Australian actor Charlie Vickers, who portrays Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, has playfully accused Tom Cruise of cheating at freediving by using oxygen masks, while discussing personal anecdotes, eccentric childhood bands, and his role in the fantasy series ahead of its third season premiere on November 11.
Australian actor Charlie Vickers recently opened up about his career, unusual childhood memories, and a lighthearted rivalry with Tom Cruise. Vickers, known for playing Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, questioned the extreme breath-holding times reported by action stars during a wide-ranging conversation about his life and work.
Freediving Claims and the Tom Cruise Controversy
When asked who would win in a freediving competition between himself and Tom Cruise, Vickers pointed to what he views as an unfair advantage used by Hollywood action stars. According to Vickers, Cruise has reportedly achieved breath-holds lasting six or seven minutes, whereas Vickers estimates he can reach four minutes in a straight-up fight. He explained that on films like Mission: Impossible and Avatar, actors would breathe oxygen through a mask before freediving to saturate their blood, whereas he and his colleagues breathed normal air, which he believes limits how long one can hold their breath.
When the interviewer asked if that meant Cruise was cheating, Vickers responded that it was indeed the headline, stating that Tom Cruise cheated at freediving.
From Amateur Basil Fawlty to Sauron’s Deep-Set Eyes
Before taking on the dark lord of Middle-earth, Vickers’ acting roots included university productions. He once played Basil Fawlty in an amateur student production of Fawlty Towers at Queen’s College in Melbourne. Because their regular theatre was closed, the cast performed inside a circus tent situated on an oval in the university grounds during the middle of winter. Vickers recalled that his moustache was real but coloured in, leaving him with ongoing beard patches, and that he wore a wig after shaving his head for the role.
Addressing Tolkien’s description of Sauron as represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible,
Vickers defined wholly evil as a complete disregard for the feelings and wellbeing of others, driven entirely by intention. He reflected on past bullying during his youth while playing Aussie rules football around age 17, noting it gave him personal context for feeling targeted.
Asked how someone with a pleasant appearance plays such an evil character, Vickers offered a purely anatomical explanation: his eyes are set quite deep in his head, making them hard to see when he moves his head in any direction.
Unusual Proposals, Celebrity Sightings, and Musical Roots
Vickers shared details of his engagement in Hampshire woods near where his wife grew up—a location famous for childhood fairy letters and small fairy figurines. Caught in deep mud while wearing jeans, he decided against kneeling directly in the dirt and instead performed a deep lunge to simulate getting down on one knee.
Among his more embarrassing celebrity encounters, Vickers recalled waving across a room at Mo Farah under the mistaken impression that the athlete was looking at him, only to be met with no response while a friend watched the entire exchange. While filming Palm Beach, he noted that Sam Neill was unbelievably kind and even re-enacted a Jurassic Park dinosaur sequence for a castmate who wanted to send photographs to her friends.
Secretly skilled at playing the drums, Vickers was previously in a year-six rock band called No Name Yet—playing Green Day and The Doors covers with Vanity Fare’s Hitchin’ a Ride as their encore—and later played in a jazz band named Over the Limit. He joked about staging a drum-off homage between Sauron and Finrod based on their sing-off in The Silmarillion.
The Rings of Power Season Three Premiere on Prime Video
Season three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video on November 11.