Why Rings Of Power's Charlie Vickers Had His Lunch Breaks In Jacuzzis During Shooting - Exclusive

The vast scope, scale, and cost of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has soaked up headlines from the moment the $250 million deal for the rights broke back in November of 2017. Since then, a smorgasbord of different numbers has circulated, including costs for both the series and the first season. Regardless of specifics, there's no doubt that Amazon is putting a ton of money into its flagship Prime Video series.

On the one hand, the sheer amount of money feels extravagant for any cinematic production. On the other hand, showrunner J.D. Payne has gone on record stating that if you treat the first season like a movie, it actually is a bargain. For comparison, the creator pointed out that the eight-hour extravaganza is as long as three Marvel movies, done on the schedule of two, for the price of one.

And there's no doubt that "The Rings of Power" has been made on the scale of a movie, not a television show. Everything from costumes to special effects (both digital and practical) has been opulent thus far. If there's one aspect of the show that has really jumped out, though, it's the size of the sets. In the same vein as Peter Jackson's films, "The Rings of Power" has built some massive props for its performers to act in, including a giant water tank and a life-size Númenor set — both of which factored into one of the most bizarre behind-the-scenes stories we've heard yet.

Looper was able to catch up with "The Rings of Power" actors Morfydd Clark and Charlie Vickers just before "The Rings of Power" premiered in early September. We asked the pair, who play the Elf Galadriel and the Man Halbrand, respectively, if they had any behind-the-scenes stories. This prompted Clark to turn to her co-star and ask, "You talked about the jacuzzi in the building site?" leading Vickers to paint a word picture of one of the strangest scenes imaginable.

The story occurred when the two actors were filming a scene (which takes place in Episode 2) on a raft in a giant water tank. "Between takes, or actually between setups — we were doing night shoots," said Vickers, "so it was [the] middle of the night, and it was freezing [in the] middle of winter — we got to sit in a jacuzzi."

Clark chimed in at this point, adding that these breaks were taking place "in the debris of the Númenor that was being built."

"Yeah," Vickers resumed, "They were building Númenor at this point, and we got to sit in a jacuzzi. I remember sitting there at 3:30 to 4:00 a.m. and having my lunch in a jacuzzi on a floating tray covered in scabs, because that was my makeup at the time, being like, 'This is really intense.'"

A middle-of-the-night lunch break covered in makeup, sitting in a jacuzzi, near a giant water tank, in the midst of a half-built Númenor is absolutely the definition of intense. All we can say is that, thankfully, it was less dramatic than what their characters were going through in the story.

New episodes of "The Rings of Power" drop Fridays at 12 a.m. ET for the remainder of the show's eight-episode first season.