THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD

MAXIM BALDRY PLAYS ISILDUR, SHAPED BY JRR TOLKIEN AS A TRAGIC HERO. HE CONFIDES IN TANZIM PARDIWALLA ABOUT HOW TOLKIEN AND LOTR SHAPED HIS CINEMATIC JOURNEY

"Oh my gosh, we met in Mumbai! Lovely to see you again," says Maxim Baldry over a long video chat weeks ahead of the release of The Lord Of The Rings: The Ring Of Power Season 2.

His dreamy eyes lit up as I remind him of our in-person chat when the cast flew down to India for the series premiere in 2022. Back then, the actor was a kid in a candy store, leaning in to answer my questions. This time, the weight of expectations sits large on his shoulders, although if you ask him, he says it isn't all that heavy. The English actor, a bonafide Tolkien nerd, returns as Isildur for the second instalment of the popular fantasy series. Playing Isildur as a young boy pushed into manhood, Baldry speaks of experiencing everything from mesmerising sets to having meet-cute in Middle-earth. Looking at him now, it's wild to think that his acting journey began when he was 10 years old with Mr. Bean's Holiday, an iconic 2007 comedy. But he has only just begun referring to himself as an actor, after years of doing odd jobs from being a delivery boy to a bartender. Each phase brings him closer to fulfilling the dreams of his inner child sitting on the sofa, reading Tolkien's books, watching Peter Jackson's films and hoping to be a part of the fantasy someday. Excerpts:

YOU STARTED YOUR CAREER AS A CHILD ACTOR IN MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY, A FILM THAT'S MUCH LOVED IN INDIA. HOW DO YOU LOOK BACK ON THAT EXPERIENCE?

As a child actor, I relied heavily on instinct, not overthinking the script.