- I didn't know that.
- I'll show you a picture after.
- I just know about your hairy feet.
(all laugh)
- Hi, I'm Cynthia.
- Hi, I'm Morfydd.
- Hi, I'm Nazanin.
- Hi, I'm Charlie.
- Hi, I'm Sophia.
- I'm Benjamin.
- Hi, I'm Maxim.
- I'm Tyroe.
- I'm, Markella.
- I'm, Megan.
- I'm Ema.
- And we're the cast of
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."
- And this is Elle's "Ask Me Anything."
(upbeat electronic music)
- I had not long given birth.
My baby was five days old, and I was laid up in bed.
Breast feeding at the time, actually.
So my first reaction was, "Take the baby,
take the baby, take the baby!"
And she was passed over
and I did as much celebrating as I could.
- I was so happy, I was so excited.
But I was on the train with all my friends
on the way to school.
And then I wasn't allowed to say anything.
So I had to try and smile to myself,
and I looked like a psycho.
- My first reaction was just pure relief,
and then you have, you know,
maybe 10, 15 minutes of excitement,
and then you realize the task at hand.
- I was covered in blood, shooting another show.
Yeah, it was really tough.
- What were you shooting? - I didn't know that.
- I was shooting another TV show, guys.
I have worked before this.
(all laugh)
But then I got, like, four missed calls from my agent.
And they were, like, "Yeah, do you wanna
be in 'Lord of the Rings?'"
And I was like, "Oh my God."
But then they sent me an NDA, so I couldn't even celebrate.
I was just jumping down.
- Yeah.
- Up and down in Croatia, yeah.
- I think I squealed.
In my head I sounded like a gerbil.
It was a long process, so like many months of auditioning
and constantly hearing, "You're in the mix.
You're in the mix."
Finally, I got the answer, and it's like,
"Okay, you're moving to New Zealand in three weeks."
- I had just gotten married, I had eloped.
I was a pandemic bride.
A couple months later, get this call
that we're gonna go to Middle Earth.
I felt like I had won the lottery.
- There was a lot of, like, jumping
and screaming and crying and like, "Yay!"
It was only when I actually got to New Zealand
that I actually knew what I was doing
and like who I was playing and stuff like that.
So that was really exciting.
- I was learning lines for another audition.
I was very jet lagged and very excited, yeah.
It was a very internal celebration
'cause I couldn't tell anyone.
- I think I'm excited for people to see
how far the imagination can stretch.
- Nice, Meg. - That's a banger.
- That's deep, that was good. - That's nice.
I'm excited for people to see some action.
- Hell, yeah.
- You know, there's so much in this story for everyone.
- I'm really excited for, kind of, Tolkien fans
and people who've never, necessarily, read or seen
anything to do with Tolkien, enjoying the show.
That's what was so wonderful about the films,
was there was, like, a big meeting,
different people loving it.
Yeah, and just it being seen, there's really not any point
making anything unless, eventually, it's out.
- For us, I don't think we differentiate
between fans and us because we are also enormous fans.
What's exciting is that we get to
show people that are as excited to see it
as we were to make it.
And to just go, "Trust me, we've shown it the respect
and given it the amount of dedication and love
that it deserves.
You're gonna be very happy."
- I don't know why this was, this was part of my prep,
but I would listen to "All By Myself"
by Celine Dion every, every morning.
- Oh, that would annoy... - Really?
- That's intense.
- That would have annoyed me so much.
- No, like, by myself. - Oh, by yourself?
- I never knew that was a thing.
- And you were by yourself?
- All by myself, by myself.
- I did a similar thing.
And I listened to like an album
whenever I was getting ready.
It was "Coney Island Baby" by Lou Reed.
- Very nice.
- And Patrick, who's one of the show runners,
walked into my trailer and was like,
"Are you listening to 'Coney Island Baby?'"
And I was like, "Yeah!"
And he was like, "I wrote, like, a bunch
of the script to this, to this album."
- What? - What?
- Which was really surreal. - That's so weird.
- And I was, like, "That's so weird, it connected with me."
- Why "more weird" at all?
- Well, "more weird" is a joke.
(all laugh)
- I don't know if I would call it so much "a ritual."
On the show, I play Queen-Regent Miriel.
She's a Númenorean.
And I sound quite different on the show
than I do in my real life.
And so, for me, dialect was a really big part
of getting into this character.
And so I would normally spend from the moment
I would get in the car to be taken to work
until the moment I would return to the car to go home,
I just would put on my little dialect.
And, fascinatingly, when I have a British accent,
I feel like I'm treated a little bit differently.
I don't know if that's in my own mind.
- You sound so much smarter.
(all laugh)
- Do you guys know UP&GOs are?
- No.
- Yes, of course. - The little drinky?
Oh yeah, so I think they're an Australian drink.
- They're an Australian drink.
- And, they have them in New Zealand.
And they're like this, what?
How do you describe an UP&GO?
- They're like, it's like...
- It's like flavored milk with like...
- Yeah. Exactly.
- With good stuff for you in it.
- It's very sweet. - Mmm.
- Yeah, so I would drink a caramel flavored one
and it had to be every day walking onto set.
Every single day.
I had to have an UP&GO in my hand, drinking it.
It's my one little diva moment.
- I didn't see it.
- Diva, yeah, flavored milk!
- A little prima donna.
Give me my flavored milk.
- Every day, without fail.
- One day, I had a really good day on set.
And I just had an UP&GO walking on,
and I was like, "Now, I'm doing it every time."
And then it literally got to...
- Without fail, every day?
- Every day!
And then the, like, it was...
I remember one day I was having a terrible day.
I talked to Sally, and I was like,
"I don't know what's going on."
She's like, "You didn't have your UP&GO today."
- What? - And I was like...
- And then, from there, I made sure...
- Insightful.
- Yeah, I'm like, "Put it in my schedule."
It has to, I have to have it.
- I have a corset.
(laughing)
- And I'm not complaining about the corset
because, you know, society made women wear corsets.
It's the kind of wardrobe that when you put on,
it's like, "Oh, I'm a different person now."
I think that's universally true, probably for all of us,
that the collaboration between, whether it be wardrobe
or voice and speech, and we had movement coaches that...
We had so much support that it was difficult
to not be ready to work when it was time.
- Me, I'm excited about Episode Six.
- Ah, very, yeah.
I keep hearing Episode Seven.
- Okay.
- And the people who have seen the whole show,
which is not us.
(loud laughing)
- I hear a lot...
- Not at this point.
- Yeah.
- Six and Seven are the ones, yeah.
- Six and Seven, I hear a lot of exciting things.
- Buzz.
- Six and Seven.
Six or Seven, yeah.
- Six and Seven for me, as well.
- Six and Seven.
- They're like a combined, they're like, yeah.
- Big stuff, big, big.
- Right, all the time, high energy.
- Bombs are dropping.
- You're getting pulled to this side, to this side.
And, ah, it's a roller coaster.
- It's a journey.
- Yeah.
- I meant emotional.
- Oh, for sure, yeah.
- I think you're gonna be riveted.
- I think what's great is that each episode
does a great job of, you know, ramping up,
and then there's, like, that sort of cliff hanger.
Like, I mean, of the ones that we've seen.
You definitely wanna know, sort of,
what, what's gonna happen next.
And, as the season progresses,
there's just this incredible ramp-up
of just all the worlds, different characters' arcs.
So, you know, toward the end of the season...
Yeah, I'm, I'm like dying to know.
And then of course the, the finale, of I'm...
very curious.
- Season One is a warm up.
Like it's, I think that it's just gonna get better
and better and better and...
Like, the little that we know about season two is, like,
"Oh, okay, y'all aren't playing around."
(upbeat music continues)
- Oh, we can't tell that.
- Ah, I've already said one before.
- Oh, you have?
- Yeah.
- What did you say?
- Am I going to lose my job?
- What did you say?
- You took you sword, didn't you?
- No, I wish I did, actually.
(Maxim laughs)
- No, I've got an elf ear.
- Nice. - What?
- I got given it as a little gift.
- How did you get given an elf ear?
- You're not even an elf.
- We were in a van on the way, like, back to,
back to unit and (curses)
- Ooo, sorry. - Just ripped...
- And he just (makes ripping noise)
- Ripped his ear off.
- And he goes, "Here you go, Mate."
And then tucked it away.
- And did you put it in a glass jar?
Pickled it with some onion?
- I actually have no idea where it is now.
- You lost it?
(laughing)
- I think my Mom has it.
- Didn't even get to take it home.
- I think it's in her, like, maybe little jewelry box.
I don't know.
- New Zealand is a really hugely spiritual place.
There's something in the air particles, I'm sure.
That it just fills you with a really powerful energy
that exudes kindness and friendship and love and safety.
And nature.
And, so, I kind of miss being surrounded
by that bubble of purity.
- Even before the pandemic, we were greeted
by the Mauri members of the crew.
To, like, welcome us and say that we had permission
to kind of work on the land.
There was a real sense of, like, gratitude to be welcomed.
You don't actually notice them at all.
Well, I had half ones.
Did you have whole ones?
- I had whole ones, yeah.
- So, mine would only come there.
The only time I did feel one of them was...
There was one point where I was doing lots
of the swimming stuff, where I came out
and I could definitely feel it because it,
one of them had filled with water.
So it was just kind of like...
- I can hear the ocean!
- Yeah.
- Kind of saggy.
- But, otherwise, no, you're not, you're not aware of it.
You could easily just walk home in them.
But people make sure that you don't.
(all laugh)
- We had ears.
- We had ears, yeah.
- We had Harfoot ears.
- Did you have ears?
- Yeah.
- What's a Harfoo ear?
- You guys had, like, full on...
- What do you mean?
- I didn't know Harfeet have special ears.
- Harfoots. - We have prosthetics.
- Harfoots, Harfeet.
- Thank you.
- Wait, no Harfeet?
Is that not plural of...?
- No! - Harfoots.
- Oh, is that a, is that a thing?
- Mmm. - Yeah.
- I'm sorry guys.
- No, that's fine. - That's okay.
- I didn't know that.
- I'll show you a picture after.
- I just, I just know about your hairy feet.
- Oh, the feet.
- Fair enough.
- Ah, man, I've seen them. - They do, they do stand out.
Quite a bit.
- Was it easy to walk?
- I Never took them off.
I loved them.
Yeah, it became part of...
Well, it's part of the character is what I'll say.
- Have you taken them off now?
- No, actually, that's why the camera's not going down.
(soft synthesizer music)
- I hadn't prepared myself
that it would feel like opening night
of, like, a play?
Because the crew was so big that...
there was a sense of an audience.
- Yeah.
- It was terrifying
because you were seeing all these people
that also, like, worked for months to get to the point
where you were actually stepping on set.
So there was a responsibility to kind of, like,
it was your, your time to deliver.
But also amazing because you were
in a constant state of, like,
feeling like you were child being taken to some sort of,
sort of, like, magical castle
because the sets were so beautiful.
- Maxim and I shot on a private beach,
and Maxim was (snaps) in and out of make hair and makeup,
like, so fast.
And then when I arrived, he was, like, sitting
in a fold-up chair, like, watching the sunrise
on the ocean.
- Wow.
- Yeah, it was a very emotional day.
'Cause I think we, we were waiting for this day
for so long.
And it finally came, and it was this special,
kind of, dreamlike state.
We were in the most amazing location
on a beach with no one around and, yeah.
Taking in the rays.
- I got there December 2019.
There was all this prep, dialect, movement, stunts.
Lots and lots of training rehearsals.
And, literally, the night before we were,
we were supposed to start filming,
we got locked down because of the pandemic.
And a bunch of people had already started filming,
so we had to stop, and they also had to stop.
And my first actual day on set,
I just felt a complete sense of gratitude
of "I'm finally here, I finally get to do this."
- My first day on set, I was actually on weather cover.
(all laugh)
- Oh, yeah.
- And, it was it was an extremely sunny day.
So I wasn't I needed, so I just kinda sat in my trailer,
playing Nintendo Switch, Mario Kart.
But, when I was on set, it was at my first day.
I remember my first ever shot.
It was a shot of me walking out a door.
And the camera was behind me.
And I remember I finished the shot,
and I was like, "Wow, my first shot
of 'Lord of the Rings' done!"
"Like, wow."
And then J.A. comes up to me and he goes,
"You looked right at the camera."
- Ah.
- I was like, "It was behind me, how did I even do that?"
I don't even...
I still, to this day, don't know how I did it.
- My first time going on the Harfoot set,
our wonderful background artists
were in the middle of doing like a...
like a sequence that you'll see.
So I got to walk in.
It was like, we were filming on this farm, someone's farm,
and it had, like, a wood in it.
And then I just watched, and they were doing this sequence.
So I got to see, like, an alive set.
It was really amazing.
- Wow.
- And it was, like, so immersive.
And I wasn't even in, like,
my hair, makeup, or costume, anything.
I was just, like, having a look.
But everyone else was, like, fully dressed.
It was, like, almost a camera rehearsal.
But, for me, I was like, "Okay, here we go."
- I feel like I've said this multiple times,
just because, again, I sort of joined a little bit later.
So, in a way, the production, the crew, the cast,
there was a bit of a rhythm going.
And so it was sort of, like, new kid at school
type of feeling, but it was...
- It was for us, as well.
We were like, "No one knows whatever I'm feeling like."
(all laughing)
- Yeah, no, there was such an injection of life and love.
(indistinct comments and jokes)
- Like, people have been waiting for our part of the world,
you know, our group, to arrive.
So my first day, I was actually being helicoptered
to the top of mountain.
And I'd never ridden in a helicopter before.
So there was both the nervousness of,
"Oh my gosh, it's my first day.
It's my first day speaking as this person,
being in the costume of this person.
And I have to ride this helicopter.
And I think I'm gonna throw up in the helicopter.
Embarrass myself, shame myself.
You know, in front of these people."
You know, I just remember saying my first line
on the mountaintop looking, you know,
at the expanse of South Island in New Zealand,
and was, like, this is, this is happening.
And so it begins.
- Thank you so much for watching.
And don't forget to watch...
- "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power"
on Prime Video.