The Rings of Power stars Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards talk bromance, nicknames and recasting

how are you doing good good how are you I'm good actually I love that they've paired the two of you together because you know your characters have can we call it a bromance yeah yeah you can call it that yeah so I was like have you guys got like a little like offscreen nickname for each other like c squared or something like that well we have a few they call us because Charlie was here first yeah I came later so he already took well your name is Charlie whereas mine is more Charles I would I would say is that true prevalent yeah I'm get I get called Charlie I like being called Charlie as well however on set in order to differentiate they they tended to call me Charles but they would otherwise just go Vicor Edwards yeah yeah they do that quite short Char VI Char Edwards so they pissed off yeah but the characters now have quite a you know what were the ones we came up with yesterday s sa brimo we're hearing about these Kell Bron that's one I'd heard that one it's the most clumsy kind of Smashing together of names you can imagine as all great nicknames are really I suppose so I suppose so um just to start Charlie can I just say I'm actually delighted that you were returning for season 2 because there was a point when there was so much noise on the internet that you weren't I was genuinely getting worried because you did such a great job in season one cuz you were probably filming at the time was it hard to kind of block out that noise to be like hang on a minute are they actually sacking me or what's going on yeah I think I remember um cuz I'm not online that much but a few people were sending me articles being like aren't you filming right now and there's an article saying like your sauron's being played by someone else or all this kind of stuff I never actually because because I was doing it it was quite nice to know oh we're playing a trick on them it was quite satisfying to know that like oh you know there will be something um different but it is like I think when we did San Diego ComicCon uh a couple of weeks ago but they throw to the audience and the audience gets to ask questions and the first question was are you worried about being recast because Sauron changes forms so I had to deal with that one quite quickly the answer is no I'm not worried he's not remotely worried I not at all I think he's fine brilli I have to say like it was great to see you kind of like Flex a few different sort of muscles in the role as well because when you think about it it's kind of like diving down a rabbit hole because you're playing the same character but who's not the same character but it is the same character who's pretending to be another character so how do you approach something like that it must be quite mindbending yeah because there's so many different ways to look at it I kind of found it most useful to just approach it from a place of sincerity right and anything that Sauron is doing he is the ultimate deceiver so like in order to commit a deception he would have to be completely immersed and committed to whatever he's doing so the hellbrand thing from his perspective it's like I just found it useful to create a world and a whole life for hellbrand because that's what Sauron would have done to convincingly be this character to deceive someone and the same thing with anatar um so I just found it really useful rather than being villainous to play Everything truthfully and um let the villainy sort of come through in the perspective of the storytelling yeah and I how to say no Charles I'm sorry I'm going to butcher your character's name because for some reason it's the one that I have the most difficulty difficult Kell bmore yay perect I I I have been practicing that all morning and I think his ambition that we got to see in like the first season he he's dying to create something spectacular to save the elves and get the the glory that he has deemed himself to be worthy of I think for me anyways as a viewer that has kind of Lent himself to be kind of targeted by by Saron in the way that we get to see kind of unfold over season two so for yourself how how is kellmore State of Mind when we when we re get reintroduced to him in season two well you're absolutely right everything you just said was was his setup essentially and I tried to Pepper that my performance in the first season with those moments so to to set him up as as you know for his What Becomes of him in season two but I think at beginning of season two he's kind of um he's feeling a little bit wrong-footed and a bit at Sea and um a drift and is just waiting what unbeknown to him but his his fate awaits the arrival of of how brand then anatar so yeah he's um but he seems to have been abandoned by by the elves um because he is mind you he's he's now created this this brand new Forge and uh but he's not sure really what to do with it he's kind of listless um and yes as I his his fate is waiting for that this new impetus to come into his life yeah yeah and actually I even have it written down in my notes I thought it was a bit too harsh to say but you kind of touched on it there I was like he's essentially been hung out to dry by the elves yeah after he does this amazing thing and then they're just like thanks bud bye that's kind of and remember the king told him to to dismantle your Forge all that stuff yeah U but he's kind of he's kind of forging so sorry about that ahead forging his own path now I think he's kind of and later we see that later we see in in in one of the episodes later he's go I don't care what the king says I'm going to do this yeah and I like that cuz it's kind of petulant and sort of spoiled childlike which I quite like I like that about him I think that's what he would do um and in my own place I could do what the hell I want yeah so I kind of also that's of course an influence coming from an exterior influence but but I think I think that's kind of him and I liked it when it it took that turn yeah yeah and actually for us we of course got a few little previews um of some of the episodes but what one episode that we didn't get to see yet is a scene that is shown in the trailer where kellmore is literally losing his mind and there's a great clip that's used in the trailer that I was dying to see the whole scene kind of play out so what can you tease of that because I I know it's probably going to be like a massive spoiler but it just seems like it's going to be one of the moments of the season I think well it's an extraordinary scene and it is an extraordinary moment and it's difficult to talk about it because it is such an a a smart bit of writing yeah the whole concept of that of that episode is really there are moments that they seem to be incredible at writing like these moment these I call them aha moments when you're like like the moments that kind of make you have that intake of breath like the end of the first season when Sauron sends gadriel into that um that kind of mind War I guess where he comes back as her brother and so let's just say that then the manipulate that that is not um he will always have that power Salon saon that's the biggest kind of tip I can give without spoiling anything yeah to take to take the other person to places that that um distresses them yeah I think it's probably in their mind yeah yeah awesome very well answered by the way because I was worried that I was digging a hole there for no but it's a great moment that yeah yeah it looks it and like very quickly just before I let you guys go um Charlie of course you've had a a brand new look this season and the wig I have to say looked fabulous were did you feel fabulous in it oh yeah it's a whole other world but having long blonde hair whole other world of Maintenance and it gets in your eyes and it's ridiculous it just it's a long it was a long process in the morning but it's been fun it's been really fun he's be he was doing this a lot yeah yeah the hair Flix yeah yeah exactly very Glam amazing well look lad massive congratulations I'm so looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season unfolds and I hope you guys have a great day thank you to me who are you truly I am the one keeping the storc bay