Morfydd Clark Thinks Her Galadriel is “Gross,” “Naïve,” and “Angry”

Television

The dreaded arrival of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is fast approaching, and the cast is conducting their final interviews in preparation for the premiere. One of these has the Galadriel actress, Morfydd Clark, sitting down with GQ. The article is rife with fundamental misunderstandings of both the character of Galadriel and the world that Tolkien created, the worst of which come straight from Clark’s mouth. In the opening paragraphs, GQ immediately discredits itself as a source on the world of Tolkien, saying that The Rings of Power is “comprised chiefly of material from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion,” which is wholly false. Amazon only has rights to the appendices of The Return of the King and has zero access to the content of The Silmarillion. If GQ cannot be trusted to do the most superficial research — or is outright lying — to what depths of inaccurate depravity will this fluff piece resort?

The truly horrific comments regarding Galadriel come in an editorialized depiction of the interview with Clark, which says:

“She’s grateful to the character for letting her play gross, having been cast in ‘prim and pretty’ roles before that. Galadriel is beautiful, yes, but played in the films by Cate Blanchett, the elf leader is an immortal source of counsel and calm, too. In The Rings of Power, she is a little younger, though still thousands of years old. ‘She’s older than the moon,’ Clark says. Clark therefore needed to think about what youth and naivete meant to someone who is already ancient. ‘So I guess part of that was slightly more rough and readiness…a bit more earthy, slightly less god-like.’”

Nearly everything said about Galadriel in this excerpt is fundamentally wrong and in clear opposition to Galadriel’s characterization in both the books and the Peter Jackson films. The choice to describe her as “gross” as opposed to Clark’s customary “prim and pretty” characters is tantamount to an insult to Tolkien and the character. Tolkien described Galadriel as “the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth . . . [the] greatest of elven women.” What there describes her as “gross,” of all descriptors? The highest of the elves, the lady of the wood, the most beautiful and fair of the land, is described as gross?

They even admit that Galadriel is “thousands of years old” yet still depict her as naïve despite her countless years of experience. Being thousands of years old is mutually exclusive to naïveté, and those countless millennia of experience make her god-like, regardless of the rough, ready, and earthy version of the character that Clark sought. If Clark was sick of playing “prim and pretty” characters, then Galadriel was not the correct choice for her.

The GQ article also features some comments made by a Rings of Power director, J.A. Bayona, who said of Galadriel:

“From the very beginning we knew that she was going to be the woman. She was so strong and there was this little bit of anger in her eyes that made the character so attractive. That tells you a little bit about what the show is about: how far would you go to defeat evil? How much would you sacrifice?”

What does that even mean? She was going to be “the woman;” not just a woman but the woman. The director further telegraphed this show’s complete misunderstanding of Galadriel by saying that there is a bit of anger behind her eyes, and that is what attracted the director to her. Galadriel is thousands upon thousands of years old, with the wisdom of ages; she is beyond human vices and emotions. With the exception of the passing of her test in The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel should never be seen giving in to the weakness of man and the corrupt emotions that define humans. If the director was attracted to the character for imagined or bastardized anger, this director should never touch or direct Galadriel, as he clearly doesn’t understand her, which he proved with every word spoken.

Additionally, the concept of “How far would you go to defeat evil” is one diametrically opposed to the themes of Tolkien, further proving Amazon’s utter misunderstanding of this world. The ends do not justify the means with Tolkien; people should not corrupt themselves to defeat evil. Every powerful character who is offered the ring refuses it, as they will become something far worse than the enemy they seek to defeat if they give in to this power. Even Galadriel refuses to resort to any depths of depravity to defeat Sauron in the aforementioned test. How far can the bastardization of Tolkien truly sink in the show?

The Rings of Power’s depiction of Galadriel is by far its greatest sin and the most contradictory to its own designs. What they have done to her is the biggest downgrade in history, and the most harmful to feminism. They took one of the most powerful and beautiful beings in all of Middle Earth and stripped her of everything that made her special in favor of a gross, naïve, and earthy swordswoman. Both Amazon and Clark merely wanted a Captain Marvel strong woman type, and they cared not what lies and bastardizations of Galadriel were required of them to rebrand her in such a fashion. The evidence that contradicts their depiction is right before them, and even confessed by them, yet it doesn’t fit their desires for the character, so they manipulate and distort for their own benefit.

GQ, Bayona, and Clark each depicted a fundamental misreading of all things Tolkien and Galadriel in this article. If they fail at this most basic of understanding, they cannot be trusted to honestly report on or to faithfully adapt this world. The many trailers for The Rings of Power have all shown Clark to be horrible in the role of Galadriel in both look and writing. Additionally, Clark’s past comments toward the fans have shown her to be an antagonistic and aggressive person who misrepresents the criticism of fans. Now, these comments show that she misunderstands the character to a near-total degree. All this proves that she is not suited for this character, this world, and perhaps even stardom.

Amazon has made it clear that they will declare this show a success regardless of viewership, so they care very little about Clark’s awful marketing in these interviews. Only the upcoming premiere will reveal how truly abysmal this depiction of Galadriel will end up being. The Rings of Power is not Tolkien by any stretch of the imagination and will struggle to be simply good in and of itself. However, Amazon, Bayona, and Clark have made it clear that they don’t care as long as they get the strong and powerful woman character they set out to create, irregardless of the carnage left in their wake. Tolkien and Galadriel were not too high a price to pay to craft this man-spreading, gross, naïve, and angry feminist role model that downgrades women everywhere.