Whether playing a creepy nurse in Bafta-nominated Saint Maud, or ethereal Galadriel in The Rings of Power, Morfydd Clark’s ability to bring an other-worldly quirkiness to roles is unmatched. Tim Lewis meets the Welsh actor who bewitched her way to stardom by embracing her eccentricities
There’s something mysterious about Morfydd Clark, the 35-year-old Welsh actor: it’s there in her performances, for sure, and in person, too. With her pale, almost translucent skin and watery blue eyes, she has become the go-to for directors wanting ethereal. Otherworldly. It’s why she’s perfect as the elvish leader Galadriel in Prime Video’s prequel, The Rings of Power a part played in the Lord of the Rings films by Cate Blanchett. She has also found herself in demand in the horror genre, following her breakthrough performance as a pious, uptight nurse in 2019 indie film Saint Maud, which led to a Bafta Rising Star nomination.
Clark, though, sees it differently. “It’s quite humbling to continually be cast as someone who is really freaky,” she says in her sing-song burr when we meet for an orange juice on a sweltering afternoon at a London pub. “I didn’t know that’s what I was giving off. And almost everything where I have a kiss in it, it’s like, ‘It’s a really sad kiss.’ But it’s interesting that I seem to have this slightly creepy, uncanny vibe about me that works in those type of things.”