Darkness has its Lord in Sauron, but the elves have a High King of their own. He will lead them in the fight for Middle-earth’s soul. How will Gil-galad do that in season two on The Rings of Power after barely averting disaster in season one? Nerdist spoke to star Benjamin Walker ahead of the show’s second season at Prime Video about just that. We also asked about his wide-ranging career, how it prepared him to play one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most famous leaders, the High King’s reaction to peace giving way to war, and more.
Nerdist: Before we get to The Rings of Power season two, I want to go back because I have been fascinated by your career for a long time. It’s not even that you’ve worked with some really famous and talented actors and directors. It’s that you’ve played an incredibly wide range of parts across very different genres. Do you actively seek out such different parts? Or is that just sort of how things have fallen for you?
Benjamin Walker: There’s an element to every actor’s career that’s just dumb luck. But I am pretty picky. I kind of live by…I like to collect directors, just in my mind. I want to know how they do what they do and have the opportunity to. Because every time you work with a different director, it’s like a different vocabulary. It’s a different workflow. I really like jumping in between different ways of working. I kind of live by, “What am I going to learn? Is this going to make me better?”
For example, I just did a show in the West End with the director Ivo van Hove. He’s this Dutch avant-garde theater director where you make a film of play you’re doing. While you do the play that video is live projected behind you. And the narrative is often disjointed and confusing on purpose, but it illuminates something unique about the story you’re trying to tell because the audience kind of has to play catch up the entire time. That to me, doing something different every time, is important. It keeps the job fresh. It keeps your tools sharp. And it’s one of the biggest joys I find doing the job, being a collaborator with people you haven’t collaborated with.
The things I’m about to bring up, I bring up specifically because I like them and I especially like you in them. Just want you to know-
Walker: :laughs: Disclaimer, alert.
Well I just want to make sure, because I imagine a lot of people first remember you from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Walker: Sure.
But then you followed that up with an HBO movie about the Supreme Court (Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight) and a Ron Howard film about a famous shipwreck (In the Heart of the Sea). Now you’re a famous Elf King on a Lord of the Ring series. How does playing Gil-galad compare to the many other types of roles you’ve had?
Walker: Oooh. I mean, certainly in terms of the scale, you talk about collaboration, the army of artists and craftspeople that are there to work with you and also support you, that’s been profound on this. That the size and scale of the show, by necessity, if you’re going to do Tolkien, that’s kind of the bare minimum of what it takes.
But, in some ways, now that I’m saying it, it feels a bit…for example, in the Ron Howard film, there were a few days where you’re exhausted, emaciated, and you’re just kind of stuck in a dinghy out in the ocean while (cinematographer) Anthony Dod Mantle has this handheld camera. And it’s like you’re doing almost a Guerrilla independent college film. Or it’s just some guys that have gotten together and they’re going to try and make this little story on this. That was an epic film, but in those moments, it feels very Guerrilla in that way.
We still have those moments on The Rings of Power. You walk into this massive sound stage where they’ve built the forest of Lindon, and you’ve got your ears glued on and you’re wearing a crown, and every leaf has been painted gold. But then you find yourself standing under a tree going, “Alright, but how do we milk every bit of magic out of this scene?” So in some ways the scale is different, the level of production is different, but if it’s good at its core, that’s what you try and do.
In addition to being wise and noble, the elves of Middle-earth are also smug. (Walker agrees) I believe that description definitely applies to Gil-galad. What’s the key to finding the balance between likable yet arrogant with the High King?
Walker: Oh that’s a great question. I think it comes from experience. His perceived smugness, especially in the second season, you’re going to start to see unravel a little bit because it’s one thing to have the experience to know the right move to make because you’ve done it before. But then inversely, when you have had that much experience, what’s the thing that makes you go, “I’ve never seen this before?”
So it’s important to lay in the foundation of the King that he has his hands on the wheel of peace time. But what does he become when peace time starts to slip away? In some ways, the first season is just laying the foundation for where we’re going throughout the course of the remaining seasons.
It’s like you anticipated my next question because in season one, he’s problem solving a desperate situation. But in season two, he’s confronted with the possibility that the cure could be worse than the disease. How does he deal with that and what’s the real driving factor behind his response to Sauron’s potential manipulation?
Walker: For the elves, it’s about the relationships among themselves and among the peoples and species of Middle-earth. You talk about smugness unraveling, with Elrond, for example, they have this great relationship, this kind of mentorship they have fostered. But you look at his relationship with Elrond and what does it mean for him to know that the person you’re mentoring is going to make a mistake. Is going to defy you. It’s almost like a parent-child relationship. A loving parent has to, at some point, let their child make a mistake. “Alright, you climbed up that tree. Now how are you going to get down?”
If every time they need to get out of the tree, you go pull ’em out, they don’t know how to climb trees. You’ve deprived them of that. And I think that’s something that Gil-galad does well, actually, but is also frustrating and costly.
I was going to ask you about your relationship with the other Elf leaders. There’s also Galadriel, Celebrimbor, Círdan. All of them look up to the High King, but they also answer to him. You talked about Elrond, but how would you define your relationship with the rest of them?
Walker: Galadriel and I have a fraught relationship to be sure. On paper, other than the hierarchy that the elves really respect, on paper we are equals. And for those that really know the book, technically she’s older than I am. So that is a recipe for disaster. But they also admire each other in that she often pushes the King and he often needs to pull her back. They need each other in order to be a successful people.
And Celebrimbor, he does something that no other creature has ever done, which is to harness the power of his smithing artistry. He, in some ways, is the pivotal character in all of Tolkien. If he were terrible at making rings, you wouldn’t have much of a story. And there’s a level of respect there that they share, but also they’re playing with technology that nobody fully understands. It’s a bit “Oppenheimer” of Tolkien. That moment of, “I think we can do this. Should we?” And they don’t fully understand what they’re doing.
What’s great about all the High Elves is that they’re in, some ways, the most capable characters in Middle-earth, but also the most fallible. That’s a testament to Tolkien, and, I hope, to what we’re doing with the show.
We know the High King’s fate in this story. Does any part of you keep that in mind so you can sort of reverse engineer how he gets to that point? Or do you simply try to stay centered on exactly where he is at this in the story right now,
Walker: It’s helpful for you as the actor to know. A production of Macbeth where Macbeth knows he’s going to die is not a good production. He has to have hope. But that’s also unique about the Elves in general. How do they live this long? Survive such death and destruction and boredom and misery, but still have hope? That’s unique and part of the fun to know the end of the story and then forget it. And in the pursuit of that hope you help the audience forget it.
What have you learned about Gil-galad after two seasons that has surprised you?
Walker: About how him losing his cool manifests itself. The elves don’t really lose their cool, but if there’s ever a time to lose your cool, it’s when evil has resurfaced and you’ve told all of your lieutenants the right thing to do and they didn’t do it. Part of the fun of Gil-galad is, like we said earlier, this kind of smug peace time consigliere. But what does it look like when he casts off his robes and goes, “Okay, all you guys to your rooms, I’m pulling this car over.” That’s part of the fun. What happens when they’re ready to kick some ass.
What are you most excited for fans to see this season?
Walker: If you know the books, you know it’s about to get really messy.
Also…how do I word this without getting in trouble…
In the books, the elves and music have such a deep relationship. About every two seconds they’re staring into a pool of water and singing to the Valar. It is nice that our show is accepting that and using that. And that we have such great musical team like Bear (McCreary).