{"id":23779,"date":"2022-10-14T07:30:44","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T05:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1722138"},"modified":"2022-10-14T08:13:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T06:13:11","slug":"rings-of-power-star-on-playing-sauron-and-when-he-discovered-his-role","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/rings-of-power-star-on-playing-sauron-and-when-he-discovered-his-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Rings of Power star on playing Sauron and when he discovered his role"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Lewis Knight\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 14 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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**Spoiler warning for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode 8**<\/strong><\/p>\n

The finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power<\/a> has finally revealed the actor behind the Dark Lord himself, Sauron<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to RadioTimes.com<\/a>, actor Charlie Vickers has now unpacked the revelations of the Rings of Power season 1 ending<\/a> and the biggest revelation of all: that his character Halbrand<\/a> IS Sauron.<\/p>\n

Theories had emerged over the course of the show\u2019s run that the enigmatic Halbrand \u2013 the supposed rightful King of the Southlands and Galadriel\u2019s new close friend \u2013 actually harboured a secret purpose.<\/p>\n

The finale saw Galadriel (Morfydd Clark)<\/a> discover that Halbrand \u2013 the one person she had finally opened up to -.was the villain she had sought revenge against for centuries over to the loss of her brother Finrod<\/a> (Will Fletcher).<\/p>\n

The first question that we had to ask Vickers was at what stage in the audition process did the actor discover Halbrand\u2019s true nature?<\/p>\n

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Charlie Vickers as Halbrand\/Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power<\/span><\/figcaption> Courtesy of Prime Video<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Vickers revealed: \u201cI didn\u2019t really know, to be honest, when I was auditioning for the show, I just got, sort of, the early scenes. I later discovered that my first auditions were actually for Elrond and then they funnelled me, clearly, into Halbrand. But I didn\u2019t know anything about Sauron, to be honest, until after we filmed the first two episodes. It wasn\u2019t until\u2026 I was maybe like, a couple of months before \u2013 because we went on a hiatus in New Zealand because of COVID \u2013 towards the end of that hiatus, the guy sat me down and, and told me. So yeah, I actually filmed a couple of scenes without knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he did have an idea of a darker role for his character when he was asked to read scenes from John Milton\u2019s \u201cdemonic\u201d Paradise Lost and speeches from William Shakespeare\u2019s Richard III in later rounds of auditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I had an inkling that the character was going to have a dark transformation,\u201d explained Vickers, \u201cand there were a lot of times when I questioned if this could be Sauron, but I never fully let myself, I think, come to terms with that 100% until I was told.\u201d<\/p>

Taking on the role of Sauron could be incredibly intimidating for any actor considering how infamous a villain he is in literature and cinema, which was certainly not lost on Vickers and neither were Tolkien\u2019s source works.<\/p>\n

Explaining his approach to the character, Vickers divulged: \u201cI took it basically from the place of \u2013 I realise he\u2019s obviously a very special character \u2013 but I approached it as though I would approach any other role, to be honest: where has he come from in this stage of his journey? And you look at him at the beginning of the Second Age<\/a> to the end of the First Age, and he\u2019s been humbled by the Valar and he has had to kneel at the feet of E\u00f6nw\u00eb and say, sorry, and come from this place of repentance.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, whether you believe in whether Tolkien believed that this repentance was genuine or not, is really interesting. And I had to make a decision about that, but I think that\u2019s best left unsaid because whether you believe that Sauron is genuinely repentant for the things that he\u2019s done in the First Age frames his actions in this show, and in this first season, completely differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you believe he\u2019s genuine or he\u2019s maybe not repentant and he\u2019s feigning repentance.\u00a0 So I basically looked at it from that perspective, and then went back to the core of his character and these things \u2013 that he is the deceiver and Halbrand is a deception. And how do you deceive? You take on as though you are the world\u2019s greatest method actor, or whatever, you know, you take on the characteristics of someone else so wholeheartedly that you can fool anyone and so I approached Halbrand like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he was to create this form, or take over this form, whatever it might be, how would you best deceive the people around him? And that is by living wholeheartedly as a human. But then, of course, you have to have the undercurrent of Sauron beneath that, which is a whole bunch of things like he has this dislike of things that are disordered \u2013 he loves order \u2013 and his goal is to heal Middle-Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Morfydd Clark as Galadriel and Charlie Vickers as Halbrand in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power<\/span><\/figcaption> Ben Rothstein\/Prime Video<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

A key relationship throughout the first season \u2013 and likely the whole series \u2013 is the relationship between Sauron and Galadriel. Yet, with the tension and strength of the connection between \u2018Halbrand\u2019 and Galadriel throughout these eight episodes, how does Vickers perceive their bond?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a cosmic connection between the two that she probably feels but doesn\u2019t maybe doesn\u2019t realise what it is,\u201d notes Vickers. \u201cShe\u2019s one of the oldest of the Elves and he\u2019s been around since the dawn of time and he probably doesn\u2019t meet many people like that regularly \u2013 that he would have that connection to. So, it really depends on how you view his repentance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his relationship with Galadriel throughout the show, on one hand, it could all be a deception, and he is using her. She will bring him back to the people and the influence that he needs to regain power.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other hand, if he is genuinely repentant, and genuinely seeking a quiet life, away from everything else, inadvertently, she draws him back to that power by saying, \u2018Hey, you can be King of the Southlands\u2019. And he says, \u2018You don\u2019t understand, like, you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing.\u2019 But she says \u2018No, I do understand, come back and be King.\u2019 I think she shows him ultimately that he will not find peace anywhere other than where he truly belongs, which is in power.\u201d<\/p>\n