Both Charlie Vickers and Jamie Campbell Bower are no strangers to playing absolute evil on screen. Vickers portrays the Dark Lord Sauron in Prime Video’s The Rings of Power (TROP) while Bower (who plays Celebron in the series) played the irredeemable Vecna in Stranger Things. While embodying a character, actors might have to empathise with their choices, which makes it particularly interesting when the role you are playing is designed with no humanity. Interestingly, Vickers says that it was exactly what made it liberating for him as a performer. “It was very comforting and freeing to play a faceless evil entity,” says Vickers, adding, “Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films show Sauron as this giant eye on top of a tower, which is how many people think of him now. That is not how he is represented in the books. In my research, I found that Sauron was also described as having a fair form, which he uses to deceive the Elves. I took inspiration from Tolkien’s writing and I wanted to stay true to his vision of depicting evil as something obsessed with absolute order.”
Delving deeper into his understanding of Sauron through Tolkien’s writing, the actor outlines the Dark Lord’s philosophy. He says, “Sauron dislikes wasteful friction and he wanted to rehabilitate, reorganise, and reorder Middle-earth. He genuinely believes that if everyone obeyed him, worshipped him, and did what he wanted, then Middle-earth would be a happier place. Every villain is the hero of their own story.” The actor adds that if he doesn’t believe in his character’s ideology, it might end up becoming a caricaturish portrayal of evil and “that is not very interesting to watch.”
Agreeing with Vickers, Bower expands on his co-star's answer by drawing upon his own experience of playing Vecna. “As an actor, playing ultimate darkness in a story, you almost have to forget that you are evil. You have to justify within yourself the reasons for unleashing darkness.” Bower then imagines a scenario where Vecna and Sauron might meet each other. “I don’t think Vecna and Sauron would have gotten along well. They are both vying for ultimate power so they can reshape the world into the way in which they see fit,” he says. On what drives a character like Sauron, Vickers mixes philosophy and his understanding of Middle-earth lore. “Doing evil brings him bliss. He is practically an immortal being who has lived for centuries. He can wistfully say it brings him joy to do all of these evil things because he has seen and done everything. So, he is constantly looking for things to stimulate him.”
Bower matches Vickers’ level of deep character research as he explains what helped him understand his character in TROP season 3: the Elf Celebron. While Celebron meets Galadriel for the first time in the prequel series, he is introduced as Galadriel’s husband in The Lord of the Rings. “He is described as ‘the wisest of Elves’ by Galadriel, which is how we encounter him in the Peter Jackson films,” says the actor, who reveals that his portrayal in the prequel series is far removed from the air of royalty with which he was shown in the LOTR films. Bower adds, “I found a lot of inspiration from Tolkien’s paintings. Celebron has this starlight nature about him; he can see both the good and the bad in everything. For larger portions of the upcoming season, Celebron talks about finding joy in everything, whereas I struggle with the concept of finding joy.” Bower gets philosophical, trying to explain the intricacies of understanding his character. “I stumbled across a quote by Nick Cave, which goes, ‘Joy is the momentary leaps we take from our default position of suffering.’ And what that ended up meaning for me is finding hope and beauty and humility in the smallest of things or smallest of beings, the way a raindrop falls onto a leaf, or the way a mouse runs across the floor,” he then adds with a chuckle, “Basically everything that is outside of our control.” And Vickers, with a wry smile, succinctly ends, “Speaking of which, control is exactly what Sauron is all about.”
