The Rings of Power Star Charles Edwards has revealed that a five-hour crash course in ring making confirmed that he was playing the role correctly.
In conversation with TechRadar before The Rings of Power When the second season hit Prime Video, Edwards confirmed that he spent an intensive afternoon learning about metallurgy and jewelry making to bring his character even more to life.
This tutorial, led by Kristie Rickwood, gave Edwards a greater sense of appreciation not only for the “intricate” and “detailed” work that goes into making rings and other jeweled pieces, but also for the “forensic” way in which his Lord of the rings character works. Finally, Celebrimbor plays an integral role in the Second Age and the entire history of Middle-earth as the legendary but flawed Elven smith who creates all 17 of the titular Rings—13 of which he forges alongside Sauron in his Annatar disguise.
“It helped me tremendously,” Edwards admitted when I asked him how his ring-making experience influenced his approach to Celebrimbor in the second season of the Amazon high fantasy series. “And I’m so glad I did it, because it showed me how – I mean, I always had this idea of the character anyway, that he’s not a fat guy with a hammer, but much more forensic and detailed.
“I always saw him as a kind of jeweler who spends a lot of time hunched or hunched over a workbench. When I had that lesson, it was exactly like that, and it showed me how complicated and delicate all this work is. Kristie came with all the tools she thought would be appropriate for our world (and some) very ancient ways of working, and I really enjoyed it. It made a huge impression on me. I felt like it confirmed that that was how I wanted to play him, or wanted him to be, and yes, that’s exactly how he would have worked, so I was happy with that.”
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Of course, as The Rings of Power As the season one finale revealed, Sauron – then posing as Halbrand, the so-called outcast king of the Southlands – was not present when Celebrimbor made the three Elven rings. However, for reasons I won’t reveal here, Celebrimbor and Halbrand reunite in season 2, despite Galadriel’s warning to Celebrimbor (in season 1, episode 8) that Halbrand is not someone the Elves can trust anymore. This inevitably leads to Sauron – using dark magic – replacing Halbrand with his new alias Annatar, the supposed “Lord of Gifts”, who forces Celebrimbor to make more of the titular rings.
A master manipulator, Annatar knows which buttons to push on Celebrimbor to get him to forge more magical artifacts. The key to this is that Celebrimbor feels inadequate in front of Fëanor, his grandfather and arguably the greatest elven smith of all time. Combined with Celebrimbor’s insatiable desire to create something as famous as Fëanor’s various works, and the fact that Celebrimbor doesn’t know if – spoiler – the elven rings worked their magic and saved the elven race, it doesn’t take long for Sauron/Annatar to pull Celebrimbor’s strings.
“A lot of it has to do with pride,” Edwards admitted, “but Celebrimbor doesn’t know what happened to the elven rings either. Halbrand teases and taunts him with this information, and so they end up working together again.”
I’ll be covering season 2 of one of Prime Video’s best series in much more detail between now and launch day, including plenty of details on the dynamic between Edwards’ Celebrimbor and Charlie Vickers’ Sauron/Halbrand/Annatar, so stay tuned to TechRadar for more as soon as I have it.
