‘The Rings of Power’ Star Owain Arthur Breaks Down Durin’s ‘Vulnerable’ Episode 7
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When actor Owain Arthur first began the process of auditioning for Amazon’s secretive “Lord of the Rings” TV series, he was warned it would be long. And it was. But Arthur was the first person to audition for the role of dwarven prince Durin, and what he didn’t know at the time is that he made such an impression that he stuck in the minds of the production team for months on end.
“I remember the casting director telling me, ‘You’re the first person we’re seeing for this role,’ and apparently they said, ‘Well, surely it can’t be this easy. We need to see more people.’ And that’s what they did,” Arthur told TheWrap in a recent interview, recounting insight he later gleaned from showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. “They kind of searched the globe to see what else is out there and back they came to good old Owain Arthur,” he added with a laugh.
To put it more succinctly: “They kind of went over and kissed a lot of frogs and then came back.”
Arthur got the call that he won the role while on the way to a weekly football game. “I was on top of the world, I’m sure I played the best game of football I’ve ever played that morning because I was so full of adrenaline,” he recalled, but he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone just yet.
At long last, now the world knows just what Arthur has been up to these past few years. Over the course of the show’s first season so far, Arthur has brought a depth of both humor and emotion to the role of Durin IV, the prince of Khazad-dûm who stands to inherit the realm, but whose close friendship with the elf Elrond (Robert Aramayo) is looked down upon by his father King Durin (played by Peter Mullan).
That father-son friction came to a head in Episode 7 (spoilers for which follow below), in which Prince Durin and Elrond skirted King Durin’s orders to stop mining for mithril. The rare and precious ore is vital to the survival of Elrond’s people, but is dangerous to capture.
The episode features Arthur’s most emotionally charged scenes with Mullan to date, and the performer recalls being curious how those scenes would play out because Mullan didn’t join the production until later in the shoot.
“There was a lot of anticipation of how we were going to get on and how our characters were going to get on, and what the dynamic of father and son would be,” Arthur remembered. But what the actor discovered is that Mullan made it easy.
“What was amazing about working with Peter, because he’s such an instinctive and phenomenal and talented actor, is that you usually need to speak about it. Everything was explored in that moment, and each take was different. So watching it back is kind of interesting to see which take they took. I think it comes over as being very live and in the moment, and that’s certainly what we did together in that scene.”
And while Arthur has no personal experience with royal bloodlines, he didn’t find it difficult to feign fealty to someone of Mullan’s stature.
“Peter brings with him a very kingly authority and weight to him that just commands respect, and to fight against that authority and respect in that moment for your friend who you love dearly was a dangerous and exciting thing to do in that moment, and therefore exploring that with Peter Mullan of all people was just an absolute treat. I count myself very lucky to have had that now under my belt as an actor.”
When King Durin discovers his son and Elrond mining mithril in defiance of his orders, Arthur and Mullan have a frank and tearful conversation in which King Durin remembers how happy he was to learn his baby boy would survive after a difficult birth. But when Prince Durin dares to refer to Elrond as something akin to a brother, his father explodes, ripping his collar off his neck and telling him to “leave it.”
“It’s essentially being disowned by your father,” Arthur explained of the moment. “And him letting go of you and his connection to you as a king, letting go of the prospect of being king and kind of disconnecting himself from me and it’s quite a big, vulnerable moment for Prince Durin to be left alone in the lurch and not knowing what’s around the corner. I think Durin has spent all of his life wanting to impress his father, wanting to live up to his father – he’s a very strong king and the dwarves are a very proud race, and tradition is a huge part of their culture. So to be disconnected from that is a big thing for a human being let alone a dwarf who lives in Khazad-dûm.”
The fallout of the situation will no doubt be explored in the Season 1 finale, about which Arthur remained mum (“I don’t want to ruin it for everyone … I love watching the show, so I’m a fan and I don’t want to spoil it all myself.”) but we do know Prince Durin is back in Season 2, which just started production.
And while Arthur hasn’t started filming his scenes for the second season yet, he’s ready to return to Middle-earth. “Let me tell you, I’m very excited. There’s more to come.”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is now streaming on Prime Video. The Season 1 finale drops on Oct. 13 at 9 p.m. PT/Oct. 14 at 12 a.m. ET.
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