‘The Rings of Power’ Galadriel Actor Morfydd Clark Reveals What She Did for the Series That Was Forbidden for Her as a Child

Acting can often require actors to do stunts they might not be familiar with. In Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel, says she rode a horse many times while filming the series. While riding horseback isn’t too dangerous an activity, Clark says she was forbidden from doing it as a child. 

Morfydd Clark didn’t know she was playing Galadriel until she arrived in New Zealand

Morfydd Clark is a Welsh actor who may be best known for her recent roles in Saint Maud and The Personal History of David Copperfield. She also had roles in Netflix’s Dracula and HBO’s His Dark Materials. 

The Rings of Power is her most prolific role yet, and she was primarily kept in the dark before being cast as Galadriel. In an interview with AnOther, Clark says she did not know she was auditioning for Lord of the Rings before she got there. Then, when she was cast in the series, she didn’t find out she was Galadriel until she arrived in New Zealand. 

“I didn’t know who I was playing at that point,” Clark says. “It wasn’t till I got to New Zealand that I found out. So that was strange. I got on a plane to the other side of the world, knowing very little.”

Clark rides a horse while playing Galadriel in ‘The Rings of Power’

Since there are no cars or planes in Middle Earth, the only modes of transportation are wagons or horses. Clark had to practice riding horseback to play Galadriel in The Rings of Power, and the actor says it was a new experience for her because she wasn’t allowed to do it as a kid. 

“I’d never ridden before. My mum did her back in falling off a horse when she was around 21, so I was never allowed near them,” Clark told AnOther. “And I got to New Zealand and was like ‘I’m riding horses!’ And then Covid happened, and we had to stop filming and we had time that we didn’t expect to have, and I spent a lot of that time on Titan, my horse. In terms of playing Galadriel, it was amazing to be able to start to feel so comfortable on a horse and really get to know this horse who was so beautiful. If I ride again, I’m going to realize I’m not as good as I thought I was because Titan is a golden boy. But also I was just riding being like, ‘oh, this is what my mum used to do. This is what she used to love doing.’ So I felt a connection to her that I’d never experienced before.”

Clark had a beautiful moment with her horse

When asked what her favorite part of filming The Rings of Power was, Clark shared a moment when she rode her horse and butterflies began flying around her. The actor was amazed by the beauty she was witnessing. 

“Riding Titan was one of them,” Clark recalls. “I remember there was one time when some sort of butterflies had just hatched. There was just loads of them around me while I was riding him. And I was just like, ‘This can’t be real. Surely life can’t be this beautiful.’”

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.