ELF PORTRAITS

Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo strive for immortality as Galadriel and Elrond

Both Galadriel and Elrond are familiar to us from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. How do the younger versions you play compare to their older selves?

Robert Aramayo (Elrond): Well, The Rings Of Power takes place thousands of years before the original book trilogy, and I think you would say my guy is at the beginning of his career, if you’d like to put it that way. The halfelven element of him [Elrond has both Elf and Human ancestors] is so important, and was really intriguing to explore. I think it eventually becomes his greatest gift – this ability to bring people together, and an understanding of mortality which is really unique to him – though I don’t think he’s fully figured out how to use it yet.

Morfydd Clark (Galadriel): The thing that

I was obsessed with was that element of immortality. The Elves are kind of the memory of Middle-earth – that’s how I see them, anyway – and it was like, she’s wise but she’s also got an element of naivety. She doesn’t have all the power and the gifts that she later has, so it’s kind of juggling those things. How can you be both wise and naive?

How much did you look at what Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving did in Peter Jackson’s movies?

Clark: The films have been such a part of my upbringing that even if I wanted to erase them from my memory, I couldn’t. I saw it as a real gift. There was a sense that I was playing this character that didn’t know where she was going, but I was like, “I do! You’re going to be

Cate Blanchett one day!”

Aramayo: Everything Lord Of The Ringsrelated has always been an enormous part of my life. The inevitable question about Elrond is that he sets a lot of people off on some very dangerous missions, and he plays a very big part in the formation of things, so why didn’t he join the Fellowship or something like that? I was always massively intrigued about him, even before I knew about where he came from.

Did shooting in New Zealand make you feel like you were in Middle-earth?

Clark: Yeah, we were very lucky that lots of the sets were practical. And I think also the wonderful thing about doing lots of practical things is that sometimes you get to see an Orc eating a sandwich! Then there’s also a layer of visual effects that I’m really looking forward to seeing on top of it, because even without any of that stuff it already looked amazing.

Aramayo: Working with Dwarves is a tricky venture. There was lots of me being on very high ladders while Owain [Arthur, who plays Durin] was sunk into the ground. The challenge of that is something I’ve never experienced before – it’s so unique to something like The Lord Of The Rings to make someone very big and someone else very small. It does become easier but I feel like it could overwhelm you because it is a challenge. Luckily, I was working in that context with Owain and Sophia [Nomvete], and they’re just a joy.