With Amazon's high fantasy show "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power", British actor Robert Aramayo says his lifelong wish of being part of JRR Tolkien's fictional world of Middle Earth has come true.
What makes the experience even more special for the actor is that he got to play Elrond, one of the pivotal characters of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" books.
"I feel very honoured to be playing him, just to be here and talking about him. To get the opportunity to play him was a childhood dream. So I just feel very lucky to be playing him," Aramayo told PTI in an interview.
"The Rings of Power", which debuted on Prime Video with its first two episodes on Friday, is set thousands of years before the events described in Tolkien's books.
The series is based during the Second Age of Middle Earth, which covers the rise and fall of Numenor, the creation of the titular rings and the formation of the Last Alliance.
Aramayo, known for featuring in shows such as "Game of Thrones" in which he played the young Ned Stark in four episodes of the HBO series' sixth season, Netflix's "Behind Her Eyes" and the movies "Nocturnal Animals" and "The King's Man", said he was fascinated with Tolkien's work since his childhood.
"Middle Earth gives you the opportunity to explore so many different characters, so many different creatures who all behave and breathe in different ways, and communicate in different ways. It's an exciting part of the show," he said.
With Elrond, the actor has a tall task as the character was earlier portrayed by Hugo Weaving in Peter Jackson's film trilogies of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit".
Elrond is perhaps the wisest character in Tolkien lore as he helped in the forging of the titular rings of power and also played an important role in defeating dark lord Sauron.
In his version, Elrond is at the "beginning of his career", said the actor.
"He hasn't achieved any of the things really that we know him for. There's no council of Elrond. He's young, he's half Elven and he's an orphan. There are still a few unresolved wounds, I would say with his father in particular, that he is dealing with," added Aramayo.
One of the challenges he faced while playing Elrond was getting his body language and conversation style right.
"Since he's half Elven, his conversation style kind of depends on who he's talking to. He is better with Elves than he is with mortals. But he's improving when it comes to communicating with mortal beings. We hopefully see quite a fun relationship between him and a dwarf.
"And at the beginning, he perhaps makes a few errors that he works hard to rectify as the show goes on."
Aramayo said what he liked the most about Tolkien's books was the commentary about environment and nature.
"There's so many stories in the Tolkien world and they're all so fun. They can teach us a lot. I love what Tolkien says about nature.
"There's a recurrent theme of being connected to the natural world that presents itself in Tolkien's work. And for the present world in particular, it serves as a reminder of nature... It is so useful and universal," he added.
For Aramayo's co-star Charles Edwards, the USP of Tolkien's books is that they allow readers to choose their protagonists from its many characters.
When he read the books and watched Jackson's movies, Edwards said he had his own list of "favourite characters".
The actor, who has appeared in critically-acclaimed shows such as "Downton Abbey" and "The Crown", plays the role of Celebrimbor, who, according to Tolkien lore, is the Elven smith behind the creation of the One Ring, as well as all of the other rings of power that were given to the races of Middle-earth.
Celebrimbor has never been portrayed on screen and Edwards worked closely with the show's creators, JD Payne and Patrick McKay, to bring the character alive.
"I read what was there of him in Tolkien, which isn't very much. But in a way that's quite nice as an actor because you're given a few pointers. Also within his brief paragraphs about the character, he also sometimes contradicted himself when he revisited his texts years later. That was a nice place to start," he said.
Edwards said he found the whole process "freeing, challenging and rewarding".
"If you're playing a role that's thoroughly researched and is fully laid out, you approach it in a different way because you want to do it justice. But in this instance, there is room to bring your own thoughts and the thoughts of writers, showrunners and directors. It's very collaborative," he added.
"The Rings of Power" also features Morfydd Clark, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh and Joseph Mawle.
Actors Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman and Sara Zwangobani round out the cast.
The show is currently streaming on Prime Video in five languages -- English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
