The "Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power Cast" Reveal What It's Really Like Working On One Of TV's Priciest Shows

Confirmed to have costed almost $685 million AUD — $465 million USD — the franchise's first instalment has found itself as a contender for the most expensive series to produce EVER. We've seen Tolkien's imagined world translated to the big screen via The Hobbit prequels and The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, but even the priciest of the films only costed an estimated $250 million US.

What would you do with all of that cash? 

When asked if the production costs make a difference on set, Australian actor Charlie Vickers (who plays Sauron/Halbrand) told BuzzFeed Australia, "I think once you get to a huge amount of money, for us, as actors it all feels the same."

"When you’re into the millions and millions and millions [of dollars], I don’t notice the difference from our perspective," said the series villain.

However, Vickers doesn't discount the work of "the crew [and] producers" but at the end of the day his observation is: "When you're on a big set, it's just a big set."

His New-Zealand born co-star Leon Wadham (who plays Kemen) mentioned that the most noteable thing about working with a massive budget was the scale of the production team.

Comparing it to productions across 'the ditch' he mentioned, "I've done things in New Zealand where the entire crew can fit in one room and making [Rings of Power], thousands of people are employed."

"When we’re doing the scenes, it’s just maybe you and one other actor but it’s walking back off the set and you go, 'Okay, this is a massive operation'."

We can only imagine that plenty of it was spent building out the sets of Númenor, Eregion, Mordor and more — when the use of green screen wasn't at play. In the realm of special effects, Tyroe Muhafidin (Theo) lifted the curtain on his experience with creating onscreen magic this season and gave some insight into the reality of being an actor.

"I had an interesting experience this season where I did a few scenes staring at a pole with a green light on top," the 19-year-old recounted. "I had to look at it like I'd just seen the most gorgeous thing in my life. It looks like someone's about to do pole vault."

When asked by Charlie Vickers what it was meant to be in place of, the young Aussie said, "One of them moving trees — an Ent. I'm supposed to have tears in my eyes and stuff but it's just a pole."

Thankfully, we can confirm that regardless of the thousands of moving parts, poles and people behind-the-scenes, the LOTR: Rings of Power cast still believes in the magic of Tolkien's world.

You'd think that working on the sets, day in and day out — both imagined (via green screen) and constructed (by production designers) — that the visual brilliance would wear off.  That's simply not the case, according to Vickers, Wadham, Muhafidin and Markella Kavenagh.

In fact, Elanor Brandyfoot actress Markella Kavenagh told BuzzFeed Australia that working within the Lord of the Rings' cinematic universe furthered "the respect [the cast] already had for the films and the books".

"I think...we see each other quite a bit or not that frequent'y between seasons," she explained. "So, when you do get to see — what you've heard people and your friends talk about and what they've shot and their costumes — everything come to life on screen, it's like you're watching your friends perform and portray these characters in such an incredible and truthful way." 

But the question remains: will The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power continue its stride as one of Hollywood's most expensive productions? Or will its controversial reception put a damper on the million dollar magic?

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