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When Charlie Vickers found out that the character of Halbrand was actually the Dark Lord Sauron in Prime Video’s The Rings of Power saga, he breathed a sigh of relief, the puzzle pieces clicking into place. Taking on the role of one of fantasy literature’s greatest villains is no easy task, but Vickers relished in the challenge, immediately setting to work. Devouring the likes of Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and anything else he could get his hands on to learn more about this character. What we see in Lord of the Rings films, is a fully realized villain nearing the height of his power, what the television show explores is how we got there.
Sauron is not your typical villain. He isn’t some two-dimensional cardboard cutout, with a handlebar mustache, rubbing his hands together as he gleefully explains his plot to take over Middle-Earth while laughing manically in the shadows. What Vickers brings to Sauron in The Rings of Power is a depth of character no one has dared to explore on screen; a cunning sorcerer, a wily shapeshifter, charismatic, and, most importantly, likable. Does anyone wonder that Galadriel, portrayed by Morfydd Clark, found herself wavering in her resolve at the end of season one? Their chemistry is so captivating that you would hardly blame her for forsaking everything to be his Queen.
To be clear: all Sauron wants to do is heal Middle-Earth for the good of everyone. Not an inherently bad thought, Vickers explains over our Zoom call. It’s how he wants to go about doing it, and that’s the issue, which makes it fascinating to watch. The Rings of Power has gone so far as to show Sauron suffering, in defeat, falling for someone, being pulled to the light, being rejected, and ultimately choosing his dark path. Themes that highlight the breadth of his humanity and give us, the audience, a reason to (almost) sympathize with his character.
In conversation with Schön! Magazine, Charlie Vickers discusses The Rings of Power season 2, what it was like to take on such a monumental character, what makes a good villain, how he landed the role, the relationship between Galadriel and Sauron, and so much more.
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You’ve said in several interviews that you weren’t initially told the character of Halbrand was Sauron. What was going through your head when they broke the news to you?
To be honest, it was a relief more than anything. I’d been in New Zealand for a while, quite a few months by then, and I had a strong suspicion something was going on with Halbrand. There was something more than meets the eye because I’d done some auditions as some evil characters, Satan and Riddler [laughter], and suspected. So, when they told me, I was like, ah, yes, that is a big relief. I could finally be like, ‘Now I can do all this research and have all this stuff to go off,’ it was very exciting.
Were you able to tell anyone at all or did you have to play your cards close to your chest?
They did say don’t tell anyone, but I told the people closest to me. I told my partner and my mum.
I can’t imagine how exciting it must have been to tell someone.
I would have gone mad had I not been able to tell anyone.
How hard was it to kind of keep it from the press when you were doing junkets and interviews? How did you keep them at bay?
It was a tricky thing to navigate. I felt like I was constantly lying in a way. I was also kind of just bending the truth or avoiding the truth. At the start of the junkets, the press were asking like, ‘Sauron could be somewhere in the show,’ and by the end, they were just asking me, saying, ‘You’re Sauron, aren’t you?’ Just directly. I think a lot of people figured it out. My lying clearly wasn’t very good. [laughter]
I read that you auditioned seven times for the role over six months. Can you take me through that process, and how did it feel to finally book it?
It was a stressful period of time, if I’m honest. I think my first audition was in April of 2019, and I did two auditions for Elrond.
No way!
I didn’t know I was auditioning for Elrond, but I did two auditions for that character, and then I did two auditions for Sauron. I didn’t realize it was Sauron or Halbrand. All you know is you’re auditioning for the Lord of the Rings and when you get that opportunity – I don’t need to know the character name. I’m going to try and be involved in any way possible. I did the two auditions for Sauron, and then I did a Zoom with the showrunners (Patrick McKay and John D. Payne). It was interesting to meet them and to see their ideas on the character. They sent me away, and I did some monologue, and then I had two chemistry tests with Morfydd (Clark), who plays Galadriel. We tested in London and then in Barcelona, so it was a long process, but finally, when I got cast, I was incredibly relieved. My first audition was in April, and my last one was in September. It was wonderful to finally get to the end of that process.
It must have felt like a weight off your shoulders.
Exactly. But then, once you get to the end of that, you’re like, well, now I have to do it, which is equally scary.
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Now the real pressure is on. Moving forward, what intrigued you about Halbrand? Obviously you didn’t initially know it was Sauron, but what intrigued you about the character? What jumped out at you from the page?
I think that there was this character that had this kind of ambiguity and darkness in his past, which I liked, and was interested in. I loved that he had this kind of hidden nobility. It was sold to me as he’s an heir to a great army. It was an indirect way of kind of giving me a clue that he is Sauron. I was fascinated by this idea that they kind of compared him to someone who had this cursed relationship with power, that he’d sought power in the past, and that he’d lost it. He was on a quest and at a crossroads in his life. I found it fascinating, that he was at a crossroads of trying to run away from his past and try and make this future for himself, which is kind of representative of Sauron’s repentance. That stage where he thought he could become good. That’s what drew me to Halbrand.
So, when it was revealed that he (Halbrand) was Sauron, did your approach to the character change at all? Was there a distinction to you?
That’s a really good question. I think it got more specific. I tried to be really specific with Halbrand and create a world for him, but there were holes in the story there were things that weren’t stacking up. The final piece of the puzzle was that this Halbrand character isn’t a real character, and the backstory was trying to fit into the mould of Sauron’s backstory, and that’s why it wasn’t quite matching for me. When I was told he was Sauron, everything just kind of fell into place. The biggest difference was that I now had Tolkien’s canon from which I could work directly. So I did a deep dive into everything to do with Sauron and that’s right back to stories of Beren and Lúthien, lots of parts of the Silmarillion, and then Tolkien’s letters are very specific and helpful, because he talks about his intentions with Sauron, and literally what Sauron seeks, which is reordering and rehabilitating Middle-earth during this time period, and that gave me a specific thing to hold on to.
That leads to my next question. Can you touch upon the research aspect, how much of Tolkien’s interpretation did you inject into the character versus what you created from the ground up?
It all starts with Tolkien, and that’s the beauty, that’s why I was so relieved when I found out I was playing Sauron because that is the core of the story. It’s in Tolkien’s work, and I could go to a chapter in the Silmarillion and find out about this character that is actually really complex and has a really deep backstory. You obviously bring your own flavour to it, and you can only bring your humanity, which I find tricky because he’s a God [laughs]. We see everything through the vision of humans, and we assume it through humans, so through the human mind. We are limited in terms of what we can experience. I really enjoyed exploring the Sauron world.
Turning to the show itself, one of my favourite scenes at the end of the first season is when Sauron finally reveals himself to Galadriel and offers her the chance to join him. How would you describe their relationship? Do you think he came to care for her, or simply sees her as a means to an end, or both? In the trailer for season two, we get to see them briefly reunited. Can you tease anything about that reunion?
They’re intrinsically connected, and they will forever be, because they are the representations of good and evil in the world, at least in the world established by the show. I think he came to depend on her in season one. I liked the idea of what she brought to him, and how she made him. I think what is undebatable is that he always had the intention to rule by himself, but if she were by his side slash beneath him, he would have an element of light. I think he’s very self-aware and understands that maybe he doesn’t bring much light to the equation. There’s a lot in her than in him, and that may be useful in terms of ruling Middle Earth.
Since they operate on such a high level, I think the connection comes from meeting someone who understands life on the same level and understands the world. They probably do have a connection that runs deeper than just your surface. There is more to it than that. That connection will endure as long as the show endures because although they might not be together in proximity when we pick it up, he’s pissed off that she has turned his pitch down [laughter]. That drives him to think, I can make her join me, or I’ll make her pay for this. She will stop at nothing to undo her mistake, to rectify her mistake of letting him in. So, when they do finally meet again in the next season, there is so much fuel beneath the fire. They’re driven to find a resolution to where they left off. But it is exciting. I can say that there is a sword fight.
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1940’s suit. Vintage
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watch. Zenith
I’m super excited for that. I can tell you, based on that two-second clip, the internet has gone slightly feral. I don’t know if you’ve been on TikTok, but the amount of thirst videos is insane.
Oh, God. I don’t have TikTok, but I’d be curious to see.
I’d be curious to know your thoughts. Do you ever find yourself wading into the murky abyss that is fan theories or fan videos?
Not really. Sometimes I will get sent them, and they always make me laugh. I think it’s great. If that’s what they (the fans) take from the show, then awesome. We have no control over what people take. We weren’t aware of it when we were filming it, but it’s so funny to see what people latch on to. I think that’s a really fun and exciting part of this show that people have latched on to. I hope it keeps going for everyone. I hope they find enough inspiration and little crumbs of things like that bit in the trailer as this season goes on.
For sure! So, we know how Sauron’s story ends — spoiler alert for everybody reading — with that in mind, what in your opinion makes for a compelling villain? What has been the most challenging thing about playing him versus the most rewarding?
Often the most challenging things are the most rewarding. It’s all tied up in one. It’s nice to watch a villain doing bad things but trying to work out why they’re doing bad things, and it’s often they have a slightly eccentric side. If someone was just villain 2.0 or whatever, it can be a bit boring. What I like about this, and it’s been also a real challenge, is the perspective of the show has shifted so that we’re with him on his journey You can’t help but root for him just a little bit and hope. It’s quite fun watching what he does and how he manipulates his way through the world. I hope people see that he intends to heal Middle-Earth, to try and do good for everyone. It just so happens that there has to be a bit of collateral damage along the way.
Quite a bit of collateral damage, I’d say.
Just a little.
Another scene that really stuck out to me is the end of episode 2 of this season when Sauron appears to Celebrimbor as Annatar. Unlike Galadriel, this feels like pure manipulation, with Annatar playing to Celebrimbor’s pride and desperation. How would you characterize him getting to that pinnacle moment of being able to manipulate Celebrimbor into making the rings?
The Annatar guise is for Celebrimbor. Everything is to convince the elves and Celebrimbor to make these rings that are going to heal Middle-Earth. The way that he looks and the way he talks, the way he walks. We developed it all to have this level of wisdom and power. Something that is undeniably magnetic and has this gravitas. What we can’t forget is that he is the greatest of elven smiths. He is a super celebrity in Middle-Earth. For him to listen to someone on his special subject, it would have to be an overwhelming presentation, to put it simply. Hence why there is such a big effect there. It has a great impact. It’s appealing to his vanity and his sense of hubris. The key line for Sauron is, you can best your grandfather, best Feanor, who is incredibly famous, and infamous in some ways. Celebrimbor has this desire to make a lasting difference and a legacy. That is what Sauron is so good at. He did the same thing with Galadriel. He taps into the needs of others, relates to them and gains their trust in that way.
I can’t tell you how infuriating and enthralling that scene was to watch. On the one hand, you hope Celebrimbor will see through the veil on the other, you’re curious about what happens next as he falls for Sauron’s guise. What is your hope for fans going into this new season?
I hope people enjoy the ride and find an escape and a certain level of fun and intrigue. It’s a darker season. It’s grittier. I hope it’s not too scary for kids who are watching it already. We watch telly and films to try and find parts of our life represented. That’s what Tolkien does so beautifully. It’s timeless themes, timeless stories, that endure over generations. I think the main thing that we hope is that people enjoy it and find meaning in it. If they don’t find meaning in it, that’s fine. Just have fun watching it. There was so much love poured into it and we love sharing it with everyone. It means a lot. We’ve just come back from a fan signing at a comic bookstore. It means a lot meeting people and seeing how much of an impact it has on their lives. We hope that continues for a long time.
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Talking about fans, you were just at San Diego Comic-Con. What was it like for you to watch the trailer along with everyone else?
It’s very special. We did San Diego Comic-Con a couple of years ago before the show came out. It was a different experience this time. You get these people that have this relationship with the characters and the show now. It means so much. Being in Hall H, where there are 6,000 people or whatever, and you’re watching the trailer for the first time along with them and also these featurettes for the first time, it’s very special to be able to share it with them and feel their reactions. Those rooms are electric. Hall H is electric. Being in front of a crowd that big is super fun. It’s an unnatural thing to do, to speak in front of people and present, but it’s such a wholesome atmosphere. It feels like a forgiving and kind and nice environment.
Everybody’s just as excited as you are. They’re excited to be part of the world.
Yeah, I think so. It’s such a magical world that’s been so special to so many people for so long. It’s incredible to be able to share it. That’s why we do it, for the fans.
Absolutely. You’ve been acting for just under a decade now. What have you learned about yourself along the way, especially going into something as big as The Rings of Power?
I started drama school nearly 10 years ago to the day, actually. I moved to England to study as an actor, I think in August or September of 2014. I trained for three years, so it’s nearly seven years now that I’ve been out of drama school. It’s crazy to think that for five of those seven years, I’ve been doing Lord of the Rings. My career before this show was less than two years, which is mental to me. Luckily, in every season of doing this, I’ve been able to go and do other things, experience different environments on set, and work with amazing actors from all around the world. I’ve learned a huge amount. I’ve become more relaxed. I’m quite an anxious person, and I obsess about things. I think that I have become much more comfortable and felt a real sense of belonging as an actor and doubt myself less.
I think part of that is working with amazing performers and feeling the love, really, and trying to at times take it less seriously and be forgiving of myself. But also, it’s an incredibly fun job, and we’re incredibly lucky. I’ve learned to chill out more. Often, the great work and the fun work is in the play, and it’s in relaxation. All in all, we are telling stories, and we’re incredibly lucky to do it for a living. I feel like my craft, is a real craft. I take great pride in being an actor. I love the transformative side of it, and it’s what I want to keep doing forever. All the publicity and all that kind of stuff is something that’s still very new to me and I’m learning about it, but I hope that I can continue acting and testing and developing my craft for a long time because I love it.
I believe you will. Lastly, what’s one thing you’d like to manifest for yourself this year, whether professionally or personally?
I think for the end of the year, a bit of rest and recuperation. It’s what we all seek, and I have a young son, so it’s difficult, but I’ve had an incredibly busy year. I was working on a project in Australia for the first half of the year, and then I’ve come back and been doing press. I was in Australia for the first few months of the year, and then I’ve been coming back and doing press for this, so I think I’m trying to manifest a bit of time at home, some quiet time with my family, and just some reconnecting and re-grounding amidst all of the craziness of life that has been 2024. So hopefully for the last few months of the year that will happen, but you never know in this industry where you’ll be carted off to next.
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Season 2 of The Rings of Power is streaming now on Amazon Prime.
photography. Lee Malone
fashion. Tom O’Dell
talent. Charlie Vickers
grooming. Petra Sellge
location. Drop Studios
interview. Dana Reboe
