Welsh speaking actor in new Lord of the Rings series says he spent much of his time ‘on my knees’

A Welsh-speaking actor who has a starring role in the new Amazon Lord of the Rings series costing half a billion dollars has revealed that he spent a lot of his time filming on his knees.

Owain Arthur from Bangor joins fellow Welsh actors Morfydd Clark, Trystan Gravelle and Lloyd Owen in the series, but his role as dwarf Prince Durin IV means that he needed to appear shorter than his actual 5 foot 8 inches height.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s yearly conference in Los Angeles alongside other members of the cast, he said that he often had to act on a green screen with Robert Aramayo who plays the much taller Elrond.

Their on-screen friendship is expected to mirror that of dwarf Gimli and elf Legolas in the original Lord of the Rings adventure.

“Elrond is much taller so the height difference, I was often on my knees and Rob was often on top of a ladder,” said Owain Arthur.

“There were moments where Rob had to jump on a stage on a small version of the set we were just in.”

Robert Aramayo added that the trickiest part was filming additional scenes and making sure their height matched up in each one.

“The most difficult part was trying to match what you just did on a much smaller version of the set,” he said. But I think what was good about it was we were in it together.”

‘Unique’

Morfydd Clark from Penarth, who plays the main character Galadriel, also spoke at the convention to say that she tried to focus on her own character rather than worrying too much about the scale of the production.

“I was really fascinated by obviously the Elves that we know from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit [who] have been through a lot to get there and that their serenity and wisdom is hardened,” she said.

“I wanted to look at the arrogance of the Elves, and so, she is right, but she should take some advice occasionally.

“Galadriel says something that alludes to, ‘With wisdom there’s a loss of innocence,’ and so, that was really formative for me, in terms of what does it mean to have innocence as a creature who’s already been alive for thousands of years?

“I think she has a unique perspective because she is history. To play a kind of living myth was wonderful.”

The new The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series will appear on Amazon Prime on September 2.