Peter Mullan on Becoming Durin III in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Khazad-dûm is bursting with activity in The Rings of Power season 1, but the seeds that lead to its abandonment in the Tolkien's Lord of the Rings have already been planted in the Prime Video prequel series. Durin III, played by Peter Mullan, is the current ruler of the Dwarven but disagrees greatly with his son (Owain Arthur) about whether or not to expand relations with other races. While neither Durin is present in the timeline of the original novel, their royal lineage is part of the Appendices and crucial to setting the stage.

Durin III is descended from the line of Durin I, who was one of the oldest Dwarven kings and the founder of Khazad-dûm. Through season 1, however, Rings of Power highlights his distrust of elves, which clashes with his son Durin IV's close relationship with Elrond. By the end of the season, that friendship has helped lead to the forging of the titular rings of power as well as to the evil Sauron's return to power.

Screen Rant spoke to Mullan about Durin's disagreements with his son, and how different his dynamic was with costar Owain Arthur in real life. The venerated actor also revealed the trouble he had pronouncing certain names and terms from Lord of the Rings while filming Rings of Power.

Peter Mullan Talks Durin III in Rings of Power

King Durin III on his throne from The Rings of Power

Screen Rant: Heavy is the head that wears the crown. What was it like for you to step into Durin III's royal shoes, knowing he is the first bearer of the Ring of Thrór and has so much history behind him?

Peter Mullan: Well, the royal shoes are size 15 and kind of gold, so stepping into them after you've had to get all the other stuff done? The last thing in the world you want to do is to step into those damn bloody size 15 golden shoes. Impressive though they are, and that's a shout-out for Kate the designer.

It really wasn't something I gave a great deal of thought about, other than it was very quickly that Owain and I established a really nice relationship where we could socialize together, and the same with lovely Sophia. That's all I really cared about. Once I knew that once we'd established trust in each other just as people, not as actors or any of that, then everything else would fall into place. Because I hadn't been given the scripts, I only had the scenes that I was in.

Because of that, you're working on a complete vacuum, and getting that trust with Owain and Sophia was so important. Once we had that, and we had the trust of Wayne [Che Yip] and Charlotte [Brändström] who were our directors, then it was really easy. It wasn't difficult at all because I didn't know what the larger context was for him, but it definitely felt that the world was ours. It was ours to interpret as we saw fit. And that's really important, particularly in a production size with big sets and a huge supporting artist and all that. It's really vital to have that very simple, straightforward throughline.

And that works really well for your character because Durin III is one who wants to be isolated as opposed to his son who's reaching out and befriending elves. What was it like for you to be at odds with the person that you're closest to on set?

Peter Mullan: Yeah, that comes really easily. Once you have that trust in one another, you can be horrendous to one another with impunity because you know that there's no real animosity there. I think the big mistake some actors make – because actors, on the whole, can be really stupid – is some of them get this idea that, “If I'm horrible to someone off set, it'll help me to be horrible to them on set.” It really doesn't work that way.

In fact, quite the opposite because the other person won't play by the rules of the game – and rightly so. The rule of the game in a particular scene is, if they've to look oppressed and if they feel the other person in real life is being horrible to them, then why would they help that person look dominant? You'll go the other way. Suddenly the whole scene starts to creak because there's no trust.

So, once Owain and I very quickly had established that neither of us was going to try and make life difficult for the other one, then we threw ourselves into being horrible to one another.

Durin IV preparing to smash rocks in The Rings of Power

You mentioned the secrecy of the scripts. Did you go back through Tolkien's work to gain your own knowledge, or was it purely on set?

Peter Mullan: No, because it was all a peek – or it was all based on footnotes and stuff. Anytime I've done anything that was an adaptation of a book, I would never read the book beforehand. It's not to be willfully ignorant by any means; it's that you are working on the script. I know other actors wouldn't feel this way, but for me, you have to work within [the boundaries]. There’s an age-old thing where, when they played golf, the monkeys used to come and pick the balls up and throw them all over the place. They established a kind of rule in their playing of golf, which was that wherever the monkey drops the ball is where you play.

It was the same thing here. Wherever the monkey dropped the ball, you just have to play. You may argue with it, you might not like it, but the bottom line is it's where the monkey dropped the ball. That's how I approached this. Thankfully, because my background and chosen career are in the art house end of things, working in a bubble and without a wider context is something I've done a million times. It's not difficult. The gods of Amazon, I'm sure, would've been grateful that they didn't have an actor kicking up about it. I could have kicked up about it, but I couldn't care less. They got very lucky in me. [Laughs] That's all I can say. They were lucky to have me.

Did you get the chance to watch the season from the perspective of a viewer?

Peter Mullan: I got to see the season. Me and my 15-year old watched it. She made me watch it, and she loved it. And, of course, me and Owain were the best as far as she was concerned.

Who would you say was second best? Was there a character whose storyline you were finding yourself invested in, wanting to know where it would go?

Peter Mullan: I was really taken by some of the human stuff, and I really liked the [Harfoots]. My daughter called them the halfwits, and that kind of stuck in our family. I loved the young girl character [Nori], and the Stranger with that. She was lovely, I thought. In fact, all those performances I felt were tremendous. That would be my favorite storyline.

What do you feel was the most expansive part of season 1 when you were on set? What was the most surprising to you?

Peter Mullan: I think, as I say, I was dealing in the world of the dwarves and stuff. I didn't experience the outdoor scenes everybody else had, and I didn't know what it was like to be those little creatures in the outdoors. That would've been fun. But in this season, they were in the mines the whole time. He never sets foot outside the mountain.

In fact, one in one day I was feeling really sorry for myself because of the makeup. And then I thought, "Come on, it's not like you're working down a mine." And then I thought, "Wait a minute, I am working down a mine." It just happened to be a mine of mithril; however you pronounce it.

It took me days to try and [pronounce things correctly]. I had to say “Celebrimbor.” Why can’t he just be called Reg or Stan? Why did Tolkien not like any consonants? I took me days and, because I don't get the scripts, I didn't know if I liked Celebrimbor or hated Celebrimbor. I had to say his name, not even knowing how to say it. I had people jump on me going, "No, it's Celebrimbor."

Not knowing how to pronounce someone’s name might even add to the realism of the world.

Peter Mullan: Exactly. And you never get that in these big fantasy things. Why doesn't someone say, "Bring in Celebrimbor," and someone cuts your tongue out because you said his name wrong?

About The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.

Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

Check out our interviews with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power cast at SDCC 2022, as well as with:

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 is now streaming on Prime Video.