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Murder Is Easy’s Morfydd Clark: ‘Agatha Christie is brutal about class in Britain… she’s so rude to us’

Posted by admin on January 20, 2024 Interviews

The rising star talks about the BBC’s big new crime drama, playing Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and being covered in soup in Saint Maud

Morfydd Clark is trying to pick her words very carefully. We’re discussing the BBC’s latest festive Agatha Christie adaptation Murder Is Easy, in which she plays a starring role, and she’s trying to avoid blurting out key plot points… and failing quite comprehensively.

“My spoilering is so strong,” the 33-year-old laughs as I excise another reference to whodunnit. “I reveal birthday presents I’ve got for people. I’m not told about surprise parties.”

The prestige Christie adaptation at Christmas has become something of an annual staple since 2015’s And Then There Were None, with recent series including The Pale Horse and The ABC Murders. They were certainly favourites in the Clark household.

“I love Agatha Christie and I was really excited to be part of it,” says the actor, best known for her role in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. “We always watched these at Christmas. My grandparents, who are no longer with us unfortunately, would have been incredibly proud of this. It’s an institution, and it’s also a style, so as an actor it’s really fun to play. It’s quite arch and theatrical.”

Murder Is Easy is an adaptation of one of Christie’s lesser-known detective novels, and Clark stars opposite David Jonsson (known for BBC series Industry and sweet London rom-com Rye Lane) and a host of great British character actors including Penelope Wilton and Douglas Henshall.

In it, Jonsson plays Luke Fitzwilliam, who is alerted to a series of strange deaths in a sleepy English village (natch) and sets out to investigate. There he meets Bridget Conway, brilliantly played by Clark, engaged to the boorish Lord Whitfield (Tom Riley), and they set off to investigate whether these really are accidental deaths, or (gasp) a murderer is on the loose.

Her character Bridget is different from many roles she’s played, Clark says, “She’s confident and competent, and…” then she promptly drops another spoiler.
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‘Rings of Power’ Star Morfydd Clark on Returning to Horror With ‘Starve Acre’: “It’s Nice to Be Seen as Spooky and Creepy”

Posted by admin on November 2, 2023 Interviews

It’s a been quite a life-changing few years for Morfydd Clark. After breaking out as a troubled and God-fearing palliative care nurse in A24’s wonderfully unsettling and critically lauded psychological horror Saint Maud, which was finally released in 2021 after several pandemic delays, the fast-rising Welsh actress headed straight to Middle-earth, fronting The Rings of Power’s ensemble cast as the young and fearless Galadriel.

The second season of Amazon’s megabudget J.R.R. Tolkien prequel wrapped earlier this year, but before donning Galadriel’s battle armor for another orc battle, Clark found the time to venture back into creepy genre territories with Starve Acre, getting its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Thursday.

From Brit director Daniel Kokotajlo — whose hugely well-received 2017 debut Apostasy earned a BAFTA nomination — and based on the book by Andrew Michael Hurly, the gothic horror sees Clarke star alongside Matt Smith as a couple living in rural England in the 1970s. But what appears to be an idyllic family life is turned upside down when their young son starts acting out of character, leading to a growing obsession over folkloric myths concerning the land around their remote farm house and dark, sinister forces being unwittingly allowed inside.

For Clark, coming from such a major production to a small indie project — one where the “whole crew can fit in one room” — was a special experience. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the premiere, the actress discusses her growing horror library and why she’s fascinated with that cinematic world.

Congratulations on Starve Acre. It’s a wonderfully creepy film. I think it actually creeped me out more than Saint Maud. How do you rank the two?

This is what I always just love about horror in general, because everybody has their own particular thing that makes them be like, “Oh.” I like that about Black Mirror as well. I love asking people what their most horrific Black Mirror is because it’s quite revealing. I think horror is really interesting like that. But I find them both pretty horrifying. I found the relationship with Juliet and her sister very horrifying, because I have a sister so the idea of families being torn apart by a malevolent presence or old trauma is very disturbing.
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Secrets of the Stylish: getting ready for London Fashion Week with Morfydd Clark

Posted by admin on November 2, 2023 Interviews

The arrival of September means one thing: fashion month. While New York kicked off the season with a bang, the front-row fashion crowd has now made its way to the UK capital, to see what its designers have to offer with their most recent collections.

Among the famous faces is actress Morfydd Clark, who started London Fashion Week on a stylish note, sitting front row at the Huishan Zhang show. The designer is best known for his romantic, sophisticated aesthetic that makes the wearer feel powerfully feminine.

“Huishan Zhang has a beautiful balance between elegance and drama,” agrees Clark, who watched the spring/summer 2024 show from the front row, wearing a black dress with a drop waist and dramatic full skirt.

As of late, Clark has been incredibly busy – and critically acclaimed. In recent years the actress has received BAFTA’s prestigious Rising Star nomination, won the BAFTA Cymru Best Actress award, and been named British/Irish Actress of the Year at the London Critics Circle Awards. She shows no signs of slowing down; next Clark is starring in the supernatural horror Starve Acre alongside Daniel Kokotailo and Matt Smith, followed by a modern-day adaptation of Hamlet, and the BBC’s take on Agatha Christie’s Murder Is Easy.

Despite her work schedule being jam-packed, the actress focuses on seeing the joy in every day, and that includes wearing clothes that bring her happiness. “We are all ephemeral ourselves, so might as well bring some joy and beauty while we’re here,” she says.
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‘Rings of Power’ stars embrace the real-life pressure of being Tolkien’s fantasy elves

Posted by admin on July 23, 2023 Interviews

When the casting was announced for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” the reaction was divisive, to say the least. Longtime fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work were divided because the international cast of the Prime Video prequel series was notably inclusive — something fantasy storytelling has frequently lacked. For the actors, who were stepping into both canonical and newly created roles, the response was expected, but still overwhelming.

“I wanted to play this role because of representation,” explains Ismael Cruz Córdova, who plays a Silvan Elf named Arondir, a character not in the books. “I love Tolkien, like everybody else loves Tolkien, but there had never been a lead character of color, and, actually, no characters of color. It did not go over my head what I was getting into. I was completely aware of the impact it would have.”

He adds, “It was one of the reasons that I fought for the role, fully knowing what would happen, which was massive backlash, internationally, and online bullying, racism attacks, death threats, from the first audition I did. But the impact is undeniable … and I’m extremely proud I see how it’s reverberated through culture.”

Córdova’s casting process lasted seven months and resulted in several rejections before he finally convinced the producers he was the right person to play Arondir. He felt passionately about the series, as did Morfydd Clark, who plays a younger version of Galadriel (established by Cate Blanchett in the films). Clark only agreed to read for “The Rings of Power” after she confirmed the show would be colorblind casting the roles.

“I’m a big fantasy nerd and way before this I got quite into the [issues with] the whiteness of the fantasy genre,” Clark says. “It’s been a conversation that’s been happening for ages and this wasn’t a big step, in a lot of ways. It was just an obvious step. They were auditioning everyone and I’m grateful to [the producers] for doing that.”
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Morfydd Clark Confirms Galadriel “Will Become Acquainted With” Nenya

Posted by admin on May 16, 2023 Interviews , LOTR: The Rings of Power

Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will sparkle much more when it returns. Morfydd Clark revealed Galadriel will be among the characters to receive a special piece of jewelry in Season 2.

“She’s about to have a life-changing thing happen to her. She’s about to become acquainted with Nenya, her ring. It’s really exciting to see how the magic creeps in,” Clark said at the show’s FYC event in Hollywood on Sunday speaking alongside her castmates who are all on break from shooting in the UK.

The three elven rings were forged in the Season 1 finale of the fantasy series, set a thousand years before the events in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord Of the Rings and The Hobbit, by Celebrimbor with the help of Sauron (as Halbrand).

According to LOTR lore, one of the elven rings is worn by Galadriel, the second is worn by Círdan— a character that will be introduced in Season 2— and Gandalf who has yet to make an appearance on the show. (The Season 1 finale fueled speculation that the Stranger may be the famous wizard but that has not been confirmed.) The third is being worn by Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker) and Elrond (Robert Aramayo), both characters already on the show.

Other rings forged by Sauron in the lore include seven for dwarf lords and nine for men and the powerful one ring to rule them all worn by Sauron himself.

Clark told Deadline, “When we finished Season 1, the rings were being made and we knew it was going to be a huge change for Middle Earth. [Galadriel] is going to be part of that change because she has her own ring.”

Regarding what fans can expect from her character next season Clark teased, “She’s trying to see the light through the darkness.”

Additional rings will also be forged when the show returns but which characters will score new bling is as yet unknown.
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Morfydd Clark Feels “Quite Protective” of Galadriel

Posted by admin on April 26, 2023 Interviews

A lifelong Lord of the Rings fan, the actor hopes her elven-warrior character will escape her “haze of misery” in the second season.

Morfydd Clark grew up assuming that everyone was as obsessed with The Lord of the Rings as her family was. Raised in Wales, Clark felt especially drawn to the J.R.R. Tolkien stories when she was struggling at school. “I loved to be transported from the four walls of school,” says Clark. “I’d love then coming home and thinking about all these magical things and all these possibilities.”

After leaving school at 16, she pursued a career in acting and trained at the National Youth Theatre of Wales and the Drama Centre London. After some notable work onstage and on television, she received a best-actress BAFTA nomination in 2020 for starring in the psychological horror film Saint Maud.

Then a mysterious audition for an Amazon TV series changed her life forever, when she was cast as Galadriel, the iconic elf from the Tolkien stories, previously played by Cate Blanchett in the films. The first season of Amazon’s ambitious fantasy series The Rings of Power sees a younger version of the elven warrior on a mission, convinced that the evil force Sauron—who killed her brother—has returned to Middle-earth.

Now in the middle of filming the second season in the UK, Clark spoke with Little Gold Men about her unusual journey to Galadriel, how she handles fan reactions to the show, and what we can expect from season two.

Vanity Fair: There was a lot of secrecy around this project when it was casting. What was that process like for you?

Morfydd Clark: I got an audition from my agent, and it was for this untitled Amazon project. All I knew about the character was that she’d experienced some loss and had been to war at one point. Then I arrived at the audition, and one of the actresses was next to me and we started chatting, and she was like, “Can you believe we’re auditioning for Lord of the Rings?” And I was like, “What?!” I had to go into the bathroom and have a moment breathing in deeply, staring at myself, being like, You’ve gotta turn up, Morfydd. You’ve watched these films. You’ve read these books. You’ve been waiting for this. I looked at everything I’d prepared and tried to make it suddenly be like I was in Middle-earth.

When did you find out you would actually be playing Galadriel?
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How Morfydd Clark fainted at the thought of playing Galadriel in ‘Rings of Power’

Posted by admin on December 1, 2022 Interviews

Being cast as Galadriel in “The Rings of Power,” Prime Video’s prequel to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, was so overwhelming for Morfydd Clark that she actually fainted. The Welsh actress spent nearly six months auditioning for the role — initially without even knowing what she was auditioning for — throughout the summer of 2019. When she finally got the call that she would play the warrior elf, Clark was at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting “Saint Maud” and “The Personal History of David Copperfield.”

“I was already having an out-of-body experience, and then I found out about this just before the premiere of ‘David Copperfield,’” Clark recalls. “It was just very weird. It was really exciting, but also secret. I went to do the premiere, and I passed out on stage during the Q&A afterwards. It was so embarrassing. It’s on YouTube — I do manage to get just offstage, but you can hear my mic drop. I was caught by a Canadian security guard, who was very nice to me.”

Shortly after, Clark flew to New Zealand, where the first season was filmed (Season 2 has moved its production to the UK). Along with the rest of the cast, Clark had “ages” to prep for the role, which required her to learn swimming, horse riding and stunts. The cast trained together with a stunt team ahead of filming, which meant that everyone became close even if they didn’t share any scenes. Galadriel, played in the films in her older, wiser years by Cate Blanchett, required a lot of physical stamina and awareness. The immortal is a skilled warrior who carries herself with confidence — something Clark had to learn.
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