Rings of Energy: Robert Aramayo on Sport of Thrones, Lord of the Rings

Robert Aramayo had no thought when he first auditioned for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” that the function he was vying for was Elrond, one of the revered and essential characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic saga of Center-earth. Hugo Weaving performed Elrond in Peter Jackson’s trilogies of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” and as a child, Aramayo had been captivated by the movies. So when “The Rings of Energy” co-showrunner J.D. Payne advised him that he’d been solid to play Elrond as a (comparatively) younger man, the now 29-year-old actor couldn’t consider it.

“I had a type of moments the place all the pieces in your physique feels such as you’re on electrical energy,” he tells Selection. “I used to be shocked and stunned and felt actually, actually honored that they’ll take into account me for him.”

It isn’t Aramayo’s first expertise enjoying the youthful model of a beloved fantasy character. In Season 6 of “Game of Thrones,” he performed younger Ned Stark in a sequence of essential flashbacks that exposed a minimum of the true parentage of Jon Snow. Since then, Aramayo’s saved busy, with roles in function movies “Antebellum” and “The King’s Man” and Netflix sequence “Mindhunter” and “Behind Her Eyes.” 

However starring in “The Rings of Energy” — set 1000’s of years earlier than the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, within the Second Age of Center-earth — is a “dream come true” for Aramayo. On the behest of Payne and fellow showrunner Patrick McKay (whom Aramayo affectionately calls “the boys”), the actor plunged head first into Elrond’s historical past and studied the wealth of supplemental materials written by Tolkien, like “The Silmarillion” and “The Historical past of Center-earth” — collectively often known as Tolkien’s legendarium. 

“Now, it’s genuinely just about all I learn,” Aramayo says with a self-effacing snicker. “The First Age tales are written very otherwise to the Third Age and to ‘The Hobbit.’ They’re very mythological. I simply completely fell in love with it.”

Aramayo discusses what most struck him in his deep dive into Center-earth lore and the variations between engaged on “Sport of Thrones” and “The Rings of Energy.”

On “Sport of Thrones,” you shot the scene that exposed Jon Snow’s parentage. So you have got some expertise in holding massive secrets and techniques. 

Sure. Oh sure. Sure, sure, sure. 

Was that difficult for you again then?

Yeah, it was. It was Season 6, and there was a lot zeitgeist across the present. So even that I used to be in it was an enormous secret. After which, clearly, what it revealed, I may by no means ever discuss.

There was a large hole between your first episode in Season 6 and what Ned discovers within the finale of that season — that Jon Snow was the son of his sister Lyanna and Rhaegar Targaryen. How how did you navigate individuals asking you questions in regards to the present?

With nice issue, truly. If I bear in mind rightly, I feel I had a job in between the primary look and the second. I often simply disappear after I work wherever, so I simply managed to keep away from it as a lot as I may.

Have you ever been making use of something you realized engaged on “Thrones” to “The Rings of Energy”?

By way of the secrecy, I don’t have any social media, and I attempt my greatest to avoid stuff. They’re very, very totally different exhibits. My job on that and my job on this have been very totally different. There, I used to be recreating the younger Ned that all of us knew and noticed. That was the job. Whereas right here, it’s far more vital to the boys — and that is what I really like about them — for me to check First Age stuff, and produce the legendarium to the desk on this interpretation. 

You have been considered one of many members of the solid and crew who needed to stay in New Zealand through the pandemic lockdown as a result of should you left, it wasn’t clear whenever you’d be capable to return to the nation. So how did you cross the time?

I learn rather a lot. I additionally took a while and went round New Zealand. Hitchhiked and took buses. I labored on some farms met some actually fascinating cool individuals. 

You labored on farms? What did you do?

All the pieces, actually. No matter they wanted. Carried hay stacks, dug holes. Stuff I’ve simply not likely performed a lot of. Nevertheless it’s a candy deal. They offer you a mattress and a few meals and also you give them work. It was a fantastic factor to do. 

Did they know that you simply have been an actor on “The Rings of Energy” who was form of caught within the nation?

No, I don’t suppose so. It was simply one thing actually, actually enjoyable that I actually needed to do. 

As somebody who has studied Tolkien and Center-earth, what would you say to different hardcore Tolkien followers who’re questioning how devoted “The Rings of Energy” will likely be?

Properly, that’s the factor, isn’t it? I imply, it’s a really sparse age. You’ve form of sure plots on the graph, and it’s the boys’ and our job to navigate one plot level to a different. As a fan of Tolkien, I prefer to think about after I’m studying how a personality could have felt in that second, why a personality did a sure factor, how a personality ended up over there after we don’t know after they left right here. We get to make selections like that. I hope they get pleasure from our selections. I’ve had so many conversations with the boys the place they at all times hearken to something that I really feel keen about with the legendarium. We’ll discuss selections that he’s going to make, and this route he’s going to take, and the way that historic occasion could have affected this. As a lot as we are able to, on the base of all of it, is [Tolkien’s] spirit, the essence of him, hopefully.

What most struck you in all of the analysis you probably did into Elrond and his previous within the First Age?

Properly, I feel Tolkien has a fantastic relationship to nature. Whenever you learn his work, you understand that characters attempt to get forward rather a lot, to supersede the pure course of. We do this on a regular basis. It’s a really human factor to do. And every time it occurs in Tolkien’s work, it often ends in catastrophe. I believed that was a extremely nice lesson. I used to be additionally stunned by how treacherous, how difficult the elves of the First Age are. They betray one another. They’re not truthful with one another. They’re not angels on a regular basis. Additionally, because it pertains to Elrond, how a lot his household are concerned in in that age.

Will Elrond be exploring that private historical past within the first season?

It’s with him, and there’s moments hopefully the place you see it affecting him. It’s a extremely deep, deep factor in him. He’s bought difficult relationship with together with his dad, with what he achieved. His dad saved the world, his mum saved the world, his brother created Númenor. It’s plenty of strain on younger Elrond.

Amazon and the showrunners have been clear they envision this as a 50-episode sequence. That’s plenty of your life to dedicate to the present. Did you ever weigh that type of dedication whenever you have been contemplating taking the function?

My supervisor stated to me as soon as that I’d stated that if “Lord of the Rings” ever was a TV present, I’d like to do it. After I heard in regards to the present, I despatched an e mail to my agent, saying, “Please, can I get an audition for this?” A mix of my deep, deep, deep love for his work and for Elrond simply makes me really feel actually honored and actually gifted to play him and be part of it. So so long as I can play him, I’m simply enthusiastic about that prospect. I really feel very, very, very fortunate to be right here.

This interview has been edited and condensed.