00:00It was just announced that the first two episodes are going to be going to movie theaters.
00:23I was curious what your reaction was when you did you guys not you guys not know this?
00:31Announced that the first two episodes are going to be played in movie theaters as part of a
00:36special fan event. Oh, I heard about the fan event. Okay, that makes that's incredible. And
00:41rightfully so. I want people to have that experience like we did of seeing it on a big
00:46screen. There's it's it's very cinematic. So that's, that's amazing. You're the first person
00:52I heard that from. Great news. Yeah, literally, that's the brand new news right from you right
00:56there. You knew? I saw that on Twitter. I don't know. You're not on Instagram. No. Well, I am,
01:01but I don't look at it. Yeah, I found that out on Instagram. That is very, very good news. I know
01:08Corey Olsen, the Tolkien professor was pushing for that. So obviously, someone did well. It's
01:13really cool. I think it's I think the show is so cinematic. And the first two episodes,
01:20J.A. Bayona, who directed it, is such an amazing director who works with the camera so beautifully.
01:26So I think they'll really shine in in cinemas. He is a film director, he's an auteur, you know,
01:34there's very few, I feel like there's very few of those directors still working at this scale.
01:42There's a handful of those that believe in the process from its inception that get involved to,
01:48you know, the end of it, like see it through, want to run as long as the cameras need to roll
01:55in order to find that nugget in that kernel, that essence. And it was that's what the process was
02:02like for for me to work with him. And I had a particular closeness to him as we both speak
02:07Spanish. So I was able to to meet that even more intimate J.A. and because I call him J.A.
02:18He did a thing that was very that I found being more of a visual person and the character being
02:25quite behavioral. He would run takes without any dialogue sometimes and we would just run through
02:31the beats with looks. He would play music to get you in that environment of the character. So it
02:38just felt like working with just a great film director. His imagination is just wild and so
02:44is his ambition. And yet also he's very kind of silly and lighthearted on set. And that's a
02:52wonderful combination for an actor to be able to work with someone like that. Yeah. And I think
02:57also like this is a global cast, which I think really suited the material because Tolkien was
03:02obsessed with myth and legend. And we had kind of all these different cultures who kind of were
03:08bringing their particular imagination from their particular place. And J.A.'s is just and also his
03:14links with horror. I think that fantasy and horror kind of go really well together. The beautiful
03:19thing about Tolkien is that the new generation can continuously find this material. And so I'm
03:23curious how you would pitch this show to someone who, you know, maybe saw the Peter Jackson movies
03:28once and have never read the books. This is where you want to start. The films are Middle Earth and
03:34it's adulthood and they stand on their own. But this is this is the first chapter. This is the
03:41first steps on these epic journeys that you get to witness. You don't need to know anything. Just
03:46turn on Amazon. You'll be happy. And what you'll see is such a rich, rich set of worlds and realms
03:51because each each each realm is at the peak of its power. Numenor, Khazad-dûn, the Elven kingdoms.
03:57It's it's a brilliant time to come to Middle Earth and discover what happened before all those
04:04major events that we know quite well. The beauty about Tolkien's work is that there's so many
04:10themes which are timeless and still modern. The themes of friendship, of hope, of love and despair
04:20and I guess sticking together, believing that something better is coming. And I think
04:29that's the beauty of this world because it's so vast and so fantastic. Yet within it, it has these
04:37stories which hopefully audiences will really be able to connect to. I think it's a really good
04:42combination. I think it's interesting because Tolkien was not a big fan of allegory but I think
04:47one thing that appeals to me about fantasy is that it cushions you in a world where you can
04:53comfortably explore our existential longing, what it is to be human. And those themes of
05:00love, of loyalty, all these things are timeless. They belong to all of us. They're universal.
05:06And that belongs to this moment as much as it did 20 years ago.
05:10I would say that the themes are mythological. Where he started it was local but it's
05:17translated to the universal. So any of the themes that we feel as humans, you know, the battle
05:22between head and heart, the relationship to power, what happens to ego. I mean specifically in terms
05:28of Numenor, there's people who want to live forever and there's another side of the island
05:33which is more of the faithful who would like to continue on with the gift of Iluvatar and die
05:40and be mortal. So there are many a theme and I think because Tolkien was a genius and that he
05:49condensed lots of different mythologies that this will be relatable as a story throughout the
05:54centuries probably for him. I'm sure it's going to be ongoing.
05:57Going into this, we were told that there's a five-season commitment to this which is great.
06:02It's job security for you guys and you can sort of plan out what you're going to be doing.
06:06I'm curious how much you asked about the future of the Ark or where the story is going.
06:12Did you want to know any of that or you're just focused on the now?
06:15I mean of course, I mean everyone kind of wants to know like what their security is like I guess.
06:21But I think right now, I think the person that Theo is in the first season would be very different
06:28to what Theo is when he's mid-20s, you know. He's also the hubris, how people are elves and
06:33they get to live a lot longer. So I honestly have no clue what's going on but right now,
06:39I've been set of tasks to do and I think I don't really want to get ahead of myself too much and
06:43just kind of focus on doing the job for now. And if I live through Theo as he's living it,
06:50then I think that's where the best of it will come out.
06:54You won't be in your mid-20s five seasons from now.
06:57You'll be 90.
06:58Oh yeah, probably.
07:00Well, I guess we know who we're playing in terms of Elendil, Eärinn,
07:05Kenin but like some of the characters are canon. So we know where the trajectory is and Tolkien
07:11has written kind of signposts moments that we know for these characters. But at the minute,
07:16we're focusing on season one and you know exploring the characters in their early beginnings.
07:22Isildur, for example, isn't a warrior yet. He's a sailor on the cusp of adulthood
07:28who's trying to find himself and his place in Numenor.
07:32It's quite exciting to kind of not know everything and I think also kind of the showrunners have,
07:41as they've got to know us all as well, had that influence how they've written
07:48particular characters and stuff. So it's really exciting.
07:51I'm curious if you guys were able to keep up with some of the storylines that were happening in
07:55other kingdoms and other realms or were you guys focused primarily on what you were doing?
07:59I think you've got to focus on the world that you're in, I think. Yeah, I guess there's no
08:06need really for a sense of the macro. You can just keep it to your world and I think that benefits
08:11your character depending on your storyline, of course. And with myself, I think it was
08:15all things Numenor.
08:17We were primarily focused within our worlds but we had the gift of going to other people's sets
08:22and seeing their worlds and that was really special. I once saw a dwarf, a Wynartha,
08:28eating sushi at lunch and that is a very bold thing to see. He had to kind of take his beard
08:36and lift it up and then just swallow some sushi. But yeah, seeing all the worlds was very special
08:41but we only fully saw the finished product a few weeks ago and that was an emotional experience
08:48because we've all been so engrossed in our own worlds and then seeing everyone else bring their
08:52A-game and yeah, that was great. It was great.
08:55Whose review of Rings of Power means the most to you?
08:59For better or worse, my mum. My mum, she introduced me to the book. She's been a huge Tolkien fan as
09:05long as I can remember and you know, I grew up in Wellington so Tolkien has been inescapable
09:10my whole life. When I was in primary school, Peter Jackson was making his first trilogy.
09:13When I was at drama school in Wellington, he was making the Hobbit movies. You know,
09:17Middle-earth has been in the air my whole life. I never thought I'd be part of one of these stories
09:22but now that I am, the person who has the strongest opinion is in fact my mother.
09:28My mum. That's also mine. It's your mum. My mum.
09:32My mother is one of the least overtly excitable people about my career.
09:40Not in a bad way. She's proud but she, you know, I am her boy, you know, so there is all this
09:49mirage of fame or big posters and stuff like that. That really doesn't do much for her.
09:59I want to bring essence to the character and if my mother sees that, I know that then I did it
10:07right because she knows my essence. So like, I'm very excited to hear what she has to say.
10:13I found that I was terrified for the characters at every turn. It felt like there was a threat
10:16around every corner. I personally don't think I'd make it about five minutes in the world of
10:21Middle-earth. How long do you think you would survive? I can't see very well so...
10:29You could get some glasses surely. Middle-earth. Does anyone have glasses?
10:33We don't need them in Numenor. If I lived on Numenor, I could last a long time, I think,
10:38if I was in Middle-earth. She's got a lot of smarts though, this one, so she's got her way around it.
10:43No, you could go to like a wizard and like get some healing. Get some new eyes.
10:48Like could Emma go to a wizard and get some new eyes?
10:52An actor in Middle-earth with all these orcs. Do you think I could say a sonnet like
10:59they'd leave me alone or something? I don't know. I'd like to think maybe a couple of weeks.
11:05You know, I enjoy fishing. I can climb a tree, but probably not very long to be quite honest
11:10with all these warriors and everything. I'm used to my comfortable life in the 21st century.
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