The Rings Of Power stars Morfydd Clark and Charlie Vickers have discussed the most challenging aspect of filming the Amazon series.
Set thousands of years before events in The Lord Of The Rings, The Rings Of Power covers Middle-earth’s Second Age, which spans the rise of Sauron, the forging of the rings and the last alliance between Elves and Men.
- READ MORE: ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ review: epic fantasy franchise returns to rule them all
Clark, who plays a younger version of Galadriel, originally depicted by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s trilogy, had to undergo extensive underwater training for numerous scenes as the character – which she described as the hardest thing to learn while filming.
“We had to learn to hold our breath. I got up to three and a half minutes,” Clark told NME.
“That was really challenging because unlike everything else where you get better at it, so it starts to feel better. With breath holding, what they say [is], ‘This won’t stop hurting anymore, you’ll just get more used to holding the pain’. So everytime you’re like, ‘Oh no’.
“But that was really cool. I got to spend a lot of time underwater which I liked.”
Vickers, who plays new character Halbrand, shared the same struggles. “That was probably the hardest thing,” he added. “We trained to be able to do it for a couple of months in the lead up, I would always dread when the weekly session would come around because you just know you’re going to go through excruciating pain for like an hour.
“You just hold your breath in the pool and you do it over and over again for an hour.”
Halbrand is a human character who meets Galadriel in the series. For Vickers, the chance to play a role not based on author J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, however, came with added pressure.
“It’s tricky because it is freeing but it also comes with a set of expectations and pressure. As a Tolkien fan, when I hear about a new character, my first judgment is that these characters need to fit into the lore. They need to fit into the world, they need to have the essence of Tolkien running through them otherwise they’re superfluous.
“But I think that’s what the show has done so well and what the writers have done so well, is create these characters that feel like they’ve always been there and they’re 100 per cent necessary. It comes with that expectation but then you also have a bit of freedom because you can use lots of influences from Tolkien’s work in building it.”
The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power is available now on Amazon Prime Video.
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