EXCLUSIVE: Tyroe Muhafidin & Ismael Cruz Cordova Chat Season 2 of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’
Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to premiere on Prime Video tomorrow, August 29. We got the chance to hear from two of the stars of the series, Tyroe Muhafidin and Ismael Cruz Cordova, about what’s to come this season!
During the chat, the two talked their experience at this year’s Comic-Con, fans reactions to the series, how much bigger the scale of the world is this season, and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.
What was your experience like at Comic-Con this year?
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “It’s awesome. It’s just always awesome. It’s just great to be with the fans. Things that are fantasy-based, I don’t think you can exist without… Now that I’m thinking, you just can’t exist without the component of the fandom. Period. It is beautiful to see and feel real time that love and that appreciation outside of Instagram where people go like this on the comment.”
What was it like to hear the reactions from the fans in season one and then take that feedback when filming season two?
Tyroe Muhafidin: “I think we were just focused on the task that we were given or handed as actors. At the end of the day, we’ve got a job to do and we’ve got a story to tell, and that’s what we’re doing. As long as we feel like we’re telling that story in a respectful way and in a way that honors Tolkien, I think that’s what matters.”
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “I want to echo that. In all of our professions, because everybody here is a journalist, I’m not sure how many parents here wanted you to be a journalist. We have those parallels of you’re sitting now with people that more often than not, we are coming from families that don’t want us to do what we do. You have to blur that out and you go for your thing. You go for your dream. Essentially you have to do that as an actor consistently. You have to make choices. You make strong choices that you believe in and it’s kind of where it falls.
Again, you all know that quote of what matters is the person in the arena. If you’re not working as hard as I’m working, I really don’t want to hear what you have to say. I’m so sorry, but it’s the truth. It’s the truth. People that are working at a high level, people that we admire, people whose words speaks for itself will never sit down to be destructive about it. You have to take it from where it comes from, but echoing that we have a job to do, we’re proud of it. That’s our focus.”
Can you talk about what season two holds in terms of scale of the world, how far reaching your characters’ journeys are going to take?
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “You’re all familiar with this fantasy and this kind of tales. You have to build the world. You have to build it. You have to be in these little tiny pockets before you can afford the journey, and I think we definitely afforded that journey. Season two picks up right there. I don’t want to say a lot, but it hits the ground running. Sauron is here. There’s no question about it. First one was like, ‘What’s happening? There’s a darkness here.’ ‘Oh, there’s this guy.’ Now we know it’s Sauron. There’s hopefulness, but in the second one is we got to survive and figure this out. In there, there’s going to be a lot of unexpected journeys, crossings, pairings, and pivots emotionally in the characters as well.”
Tyroe Muhafidin: “The first season was a lot of world building and getting to know the characters. I feel like this season, we’re at a point where we know who everyone is now, and we can really start to push forward and get into the grit. I think that’s what this season is.”
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “Just to add to that a little bit, it’s not… This is a focus. This is the villain season, and maybe you see that some of our characters are not as prominent in the trailer, or this and that, but every moment that we get to have… it’s so dense that I have this one scene that I truly felt that if I didn’t have… One scene, maybe two minutes, that if I didn’t have anything else to do in the show this season, I would have been chill. They’re very beautiful, rewatchable core moments.”
In the first season, both of your characters were linked by Nazanin’s character. Can you talk about the effect of shooting season two without Nazanin [Boniadi]?
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “First and foremost, working with Naz was an amazing journey. We respect her so much as an actress. The three of us built something very special. We were very aligned. Even this one was like, what, 14?”
Tyroe Muhafidin: “Yeah.”
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “As a preteen into teen, into being a man, we were very aligned with our characters, very aligned with what we wanted to tell. We were already feeling the feedback that was coming from outside, a lot of opinions about, you know? Cluck, cluck, cluck. We’ve bonded so much and locked arms to tell this story, and that journey was of course impossible without Naz.
We wish her the best time in her new endeavors. Thanks to the depth of what we were able to build, our character’s new journey is so full of her, you know? It’s completely anchored. I’m just like, ‘What are the plot points?’ It’s so hard. It’s so hard, but I would say it’s so fully anchored in everything that we build. It’s not in any way like, ‘Pivot… No, that didn’t happen.’ You know? It’s a continuation of the story in a beautiful, beautiful way.”
Tyroe Muhafidin: “Her presence is still definitely felt and it’s still definitely there.”
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “In every episode. In our lives on the show from beginning to end.”
There are so many different storylines taking place in this show. How aware are you of what’s happening to the rest of the characters in Middle Earth when you’re filming?
Tyroe Muhafidin: “When we’re filming because we film it like block shooting, we actually have absolutely no idea what anyone else is doing. Some people could be filming episode eight stuff at a studio two hours away from where we are. We have no idea what they’re doing.
Some of us, we get the full script, we can read everything. I personally decide I’ll read my own stuff so I’d be able to watch the show and appreciate the plot for what it is, I don’t spoil it for myself and I can watch it in all its glory.”
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “It’s a personal choice whether you want to engage with the rest of the script or not. Distracting, right?… It’s a personal choice whether you want to engage with that or not. But for me, I’m actually pretty similar. I engage mostly with my storyline just to keep that freshness of the role because my character often has a lone wolf spirit and also the deep existential situation.
He’s like, ‘What the hell is… What is happening to me? Why am I feeling what I’m feeling? Who are these beings? Why am I so attracted to them?’ They’re so fleeting. There’re all these questions, and this self-centeredness in a certain way really helps for my portrayal until I start meeting the other storylines. However, I do break rules, and I do go to sets that I’m not allowed to go. I’m notorious for that.”
You are with a ball and green screen when you film some of your scenes. Is that process easier now that you are into Season 2?
Tyroe Muhafidin: “Well, I think season one, it was easy with the creature work because we mostly worked with Orcs, and they’re in full prosthetic, so that was super easy to be able to visualize it. Whereas this season we were looking at poles with a green LED, and I think it was a challenge.
Definitely I’m someone that plays off what’s in front of them and the energy that they’re given. That was definitely a challenge, but it was a really great learning curve. I got the opportunity to come up with things from my own head and conjure up things from my own creativity, which is cool.”
Ismael Cruz Cordova: “To round up that question, that is where the craft comes into. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, acting I could do that.’ That’s where the craft comes into. That’s where you pull from your training. That’s where you pull from the artistry. That’s when you’re like, ‘That’s why not everybody can do that.’ That’s the kind of brain that we have.
I was looking at that pole and tearing up, feeling what I have to feel. I’ve seen those scenes are pretty cool, and you don’t know what it’s about, and you’re going to love it.”
Make sure to check out the first three episodes when they premiere on Thursday!
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo credit: Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Amazon MGM Studio