zealand who brought their A-game to the table.
How much were you aware of Tolkien's myth and lore, before joining the project?
Addai-Robinson: I was someone that was relatively new to it. I had seen Peter Jackson's films, but I had not had a chance to read any of Tolkien's writings. What's been a gift for me is getting the chance to discover all of these incredible worlds and characters and use that as the fuel to then portray one of his characters and bring her to life.
Aramayo: I've always loved Tolkien, and was always really passionate as a kid about it. I experienced movies when I was a really young kid. And so yeah, it was always in my life as a child. What's great about the job is that it gave all of us the opportunity to experience his work in a different way.
Zwangobani: For me, I came to Tolkien as a very young girl. I read his books, and absolutely fell in love with them and his world, and particularly the language and lyricism of Tolkien. That started a lifelong love of fantasy and science fiction, which continues to this day -- I'm an absolute fantasy geek [laughs]. And now it's come full circle, to be in The Rings Of Power and have our own story and our own journey connected to Tolkien is such a dream.
Speaking of different languages in Tolkien's story, there's different beautiful words and languages. Did you guys get to pick up any?
Aramayo: Learning about his languages for my character was really necessary. It's where all of it comes from, and obviously I should be proficient in them. But what was cool about learning them was even in the languages, they have a history; certain languages slowly die out through the legendarium, or just exist in very specific circumstances. Other languages become more like the common term.
So, tracking how the languages change, how they develop, and how they can enrich a moment as an actor is a really cool thing.
Addai-Robinson: I remember reading Tolkien's biography and I think a lot of people don't necessarily know that he was a philologist, he studied language. He created these stories to support these languages that he sort of sprung from real languages and so the word is very important in our world and in our story. And so we try to honour that with the dialogue that people will understand. However, I think what's great about this being a global show is that there are going to be many countries that will get translations. And I'm curious to see our show in other languages and see how that plays out because every culture has its language. So I think it's going to be really cool to even see The Rings Of Power dubbed in other languages.
This is a new era of movie watching and what we used to think of television has changed so much in recent years. We have seen many classic movies and films adapted for TV. But for The Lord Of The Rings series, do you think there are any advantages or disadvantages when it comes to storytelling?
Zwangobani: Well, I think the universal themes of Tolkien's work is that it speaks to what is human in all of us. There's the epic battle between good and evil which is amazing and wonderful to watch and all the things are thrilling. There's also the friendship and the loyalty and the love and the struggle within oneself to do what's right. They transcend so many other forms of storytelling that lots of people will connect to that. And also in terms of the genre, Tolkien is the grandfather of fantasy. I mean, that's where so much fantasy comes from. So I think that will be so familiar to people. Even though this is a series, it is very cinematic. They're almost like something between a movie and a TV series, because it's sprawling and visually stunning, and there isn't really anything like it on TV right now. That's how I personally feel so I think when people watch it, you know the sweeping score and the stunning visuals, there is a real cinematic quality to this series that is really unique, and I think people really appreciate and enjoy that.
