Four audition tapes for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings revealed; Markella Kavenagh likely to play an elf

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Amazon’s extremely ambitious Lord of the Rings series has been casting for a while now and we have four of its audition videos with transcriptions to share with you.

First things first, these dialogues may not appear in the actual show. It is a common practice for production teams to write “fake” dialogues designed to make the actors reveal the emotions and skills that the casting directors are specifically looking for. This has been the case for Netflix’s The Witcher, for example. That said, it’s also a possibility that these scenes are pulled directly from the scripts like Game of Thrones used to do. The character names can also be fake.

It’s also worth noting that such videos appear only when the actors who uploaded them didn’t get the part. In other words, you won’t see these actors in the show.

In any case, the casting sides give us an interesting glimpse of the characters: what kind of people they are, what drives them, their attitude etc.

Tyra

First, we have someone named Tyra, who has been announced to be portrayed by Markella Kavenagh. The dialogues indicate that Tyra might be an elf. She is shown as a caring and compassionate person who helps others. Branna and Hennah are likely her sisters or friends. Unfortunately, the audition video has been set to private since we found it months ago, but we saved it and transcribed it.

First scene

Tyra: The bears will get him if we leave him alone out here.
Hennah: So what?
Tyra: So? That’s not who we are.
Hennah: That’s not who YOU are.
Tyra: Look, we hit him. It was our wagon. We leave him out here anything that happens to him will be on our hands.
Hennah: And if we take him back anything bad that happens as a result of it will be our fault.
Tyra: Don’t be so superstitious. Come on, let me help him get out of the road. We need to get him somewhere safe, heal him and send him home.
Hennah: What home? His home out here in the snow? He is not another burden that we can take in. He is a human.
Tyra: I feel responsible for him.
Hennah: You feel responsible for everyone.
Tyra: This time it’s different. He is important. Somehow, I just know it. No, I won’t leave him here. Will you help me or not?
Hennah: NOT!
Tyra: Hennah!
Hennah: Alright, alright.

Second scene

Branna: It’s my fault. If I hadn’t run back from the berries we would have never lost my doll Rosie and had to come all the way out here.
Tyra: You didn’t do anything wrong.
Branna: I’ll do better, I’m sorry.
Tyra: Branna! I’m the one who has to do better. It’s not your fault. No, it’s mine, I should have never left you on that cliff. I’m sorry you lost your doll and I’m just glad we didn’t lose you. Ah, look! See? (shows doll) It’s as good as new.
Branna: It’s a boy.
Tyra: What do you think his name is?
Branna: Hugo.
Tyra: Then we can promise Hugo that we won’t let anything bad happen to him. Good. Well then, Hugo, we promise to keep you safe and sound. (kisses the doll)

Markella Kavenagh

Eldien

Eldien seems to be a seasoned warrior, who has had many victories in her lifetime, but even after the battle she seems troubled and determined to continue the fight. You can view the audition tape here.

Beldor: I hoped I’d find you here. This vintage is said to heal many unseen sorrows of the heart.
Eldien: Some sorrows are not meant to be healed.
Beldor: You deserve the honors of this day and the rest it promises.
Eldien: I always believed I’d rest here, with them, yet instead I am to leave them? I, who loved and remembered them best?
Beldor: You have brought them justice, the battle is over!
Eldien: Not for me it isn’t. If I could but have a longboat of warriors to sweep up to through the Western Vale of the Great…
Beldor: You have nothing further to prove! Your victories against evil are immortalized!
Eldien: You are blessed, Beldor, for you evil is… pictures set in a glass of the cathedral windows. But I have fought the nameless dark, the blood of dragons is ever well sated in my sword and if I don’t finish the task all will be in vain.
Beldor: Put up your sword Eldien! The evil is gone!
Eldien: Then why is it still alive in here? [points at her heart] Could fate be ever so cruel as to give me the victory over all the horrors of the war yet keep it alive in here to take with me unchanged, unending, unbreaking to the land of the winterless spring?
Beldor: Go home Eldien! If not for yourself… do it for your son.
Eldien: For the sake of the long path we have walked together I’ll dismiss your words as carelessness, but if you ever use my family against me our friendship is over!

Beldor

Next we have Beldor, another warrior, it seems, but he’s at peace with himself and with the situation of things. This is the same scene as above, but in this version Beldor has more lines as it is his audition. You can watch it here.

Beldor: I hoped I’d find you here. ’tis said the wine of victory is the sweetest for those whose bitter trials it has fermented.
Eldien: This isn’t wine, it’s fire ale.
Beldor: (Chuckles) How careless of me. I must have poured from the wrong bottle.
Eldien: I remember when these were carved. Now I am to leave them?
Beldor: Your fellow warriors will not begrudge you the gift you have been given. You bought them justice and victory, the battle is over.
Eldien: Not for me it isn’t.
Beldor: Eldien!
Eldien: You’ve not seen the evil I’ve seen. Unless I finish my task it all would have been in vain.
Beldor: You are right. I have not seen what you have seen. I have watched. As you fought I watched, believing that one day you if could pursue gladness with a fragment of the vigor with which you pursued, oh, you would be of all our kind the most joyful. Put up your sword, the evil is gone.
Eldien: Then why isn’t it gone from in here? Is fate so cruel as to let me win the war and lose myself?
Beldor: Fate is fickle and inscrutable and I speak to you with the will of our chieftain and her decree is that you must depart. I know your soul has been pierced with the blackest of arrows. The poison runs deep in your veins and yet still I say to you – go home. It is your only chance to live out your days in peace. If not for yourself… do it for your son.
Eldien: What’s in this anyway?
Beldor: Is it working?

Aric

Last but not least, we have Aric. Aric seems like more of an antihero type with a bit of a Tom Hiddleston’s Loki charisma or that of David Tennant in Good Omens. Aric seems like a survivor, a cold pragmatist, who would sacrifice his friends to save his skin. Watch the video here.

First scene

Woman: Get out of here, what are you doing?
Aric: Going with the better odds.
Woman: You think you are more likely to fare with me than your friends?
Aric: Those soldiers will find the ? next change of the guards and send out the hounds, why be a part of a larger target?
Woman: You are using your people as a distraction?
Aric: They are more attractive prey.
Woman: That’s monstrous!
Aric: They are injured, they are a thousand miles from safety, they are starving, they are practically almost already dead anyway.
Woman: You could have helped them.
Aric: There’s no room for mercy if one wants to survive. Besides, you would be wise to focus more on your own choice.
Woman: Which is?
Aric: Why, you could kick me out. If you like. Send me away or…
Woman: Or?
Aric: Or admit, that you stand a much better chance with an actual pair of eyes on your back. Even if they do belong to someone whose company you find as distasteful as mine. So then, where are we headed?

Second scene

Aric: Any idea where those soldiers were from?
Woman: There are many places in this world stranger than you can imagine, older than you ever visited…
Aric: Do you ever simply just say no?
Woman: Wherever they are from I fear we have not journeyed far enough to ensure they don’t catch up.
Aric: They are on horses, we are on foot. No matter where we journey, they’ll catch up.
Woman: Then we shall not find safety until we reach the castle.
Aric: Well, that depends on which castle it is. Certainly my safety does.
Woman: Mine is not guaranteed either.
Aric: Is that so? Voluntarily separated from her squadron. I didn’t take you for a deserter.
Woman: I had work to attend to.
Aric: Oh, sure. Very important business.
Woman: You hate farlanders too then?
Aric: That wasn’t farlanders who threw me out of my home, left me with nothing.
Woman: Do you wish to reclaim it?
Aric: Well, I reckon I’m short an army.
Woman: So you simply start over?
Aric: Look, you didn’t cause my suffering, nor can you fix it. No matter how strong your will or your pride.

These are certainly intriguing parts and we’re excited to find out more in the future. We’ll keep an eye out as always.

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