‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' director Charlotte Brändström on Gandalf's ‘big reveal' and which scene required ‘the most prep'

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4 days ago

Working on an expansive series like Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, director-producer Charlotte Brändström knew she had to "take things one by one, and build up." As she tells Gold Derby, "It's a very technical show, so you do what you always do: you go into scripts and you focus on stories and then you get into it. It doesn't feel like something absolutely huge, and at the same time, it was huge because of the scale and the different worlds and the characters. There was a lot to do."
Brändström will be submitting the Season 2 finale, "Shadow and Flame," for Emmy consideration in her directing category. "Among the episodes that I directed, it was the one that was the most diverse," she explains. "It was the most big-scale and cinematic. It had big scenes, and it also had very intimate character moments. That always drives the series. Whatever scale you're working on, it's always the characters that take over at some point."
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The Swedish-French filmmaker states that the sacrifice King Durin (Peter Mullan) makes at the start of the episode is an "incredible moment" and one that "wasn't easy" to direct. While the demon creature, the Balrog, was the creation of visual effects, "At the same time, I had to direct actors in a very emotional moment, because there was the disappearance of King Durin. It was one of the most exciting moments in the whole episode for me."
The confirmation that the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is actually Gandalf takes place in the finale. "Since it's such a big moment that the audience was waiting for, I tried to make it as simple as possible when his name came up. So, not to do something too big, neither with the reaction of the actor or cinematically. I just wanted it to be a simple character moment, because it's such a big reveal, Brändström says, noting it was "a reveal that people expected."
The sword fight between Sauron (Charlie Vickers) and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) required "the most prep of everything in the episode," the director divulges. "I first had to research to find the style for the sword fight, and to make it all so personal and epic at the same time. There was no real VFX moment in the whole scene — all of the effects were done in-camera. The most complicated part was probably all of the makeup changes." Creating "tension" between the two enemies was paramount, because it was "their first confrontation in the whole season."
The character that Brändström identifies with the most is Disa (Sophia Nomvete), the strong-willed wife of Prince Durin (Owain Arthur). "I love Disa because she believes in tradition," she notes. "But at the same time, she's never afraid of renewing herself, which is how I see life."
"A lot of work" goes into making sure all of the characters and storylines on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are properly cared for. "Once you get into it, you have to prepare a lot, and then on the day, you have to leave room for some improvisation," Brändström tells us. "You need to keep the worlds apart, and you go back and forth a lot. There are obviously a lot of parallel stories, but it's not the first time I've done that."
The team on the show "remains grounded" in order to ensure that author J.R.R. Tolkien's vision is respected. There are no "weird effects," and all of the magic has to "come from natural elements, like smoke and fire and dust and mud." Brändström adds, "His writing is very much about character and destiny, so it was about small character moments, and to never forget to keep it real and grounded and sincere."
Also in our exclusive video interview, Brändström talks about what prop she would want to take home with her, she delves into why she loves directing genre projects so much, and she teases what she can about Season 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
This article and video are presented by Prime Video.
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