Galadriel is an iconic character within the lore of Middle Earth. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power focuses on a young Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and her quest to defeat Sauron before he returns. Clark knows that there are high expectations when it comes to portraying Galadriel, and she had a short amount of time to prepare to play her because she didn’t know she was playing Galadriel when she arrived in New Zealand to begin filming.
Galadriel is an essential character in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ story
In Lord of the Rings, Galadriel is an all-powerful elf known for her great beauty and wisdom. Played by Cate Blanchett, she assists Frodo (Elijah Wood) and the other hobbits on their quest to destroy the One Ring by bestowing gifts upon them. She also appeared in The Hobbit films, despite not appearing in J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel.
In Middle Earth lore, Galadriel was present at the forging of the Rings of Power and was given one of the rings to protect. The Rings of Power will feature the forging of the rings and Galadriel’s quest to defeat the Dark Lord Sauron before he rises to power.
Morfydd Clark did not know she was playing Galadriel when she was cast in ‘The Rings of Power’
Morfydd Clark was tasked with portraying Galadriel in The Rings of Power and has delivered an excellent performance. However, Clark did not know she would play the elf when she was cast for the series. In an interview with Variety, the Welsh actor says she did not know who she was playing until she landed in New Zealand. Nobody else in the cast knew who they were playing either.
“I didn’t know that I was playing Galadriel when I arrived in New Zealand, even. I knew that I was playing some sort of elf,” Clark shares. “I knew it was in the Second Age. Me and my sister were reading through it all, and I was thinking I was Celebrían, her daughter, because I don’t think I could fathom that it would be Galadriel. So I went to New Zealand not knowing who I was playing, which now looking back, it’s quite, quite mad. Everybody in the cast did the same. We all kind of dived in to this madness all together and met each other all down there. It wasn’t until I arrived that I found out who I was playing, and I obviously had to recalibrate. I still can’t quite believe who I’m playing.”
Clark learned the Elvish language to prepare for her role
Clark did a lot of preparation for Galadriel, which included stuntwork, sword training, and climbing. One essential part of the character is the Elvish language, and Clark says she used her experience with Welsh to incorporate Elvish into her performance. She is bilingual, so she knew how to play a character who speaks multiple languages.
“I went to Welsh-language school, and everything is taught in the medium of Welsh,” Clark explains. “Welsh is phonetic, so it’s much better for a dyslexic. I started learning English in year three, and was just like, ‘What is this?’ Something that my Tolkien-obsessed mum was really proud of and passed down to us was that Tolkien was inspired by Welsh. So weirdly, his works have been a badge of honor for me, because the Welsh are obsessed with the Welsh and anything Welsh. It was really great to play a bilingual character. And yeah, I think it served me really well.”
The Rings of Power is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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