Rings of Power’s Stranger actor on wizard magic and season 2

Daniel Weyman is either the hardest or easiest job. The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power. Since falling out of the sky like a meteor, Weyman’s the Stranger has spent most of season 1 learning the lay of the land and upending life for Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and her insulated harfoot community, leaving him with only a few lines of dialogue and the occasional mystical magic moment.

But Weyman’s time on The Rings of Power press tour has been nearly as rigorous — as in, everything he could possibly say would be a spoiler. Does he look like Gandalf or is he? Sauron? Saruman? Radagast? Tom Bombadil Other? The prying has been endless, but when your character is a walking mystery box, that’s part of what you sign up for. The Rings of Power season 1 finale answered a few questions — we know the Stranger isn’tSauron and but It is an Istar (or wizard), like Gandalf.

How did Weyman, whose previous work ranges from HBO’s Gentleman JackThe Sandman audio drama: How do you approach the ambiguity of it? And what’s in store for season 2? Polygon talked to the actor while he was in London for the second season. The Rings of Power is currently being filmed, to ask everything we could possibly imagine him answering about the Middle-earth’s biggest 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 isn’t just a mysterious character; he’s pretty much a walking mystery box. Which information did the creative team wish you would know? YouWant to find out more?

Daniel Weyman: The showrunners were very clear early that they wanted to follow his story. So they weren’t massively interested in overreach of where this character is going to go or anything that we had to tie in there. They allowed for wonderful resonances in many scenes and episodes. Not only for me, but also for other characters. Fans can look back at the source material to make their own decisions. Many of them have very distinct stories. I believe that there were many who believed the Stranger was very dark up until now.

So it feels like it’s ongoing, and it’s actually been quite joyous to film because anytime I’ve come to a scene, starting in the crater, I haven’t had to think about anything past what’s in front of me in the script. When he awakes, he knows absolutely nothing. All I had to concentrate on was what that feeling might be like in his body, coming around in a crater with smoke, with fire, with rock, looking like an awful warzone, and then this very strange being in front of him, who I think at the beginning he can’t even separate from nature itself. Is this thing he’s looking at like fire or like air or like water? It’s very elemental. That’s what gives me great joy. But I don’t need to project into the future.

Image: Prime Video

Is it possible to be an actor that looks at life as a source of inspiration to develop a character? Did you find anything that could be used to play an amnesiac-bearded wizard from Middle-earth, or was it just me?

I found that being in New Zealand, where we were welcomed to just unbelievable open arms, and being able to experience some of the ancient Maori culture that is there, something about the land and the way they use land or respect land, the fact that my character was barefoot, the fact that I grew my beard so it was longer than I’ve ever grown it before, plus the fact that I was wearing clothes that were not really clothes, just things to keep him warm, that all grounded me in the best way, which was into nature. It felt like I was part the whole world.

During the auditions, I was also provided with film references by showrunners. One of them that I treasured the most was FrankensteinWe see this film in particular because it was made in 1931. [the monster with the little girl]. In that scene in particular, we can’t say whether the monster is evil or good. It is clear that his behaviour has some terrible effects. After he is done with his behavior, though, most of society treat him very differently. It almost makes him an evil creature. They sort of write his future for him, don’t they? The joy he felt when smelling that bloom was something I loved. It was so exciting to see the flower floating on water. Then, when the baby first meets the parent, you realize that this could be a terrible moment. Then, you start to think. Are you having a good time? And then he picks her up and you’re like, It’s gonna be fine,Then, she drowns when he throws her into the lake. This was an example of a small touchstone that helped me to understand the Stranger.

It is obvious that most of the things you can say about Stranger will spoil future episodes. So here are some questions: What was it like to be a Pain in the Ass?

In October 2019, I started growing it. I started auditioning August ’19, but by October it was clear that a beard might be useful for the part. It was itchy for only a few days, so I began to grow it. But my beard is very gray, it’s almost a white beard. However, we did dye it.

You can have a gray or white beard.

We dyed the hair and cut it to length. But when I wasn’t filming, I would let it grow. And then we had COVID and over the length of time that we weren’t filming, I let it grow, and it was insane. This was my most absurd beard. Friends wouldn’t recognize me. It was a great experience to be there with him. This changed me physically and who I believed I was.

Image: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video

You have a battle against Sauron’s disciples in the season finale — what is the key to waving your hands around like you have magical powers and looking cool?

The first thing for me was that we didn’t try and make anything look cool. There was, however, a great movement coach […] but she had great insights into how to make physical movements properly rooted in something other than “But I really want to make it look really cool and really magic!”

The rule of thumb for us was always that the magic — and we didn’t really call it magic, we called it the energy that flowed through him — was always external. His role was to channel energy from the natural world, whether he wanted it or not, and be the conduit. This energy was his divining rod. The energy flowed through him without him knowing why, or how to manage it. But it meant that his physicality during that wasn’t really his own either. He was reacting to that insanely huge amount of energy. So it could be different at different points. As season 2 progresses, I’m hoping that we will be able to discover that.

Was it difficult to throw a warg. It was heavy.

I’m pleased you say that because that was tough. They made it difficult. Blue screen was the majority of it because Markella Kavenagh was smaller than me and other harfoots. So when they finally got to film, they realized that they needed to have them in the background. I therefore had to be there in front of the blue screen. A little person in full blue bodysuit held the animal. They held the animal high. It had a little bit of fur on its back, but it was basically a large blue sack and it was very heavy and they kept putting more weight in it because they said I wasn’t making it look heavy enough. I can’t remember how heavy it got, but I do remember after doing several takes saying, “Guys, this is pretty heavy!” And them saying, “Yeah, but it’s reading!”

Do you think you’ll get a hat in season 2? It seems like you might get a cap.

You might also be interested in other topics. That’s really good question. I haven’t thought about it at all. I was asked about shoes by many people at different times. “Wouldn’t he have some shoes by now?” And I was always like, “No, he just is with the harfoots.” The only beings that he knows are the harfoots and they don’t have shoes! He wouldn’t have shoes, why would he? What would it take? What would his home be?

Yeah, we’ve been wondering if the Stranger ever put on underpants.

He wore them with great underpants.