Charlie Vickers eyes Aussie slang for Sauron in season four
Charlie Vickers joked that he could slip an Australian word into Sauron’s Black Speech in a future season of The Rings of Power. The Melbourne-born actor also described struggling to handle a ring with the character’s gloves and tongs while filming the series’ third season.
Charlie Vickers, the Australian actor who plays Sauron in The Rings of Power, joked about slipping local slang into the fantasy series as its third season began streaming Wednesday. The homegrown star’s ploy sneak could give the dark lord a distinctly Australian word in a future season.
“Maybe that could be a goal for season four, is to try and sneak in a good Aussie word into Sauron’s vocabulary. Maybe ‘oi’, or ‘mate,’” Vickers said. He suggested delivering the words in Black Speech, the language of Mordor.
“Ash nazg durbatulûk, mate,” he offered, turning the phrase into “one ring to rule them all, mate.”
Gloves complicated a key scene
Vickers said the season’s filming brought no problems with accents, but Sauron’s new black armor and pointed gauntlets made some work difficult. His first scene involved the character trying to make a prototype One Ring.
“My first scene in the show is Sauron trying to make this prototype One Ring, and I have to lift it up with these tongs,” he said. The gloves made handling both the fire tongs and a second set of large tongs nearly impossible.
“They gave me tongs instead of just picking it up [...] making me operate fire tongs with the gloves and then pick up a ring with these huge tongs, it was impossible.”
The crew eventually clamped the ring in the tongs, handed them to Vickers and began filming with the ring already in his grasp. “They cause a lot of carnage, the gloves,” he said.
The armor also kept him on set for hours at a time. “You’re locked into that for a couple of hours, and you’re not leaving the set,” Vickers said.
Jamie Campbell Bower rehearsed for weeks
Jamie Campbell Bower joined the third season as Celeborn, Galadriel’s long-lost husband. He said his first day of filming brought a dance scene and four weeks of rehearsals with Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel.
“I had to do four weeks of dance rehearsals and lessons with Morfydd, which was humbling to say the least. That felt like my hazing initiation,” he said.
Campbell Bower said Clark reassured him before filming began. “I was terrified, and she looked me in the eyes and gave me this [...] confident look and I just felt so at peace,” he said.
