Cast of Rings of Power’s Stranger in magic istar and season 2

Daniel Weyman has the easiest or most difficult job The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Since falling from the sky like a meteor, Weyman’s Stranger spent most of season 1 learning about the land and devoted her life to Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and her community of insulating hunters, leaving him with just a few lines and the occasional there was a moment of mystical magic.

But Weyman’s time on Rings of Power the press tour is almost rigorous – as in, all he can say will be a hoax. Is his character Gandalf? Sauron? Saruman? Radagast? Tom Bombadil? Other? Curiosity is endless, but when your character is a walking mystery box, that’s part of what you subscribe to. Rings of Power season 1 finale answered some questions – we know the Stranger Not Sauronbut To be an Istar (or wizard), like Gandalf.

How did Weyman, whose previous job from HBO’s Mr. Jack arrive Sound Drama about Sandman, approaching ambiguity? And what’s in store for season 2? Polygon spoke to the actor, who is in London, where the next season of Rings of Power currently being filmed, to ask everything we could imagine he would answer about Middle-earth’s greatest unknown.

[Ed. note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity, and contains spoilers for all of The Rings of Power season 1.]

Polygon: The Stranger is more than just a mysterious figure; he’s pretty much a walking mystery box. How much the creative team wants you to know about him, and friend want to know?

Daniel Weyman: Very early on, the hosts made it clear that they were genuinely interested in following his story in the present. So they don’t care too much about where this character is going or whatever we have to bind there. I think they allowed a great resonance to emerge in so many different scenes and episodes, not only for my character but for everyone else, so that fans could go back and revisit the source. materials and give your own thoughts. A lot of them are very different. Until this movie came out, I think there were some healthy people who thought The Stranger could be very dark.

So it feels like it’s happening, and it’s really fun to film because whenever I get to a scene, starting in the crater, I don’t have to think about anything in front of my eyes for a while. the script. He didn’t know anything when he woke up. All I had to concentrate on was how that feeling could be in his body, coming around in a crater with smoke, with fire, with rocks, looking like a terrible war zone. , and then a very strange creature in front of him, me. think from the very beginning he cannot even be separated from nature itself. Is this what he’s looking at like fire or like air or like water? It is very elemental. Great fun to spend next season building on that. But I don’t need to predict the future.

Image: Prime Video

Are you an actor who looks to real life for character building? Is there anything to draw from playing an amnesiac bearded wizard from Middle-earth?

I found that in New Zealand, where we were welcomed with unbelievably open arms, and were able to experience some of the ancient Maori culture there, something about the land and the way they used it. land use or respect for the land, the fact that my character walks barefoot, the fact that I grow a beard longer than I’ve grown before, plus the fact that I wear clothes that aren’t really clothes, just things to keeping him warm, it all made me feel confused. in the best way, that is into the wild. I feel part of the world.

Cinematographers also gave me some movie references as we went through the audition process. One of the ones that I keep the most is Frankenstein1931 movie, especially where we see [the monster with the little girl]. Especially in that scene, we can’t say whether the monster is evil or good. We can certainly say that some of the effects of his behavior are horrendous. But once that behavior was completed, the rest of society treated him in a very different way and turned him into an evil being. They wrote his future for him, didn’t they? But I really loved the joy he had when he smelled that flower. I was so excited when I saw the flower floating on the water, and when he first saw the child, and they had that moment where you think this is going to be horrible. Then you think, Wait, was that a laugh? And then he picks her up and you’re like, Oh, this will be fine, and then, no, he threw her into the lake and she drowned. It was a little background for me, for the Stranger, that I found really, really helpful.

Understandably, most of what you can say about Strangers is going to be spoilers for later seasons, so here are some hot questions about season 1: How much does the beard hurt?

I started developing it in October 2019. I started auditioning on August 19, but by October it became clear that the beard could be useful for the part. And so I started developing it, and it just itched for a few days. But my beard is very gray, almost white. But obviously we dyed that up.

Your beard may be neither gray nor white.

So we dyed that and they kept trimming to the length they wanted. But when I’m not acting, I let it grow. And then we had COVID and for a long time that we didn’t film, I let it grow, and it was crazy. It’s the ugliest beard. My friends won’t recognize me. I would love to go there with him. It has changed my body, and who I think I am.

Image: Ben Rothstein / Prime Video

You have a battle against Sauron’s disciples at the end of the season – what’s the key to waving like you have magical powers and looking cool?

The first thing for me was that we weren’t trying to make anything look eye-catching. But there is an excellent movement coach […] but she had insights into how to do physical movements that stemmed from something other than “But I really wanted to make it look eye-catching and really magical!”

The rule of thumb for us has always been that magic – and we don’t really call it magic, we call it the energy flowing through him – is always external. He is always channeling energy from nature, above or below himself, and he is the conductor. He is the guiding stick for this energy. It often flows through him without him really understanding why or how to control it. But it means that his physicality during that time wasn’t really his own either. That’s how he reacted to this stupidly large amount of energy running through him. And so it was different in different moments. I hope that we explore that as season 2 continues.

What is it like to throw a warrior? It looks heavy.

I’m pleased you say it because it’s tough. And they made it difficult. Most of it was green screen because I’m obviously a different scale than Markella Kavenagh and the others, so when we ended up filming, they knew the footage they wanted had them in the background, because so I have to be in the foreground on a blue screen and the animal is held by a little blue person wearing a blue jumpsuit. And they raised this animal. It has a bit of hair on its back, but it’s basically a big blue sack and it’s heavy and they keep putting more weight on it because they say I don’t make it look heavy enough. I can’t remember how much it weighed, but I remember after doing it a few times saying, “Guys, this is pretty heavy!” And they said, “Yes, but it’s reading!”

Do you think you will get a hat in season 2? Looks like you can get a hat.

What else is there? That’s really a good question. I didn’t think about it at all. People at various points asked me about shoes. “He won’t have some shoes now?” And I’m always like, “No, he’s just with the hunters.” The only creatures he knows are hunters and they have no shoes! Why would he? How will he? Where will he be?

Well, we were wondering if Strangers ever wear panties.

Yep, that’s a lovely pair of panties that he wears.