Sudhir Srinivasan Interview with Charles Edwards and Charlie Vickers | The Rings of Power

Wars come to at [Music] Le this is the work of Seldon hi Charlie Charles pleasure to meet you my name is sudhir I'm a South Indian film critic um maybe to get things started with you you play Calio yes and while seeing him it felt like I thought of Oppenheimer for some reason because it seems like he creates a lot of things but he's not quite aware of the repercussions of them I think that's yeah how how did you see this this this constant question with morality that creators often have well very much in that way without adding the Oppenheimer label to it which which I have heard since and and it yes I I like it it's um for me he's a he's a he he's sort of been chasing his tail for for for years and feeling frustrated by his own even though he is highly creative and highly um admired none of it that is enough for him yeah and um and he does want to contribute in some way to the world to to Middle Earth and to create something that's going to change CH I think it's change men's Hearts I can't remember the exact quote but he wants to he wants to strike deep into the souls of of of the world into the soul of the world with whatever it is he creates but he hasn't yet found and that's always a question isn't it with anybody who creates incredible things yeah they may be beautiful but but to to what end exactly and that's tolk's great point about the elves being too you know dipping their toes too far too deep into industry into creation tolkin very wary of that and Kell bmore is kind of the the banner for that you can see how that's a commentary on Humanity in general as totally yeah yeah what of the Rings have they worked you do better to ask her she is not here you are Charlie you of course um and I have to say I've always been personally more invested in villain Journeys than hero Journeys truth be told I think largely that's because they feel a bit more honest and they seem a bit more revealing of human frailties yes um yeah I think that's really insightful I think it it I'm kind of the same yeah there is there is a lot of complexity in Sauron like I I I think I had to go into this with the understanding that he is the villain of the story right and Tolen was pretty clear saying he's the villain but he has this level of complexity where he thinks he's his own hero right he thinks he's doing right by Middle Earth he's trying to reorder it make it a better place heal it he's talking wrote of Sauron having this desire to heal and he loved everything to be ordered and and um unified to be managed yeah exactly and I think that's that's where I approach it and it made the character really interesting rather than just labeling him as a villain and I think there is something fun from an audience perspective where you're it's fun from an audience perspective because you're trying to I think you're watching a character do bad things true but you kind of rooting for him you know might have been easier for you in the first season because as hbr he feels a bit more humanized um but now it feels like something about your eyes have changed in the second season now you're a bit more evidently manipulative a bit more evidently evil and it's it's harder to root for you now in the second season yeah I think that's good I think that's a good point I think I umum I guess I tried to in developing an I mean as anatar literally I have different eyes in I wear contact lenses but there was some things I was playing with with ideas with Hal brand of how he's um showing more of what he's been through but it's also the audience's perspective now that we know he's Salon we just a atically see him in a different light you know cuz you're in on it with him and I think that's quite a fun place to be yeah Charles as an artist um do you understand the restlessness of calibo to try and keep creating something um to be driven by the restlessness of you know it's been a while since I did something meaningful oh Goda absolutely very much so in all kinds of ways you know after a while of doing filming you I've got to do a play because I I I'm a theater actor as well like to work in theater and and you know and and I did that this year exactly that process I was going no I've got to do I've got to got to do a play so I found a play and I did it and I was satisfied with that and then once I finish the play I've got to find you know it's always yeah it's always that but that's part of the journey it's when do you when do you really I mean do you Savor the the little things that you do when you've done them oh yes or are you already looking forward to the next one you do you do Savor those are those are the great moments when you when you say and you you look back it's like when we when we watch our pre our um screenings and trailers those are the moments of savoring not just what I've done but what we've all done with this show and um it's different in theater obviously because theater is so ephemeral it just floats away but with something like this it's um you know it's there for us all to see and it's h those are the very savable moments yeah and and with both of your characters it seems like there's a very thin line between good and evil and you you you sort of understand that with both characters um just the smaller decisions if you're taken it this way then suddenly you become a hero otherwise then you become a you know sort of a villain um those small threads do you see any ostensible way in which saon could well have become a do you think I think there is a set of circumstances that maybe he would have I it's it's interesting because tolken writes a lot of Sauron he he talks about sauron's repentant phase where he went through this be this this stage at the beginning of the second age where where he could have been good but it's like some of those conversations you have with gadriel in the first season it seems like maybe you're on a different path and you're convinced it seems like briefly you're convinced to do something else yeah there is a possibility of that and I think it's it's ambiguous yeah but you can definitely view it in a way that makes you think yeah he he could have joined her and changed but there's also some individual yeah exactly exactly there's people in this in this universe maybe there are some and Sauron might be one that is too far gone to be good I've had many names Z lives because of you you know sometimes when an actor play villains it's important for them to humanize them to understand their motivations to see them as as not evil characters fundamentally but with Sauron is it pretty difficult it's trick It's tricky because you can't humanize because he's not a human right he's a God but I think we're all humans we're humans when we watch it so we can only understand what we understand as humans and I can only bring to him my experience as a human so I think we all humanize him without even um trying yeah rather difficult for a human to play a non-human yeah and I think I have to I I have to approach from the place of why does he do what he does and if he thinks he's being good what would you say one is that one Redemptive quality that you see yeah that he's um he thinks he's doing right by Middle Earth he thinks what he is doing will ultimately benefit not only just you but everyone else as a final question Charlie Charles would you mind uh um could you speak about your favorite fantasy villain um and maybe slightly elaborate on why that is well what stuck in my head is you mentioned the other day the um child the child Catcher from chitty chitty B I can't stop thinking about him now remember the child catcher in Chitty Bang I think in terms of a villain that struck fear into the into the soul of of as as obviously he was intended to you can't beat that because it even now you remember it and and it is still terrifying I mean obviously the performance but um yeah the the look of him the lank hair hanging over the scalp the the the net his Ice net and his little truck yeah you know with the music playing his dance that little dance that he did and he pulls the rope and the truck opens up and it's just a cave and then he just goes ice creams lollipop terrifying all free today he's he would be it for me as well yeah I like I also like Mr freed in Batman of course okay yeah yeah yeah I think for me in recent times probably Thanos Thanos I think they managed to humanize him sufficiently and probably get you rooting for his motivations as well he's not PR for himself right there's something selfless about what he's looking I think it's really interesting and important that there are motivations CU otherwise it is as Charlie says just a just a villain just a villain yeah I want to do bad things I want to control you on that uh great conversation thank you so much for thank you very much thank you