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"One of the coolest parts of the job was being able to properly sink my teeth into the Tolkien world"

"One of the coolest parts of the job was being able to properly sink my teeth into the Tolkien world"

Australian actor Charlie Vickers hadn't read The Lord of the Rings before being cast in its TV spin-off, but isn't daunted by playing the villainous Sauron in series two of The Rings of Power

Charlie Vickers as Sauron standing and looking into the camera wearing a black suit with long blonde hair.

Prime Video

Craig McLean

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Australian actor Charlie Vickers, 31, plays a young Sauron, the all-powerful villain in the original books and movies.

Is it true that you didn’t know that your initial character, Halbrand, was really Sauron in disguise until you were filming the third episode of series one?

Yeah — though I had an inkling because I auditioned reading from Paradise Lost, playing Satan! So that set alarm bells ringing that maybe there was a dark side to this character.

How big a fan of The Lord of the Rings were you before The Rings of Power came calling?

I’d watched the films multiple times. But beyond that, I’d never read anything. Playing the PlayStation game was the only extracurricular Lord of the Rings thing I did. So when I was cast I was like, “S**t, there’s a load of stuff I’ve got to read!” But one of the coolest parts of the job was being able to properly sink my teeth into the Tolkien world.

I never felt daunted by Sauron – it was a privilege to be a custodian of the character

What is it like, embodying one of literature’s greatest evil characters, barely described by Tolkien and, in Peter Jackson’s films, seen only as a giant eye?

I never felt daunted by that. It was more the privilege of being a custodian of this character. It was a cool opportunity to be able to play what we’ve never seen before: Sauron in his humanoid form.

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Unimaginable from when you relocated from Australia to attend drama school in London aged 21?

That quite literally changed my life! I’d only been to England once before and I didn’t know anyone. All my friends and family were in Australia. So I left behind a life that I had built to come and try and fulfil a dream.

Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Amazon Studios/Prime Video

What was your first paid acting gig?

A script development workshop with Bertie Carvel. He blew my mind with his abilities. In terms of a show, I did a series called Medici, which was an amazing training ground. We were filming for three months in Tuscany, then three months in Rome. Sean Bean played my uncle, so I was just trying to lap it up!

And now you’re doing hair-raising stunts in The Rings of Power. How is series two, action-wise?

I do a lot of talking! And I spend a lot of time in a forge, which isn’t a spoiler. That had its own difficulties. But I do get the chance to swing a sword towards the end of the season. There was nothing like the scene in season one: riding a horse through a whole bunch of orcs, fighting, then leaning down off the horse and grabbing a spear. That’s the hairiest stunt I’ve ever done.

Authors

Craig McLean

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