We imagine your Duolingo streak might be cut short if you had to learn Khuzdul, Sindarin, or one of the many, many fictional languages J.R.R. Tolkien invented in his works. So, how do actors on The Rings of Power get to grips with the new tongues by the time the cameras are rolling?
As Celebrimbor actor Charles Edwards tells us, wordy moments such as his Black Speech scene in Galadriel’s vision earlier in The Rings of Power season 2 requires the help of dialect coach Leith McPherson, who has coached actors on various Tolkien languages in the past, including on all three Hobbit movies.
“She’s extremely well versed in it but we knew what I was going to be saying, which was The Ring poem – essentially – in Black Speech and I had to learn it by rote,” Edwards explains to GamesRadar+ of the scene, which features the Elven craftsman hoisted up on a tree after reciting the famous words inscribed on The One Ring.
From there, it was surprisingly straightforward for the Celebrimbor actor, who went home and learned his lines with the help of an audio aid from McPherson.
“I said the words and she did an audio bit for me on how it should sound and you just learn it by parrot fashion in the kitchen, [walking] up and down until you got it,” Edwards explains. “That was my first day of shooting, actually, this season. Black Speech and up on a harness.”
Edwards, who has been one of the season’s standouts as Celebrimbor, also went further than most by literally taking ring-making classes to better understand the master craftsman.
“It informed me tremendously. Because when I got this role, I had never heard of Celebrimbor. I was a big Lord of the Rings fan when I was a kid and obsessed with it. But I hadn’t registered who Celebrimbor was,” Edwards explains.
“I looked him up and the first thing are these fan art pictures of these huge muscle guys with hammers and I thought, ‘Oh, they want to go in a different direction with that!’ But then when I read the translation of his name – Hand of Silver. People often say Fist of Silver, which implies a different kind of thing. Hand of Silver is much more my take. The lessons I had with the jewelry was all about delicacy, tiny detail, and dealing with the minutest of touches. I was so pleased to discover that, because it fell directly into how I had envisioned him,” Edwards says.
“I saw him much more bookish, much more cerebral and surgical in the application of his work.”
The actor also broke down Mirdania’s death in The Rings of Power season 2, episode 7 in our recent interview, a shocking moment that saw Celebrimbor (and mostly Sauron’s magic) push Elven smith Mirdania over the walls of Eregion.
“In the script, it said she goes to him and he pushes her away, saying ‘Leave me alone’ and then Sauron’s energy pushes her over the edge which is – essentially – how it comes across,” Edwards says. “That was a melee, it happens – obviously he didn’t mean to do it! It’s a key moment.”
The Rings of Power season 2 is currently streaming on Prime Video. For more, check out our guides on The Stranger and Annatar.
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