Why did Rings Of Power go with a cast of essentially unknown talent?

Submitted by cactusmaac t3_yhcg68 in television

The only two series I have been tuning in for regularly are House Of The Dragon and Andor.

Both have earned a lot of praise and not coincidentally, both have a lot of strong, veteran and recognizable talent in key roles. And even if they weren't popularly known like Eve Best and Denise Gough, they had a lot of stage experience.

For HOTD there was Paddy Considine, Rhys Ifans, Graham McTavish and Matt Smith. Olivia Cooke I knew from Ready Player One. Eve Best as above has a long list of theatre credits along with two Tony awards and two Olivier awards.

Similarly for Andor you have Diego Luna, Genevieve O'Reilly, Anton Lesser and Stellan Skarsgard. Plus the aforementioned Denise Gough as Supervisor Meero who has won the Olivier award twice and the Tony once. And Andy Serkis made an appearance too.

Now, even though this is genre television arguably this is where you need top quality acting talent the most as they are needed to convincingly sell the fantastical events happening around them.

For Rings Of Power, literally the only cast member I know of is Lenny Henry playing Sadoc. He has been drawing praise for his dramatic work but mostly known for being a stand-up comic. There really isn't anyone I would call an acting draw and it seems apparent from watching the episodes that a lot of the performances are stilted and don't compare at all to better quality shows.

For a show that Amazon invested so much in, it does seem a bit odd they didn't go all out in assembling a great cast when the VFX is really excellent for a TV show.

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tentacoolz t1_iud2iq2 wrote

Sometimes the best person for the role isn’t an A list star. People have to climb the ladder somehow.

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Batman_The_Merciless t1_iudx1q0 wrote

No, you don’t understand.

We must continually ask for the same small pool of actors and actresses and then complain that they aren’t bringing new talented individuals to the table.

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cactusmaac OP t1_iuei6pj wrote

I was not asking for A list stars, just one who are recognized for previously doing quality work.

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Dayofsloths t1_iud0v3u wrote

It's often a choice to make a show more immersive. If you have actors people recognize, the thought is it may ruin suspension of disbelief.

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skellener t1_iud22xw wrote

New talent is cheaper.

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osmlol t1_iud2f98 wrote

The cast was fine. Why do you need recognizable names in every show you watch? I like when I don't know who people are.

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NotAlwaysSunnyInFL t1_iud14l1 wrote

What? The acting was good in Rings of Power, is this satire? Why do all these big shows have to have a buffet of heavy names? That usually ends up causing ego clashes and actors portraying roles worse.

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Ftimis t1_iud4q0w wrote

No no no you're supposed to shit on it because it's Rings of Power. Everything it did was bad and also a crime, because it isn't the PJ movies. How thoughtless of you, jeez.

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Scott_Pillgrim t1_iuec03q wrote

Morfydd clark is talented, she was amazing in Saint Maud. Acting wasn't a problem in rop, it was just boring

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Current_Focus2668 t1_iueov32 wrote

Yep Clark is a talented up and coming actress who has been getting praise recently for her work.

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AhhBisto t1_iud5f98 wrote

They didn't need a cast of stars, they just needed people who could act and they got exactly that.

Given the size of the show and the multi-season commitment it got from Amazon, it would probably take an actor like 7 or 8 months of the year to film an entire season and big stars probably don't want to dedicate years or their careers to a show like that.

Just look at Henry Cavill, he binned The Witcher pretty much so he had time to do new Superman movies.

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LegoLady47 t1_iudhwrv wrote

Money and maybe they wanted unknowns to play characters.

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GarlVinland4Astrea t1_iufa3s9 wrote

In a show like this where the characters are generally more known to audiences and fans of the lore, it's sometimes better to avoid having a recognizeable face in a big role.

Tbh, I would venture to say in HOTD 99% of the people watching haven't seen D'Arcy or Cooke in anything. And even someone like Ifans is a bit more of a character actor and I'm willing to bet most people didn't realize he was the Lizard in the Amazing Spider-Man.

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Bonezone420 t1_iug0lyf wrote

Maybe everyone else was busy and someone realized you need to hire someone else eventually because Skarsgard can't star in literally every TV show.

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QuintoBlanco t1_iug47tm wrote

Although I was disappointed with the show, I don't have a problem with the cast.

The actors have work experience and they have gone through a casting process.

It makes no sense to cast well-know actors just because hey are well-known. Well-known is not the same thing as talented.

And it's not like the actors are completely unknown. Morfydd Clark for example was praised for her work in the theater and in film before she landed a part in Rings of Power.

Daniel Weyman is also a respected theater actor and was praised for the parts he played in several television series.

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AKAkorm t1_iug7qhl wrote

I would guess it's some combination of wanting to keep the cast salaries lower and wanting to make sure that the cast they got wouldn't have a ton of scheduling conflicts as they'd be required to film five seasons in New Zealand. It's also possible that Amazon Prime, as a newer studio, has a tougher time getting big-name actors to join their shows than established studios like WB and Disney do without paying out the nose for it.

Will Poulter was originally supposed to be in the show and had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts. Guessing any known commodity would have had the same issue.

FWIW I think the cast is solid and not at all a problem for the show.

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sosigboi t1_iugkwps wrote

Well money is one thing, A-list actors aren't cheap and before you pull up the whole "1 Billion" argument there are a whole lot of other things that money is spent on other than just actors, like props, location permits and vfx artists among other things.

Plus as others have mentioned it gives a chance for newer talent to flourish, Owain Arthur (Durin), Sophia Nomvete (Disa), and Ismael Cruz (Arondir) have all played their characters fantastically.

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mickeyflinn t1_iuhkw2o wrote

The cast of RoP is great.

It is the writing that is terrible.

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HumanOrAlien t1_iudgg22 wrote

Regardless of their recognition, most of the cast is extremely good at delivering the material they are given. There are some flaws with the written material for sure but it could easily improve with the upcoming seasons. I liked the show regardless of those issues, mostly ig because I watched it myself before reading tons of unnecessary reviews and articles with an agenda.

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Historical-Author-49 t1_iuf6esa wrote

I don't know about extremely good, but mostly not bad. I do not think the actress playing Bronwyn is very good, however

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reddig33 t1_iuev14c wrote

I think unknowns can do a great job when they are cast properly. I’d imagine Amazon blew most of its budget on securing the rights, so they didn’t want to spend more on known names.

The thing is, good acting is good acting. What you get with a name brand is recognition — it’s marketing. The real trick is to cast one or more out of work big names from the past. You get recognition and experience that way for a lower cost.

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artistryacademy t1_iud6tzy wrote

This is one of my biggest gripes with RoP! Aside from my issues with some of the writing, I believe they really missed the boat by not casting a few notable names like you’ve mentioned. Having that extra oomph of star power or a well-known character actor could’ve given the show a little more gravitas.

A lot of the cast were basically unknown and while that’s fine, sometimes a veteran actor can “rise above the material” and add a little extra. And with some of the questionable writing on this show, in my opinion, that would’ve been welcome.

I just think the casting team could’ve known their audience better. You’re entering the world of fantasy, they could’ve followed other shows by casting an iconic actor from that genre. Think: Winona Ryder and Sean Astin famous for movies in the 80s in Stranger Things, Sean Bean famous for LOTR in Game of Thrones, Matt Smith famous for Dr. Who in HotD. It was just such a missed opportunity considering their budget! I think the casting for RoP was okay, but sometimes I watch a show just for a famous actor. And not having one gave me another reason not to be as excited for the next episode.

(Also how could you forget the brilliant Emmy nominee and BAFTA winner Fiona Shaw absolutely killing it in Andor! 😋)

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hundralapp t1_iudsjir wrote

Only desperate actors would have read the script for Rings of Power season 1 and thought it would be smart to sign up to play the main character for 5 seasons over 10 years.

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LostInStatic t1_iueiwlb wrote

So... actors getting job security means they're desperate?

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grazzac t1_iud00ls wrote

They spent a tonne of money just getting the rights to it and then on the VFX, so it kind of makes sense they skimped a little on lesser known talent until they see how it goes down. I imagine if the acclaim grows and viewing figures support it there will be new additions further down the line with bigger draw.

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