EXCLUSIVE: Daniel Weyman & Megan Richards Talk Being Able to Hug in Season 2 of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is set to premiere this coming Thursday, August 29 on Prime Video. To celebrate the premiere, we got the chance to hear from two of the stars of the series, Daniel Weyman and Megan Richards.
During the chat, the two talked what they are most excited for fans to see in Season 2, shooting the size difference between their characters, being able to hug, the difficulty of using the bathroom this season, and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.
Can you talk about what you are most excited for fans to see in Season 2?
Daniel Weyman: “Me inside Tom Bombadil’s house. Drop dead gorgeous. An amazing amount of work. Production value’s through the roof. Detail, layers, and layers, and layers, and layers, keep looking. And what he does in there. Fabulous.”
Megan Richards: “Nice. I’m looking forward to seeing that. I think the landscapes. Just beautiful. And the sets as well are absolutely magnificent.”
If you could give advice to your character, what advice would it be?
Megan Richards: “To keep going. To keep doing what you’re doing. I think what I love about Poppy is her loyalty and her belief in fighting for what she loves and believes in. And I think that’s a great quality to have. So in those dark times, which are coming, keep going, baby.
Daniel Weyman: “I think I’d just say to the Stranger, ‘Hey buddy, be kind to yourself. Get a bit of self-compassion.’”
Megan Richards: “Yeah, he’s going through a lot.”
Daniel Weyman: “I think that’s where a lot of season one’s problems came from, he got really down on himself and that created more mayhem and he was like, ‘No, I didn’t want to break that tree’. And suddenly more things started breaking. And I think he’s got to love himself a little bit more, find that, maybe that’s a journey for season two.”
Can you tell me a little bit about how it was to shoot the size differences between your characters?
Daniel Weyman: “In season one we’d had to do quite a lot of work with our scale doubles, so when I was working with Megan, on camera, if they wanted to get both of us, they had to cheat one of us, because we weren’t the right size in comparison to each other. If we were looking at Megan, then we might see a tall shoulder, but the tall shoulder would be Paul [Randall], in the first season, and he was eight foot tall.
And looking down, then we could see Megan and we’d get an understanding of the Stranger and the half foot together. Similarly, if the camera was on the Stranger, then we might use a small-scale double for Megan to look up at the Stranger. But in season two, they worked out incredible camera things.”
Megan Richards: “Amazing, I still don’t understand it.”
Daniel Weyman: “We ended up being able to shoot together.”
Megan Richards: “Together. Which makes no sense to me.”
Daniel Weyman: “We had a hug.”
Megan Richards: “We did have a hug.”
Daniel Weyman: “We had an actual hug.”
Megan Richards: “It was amazing. There’s a lot of stages that are built for you to stand on and pits dug for us to stand in.”
Daniel Weyman: “There’s a load of people behind the scenes with rulers and measurement… Putting things into computers and going, ‘No, no, no, they need to be 50cm this way.’”
Megan Richards: “Real life wizards.”
Daniel Weyman: “But we didn’t have any of that… There are famous stories in the film versions of people being one person over here looking this way, one person back there looking that way and it looks like they’re talking to each other. But we were able to look into each other’s eyes.”
Megan Richards: “It was amazing.”
Daniel Weyman: “It was absolutely brilliant. It was magic.”
Megan Richards: “It really was.”
Did that change how you guys performed this season compared to not having each other in the first season?
Daniel Weyman: “I always felt that in first season we made the connections. Just before we shot, we would make sure we understood the connection. We’d have done the scene; we’d rehearsed it with each other. In rehearsals on camera we would still use each other. Then just at the last minute we would step out or we’d be close to eye line so that we could still give that…”
Megan Richards: “Have access to each other.”
Daniel Weyman: “Yeah. And over the course of season one they were developing this camera technique, and so it got easier and easier and easier, and through season two, actually largely… I mean I know there are always a couple of moments. But generally there was, now I’m just remembering moments. Sorry, Megan.”
Megan Richards: “Generally we were able to be together and connect with each other too. But I think also our connection was so strong from the get-go that it felt quite seamless. But I mean it’s always just so nice to actually work with you.”
Daniel Weyman: “Yeah. So fun.”
Megan Richards: “Yeah. It feels different. It feels different.”
What would you say was the most challenging part of filming the second season?
Megan Richards: “The walk to the loo?”
Daniel Weyman: “That was something.”
Megan Richards: “We filmed, sorry, context. We filmed in Tenerife up this incredible, was it El Teide?”
Daniel Weyman: “Yeah.”
Megan Richards: “Which is the volcano. It’s public property, it’s not privatized. So the loos had to be in the car park, which was a 20-minute walk away from, on sand, to where we were filming. So that was interesting.”
Daniel Weyman: “That was a long time, wasn’t it?”
Megan Richards: “It was a long time.”
Daniel Weyman: “You had to pick your moments because if they were about to roll, they would say, ‘Oh, you can’t really go to the loo.’”
Megan Richards: “Yeah, because it’s 20… because that’s 40 minutes.”
Daniel Weyman: “That’s 40 minutes gone.”
Megan Richards: “Yeah, you’ve got to really pick the moment. It was a lot of forward planning involved, which was quite bizarre.”
Both your characters have a lot more action scenes this season, can you tell us a little bit about that?
Daniel Weyman: “We were talking about this, the idea, which I think is a cool idea just in terms of their journey, that suddenly they’re in this new place where they don’t know the rules.”
Megan Richards: “The rules are set out and their journey is very circular. They know what’s coming, or they can at least preempt. Whereas this just feels like a game that they don’t even know how to play because it’s completely uncharted territory.”
Daniel Weyman: “And suddenly there are these people chasing them and they don’t know why they’re chasing them or where they’re from. Then they do something else and something else happens and they can’t really join the dots after. It doesn’t make sense. And to put all three of those characters in that position is really new territory I think.”
Megan Richards: “And they constantly get thrown questions. They set out to get the answer to the one question which is, who is the Stranger? But actually, instead of getting the answer to that question, they just keep getting thrown more and more questions without the answers. So, it’s completely discombobulating.”
Now that the Stranger has his memories and powers, did that change your performance in any way this season?
Daniel Weyman: “We talked about it a bit as to how much has come back. And they I think settled in this place where actually what’s happened in the end of episode eight, season one, is not that everything has come back, but it’s just that language has come back. His knowledge of the past isn’t really any better, but he’s got this ability to communicate. He’s still learning as he goes. Every moment is a new learning opportunity. This rune, he has no knowledge about this heat. He’s only been in this lovely luscious, green world of the half foots. And so, it’s as brand new to him as it is possibly to you guys. And I think that helps us tell an exciting story all the way through. Everything stays fresh, everything stays new.
Can you talk about the process it takes to become your characters?
Megan Richards: “It’s an incredible transformation and I think incredible that all three of us look completely different. How does that happen? But that’s so much hard work and early starts like 5:00 AM starts from our hair and makeup and prosthetic artists. They’re absolutely incredible. But also, it was really fun stepping back into that as well and being with you and Markella [Kavenagh] whilst doing that because there’s something special about that. The Poppy that I portray would not be the Poppy without your Stranger and without Markella’s Nori.”
Daniel Weyman: “I feel when I see you two on set, and I’m in Stranger outfit, I feel like you absolutely aren’t Megan at all. I find it very difficult to recognize the bits of Markella and Megan in themselves when I see them in costume. And I think, like you say, that’s a real celebration of costume, hair and makeup, location, story, your hard work.”
Megan Richards: “Because also I remember seeing a stunt double of mine walking from ages away, and I was sort of like, that’s me dressed as Poppy. And I was so confused. It’s a huge testament to that team. It’s amazing. “
Make sure to check out the first three episodes when they premiere on Thursday!
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity