“The Rings of Power is the opposite of House of the Dragon”

The Rings of Power have chosen actors still little known to embody their protagonists. Noted in horror film Saint Maud and glimpsed in series At the crossroads of worlds , 33-year-old Welsh comedian Morfydd Clark succeeds Cate Blanchett as the elf princess Galadriel. She recounts her close link with Tolkien’s universe.

Read alsoOur opinion on The Rings of Power : Tolkien’s musicality preserved on Amazon Prime Video

LE FIGARO.- The shooting took place in the most absolute secrecy. How did you join the series?

Morfydd CLARK.- Like all of my fellow auditioners, I just knew I was applying for an Amazon series that was looking for actors with theatrical and Shakespearean experience. The scenes we submitted did not contain our character’s real name or real dialogue. When I was asked to go to New Zealand, I guessed it was The Lord of the Rings. On the spot, I was taught that I was playing Galadriel. Since I pass out easily, I almost fainted on my first day while I was in armor! The plateau was unrecognizable, covered in snow. A daydream. I grew up with Tolkien. My parents read to me The Hobbit and took me to see Peter Jackson movies. At night, I fell asleep thinking of the dwarves under the mountain.

What does this Galadriel look like, a stubborn warrior, far from the ethereal one once embodied by Cate Blanchett?

She is neither powerful nor endowed with magical powers, since she does not yet have one of these famous rings. What can youth and naivety look like in an eternal being? Probably arrogance. The elves are so powerful that one gesture from them changes a lot of things. Its Mars side has, for the moment, the ascendancy over its Athena side. She is a loner who is not integrated into the clans of Middle-earth. She is not afraid to challenge authority. It is not the serene and wise ruler that Frodo meets. I was inspired by marble statues and pre-Raphaelite paintings to find this somewhat sublime detachment that is the mark of the elves. A movement specialist also advised us. Galadriel must be thrifty and careful in her movements. I also followed sessions of combat, horse riding and mountaineering. For the voice, it is a little serious. I found it through my practice of Welsh. I don’t have the same timbre as in English at all!

Two decades after Peter Jackson’s trilogy, has this Middle-earth changed?

I do not believe. Tolkien writes timeless tales. He creates innocuous moments in a yet gigantic universe. The series could not have been done without including the Hobbits. In our case, their nomadic ancestors the Pievelus. These creatures are small and vulnerable but represent Tolkien’s philosophy: this call to hope and to nurture hope. An important reminder in our time. We take the opposite of House of the Dragon. I love the idea that our series come out at the same time and show two opposing sides of fantasy. Because of the pandemic, we remained isolated in New Zealand for over a year, far from our own. The locals pampered us. The experience made me lose a lot of my cynicism.

The series has been the target of accusations of wokism…

The vision of rings of power does not betray that of Tolkien who preached the unity of peoples to overcome evil. He dug into myths and folklore from all over the world. Nordic, Iberian but also New Zealander for example. None of us would have accepted this project if the cast did not reflect diversity to such an extent. This is the base in 2022.