Morfydd Clark names her five favourite films
Welsh actor Morfydd Clark gave her breakthrough performance in Rose Glass’ stunning debut Saint Maud, a tale of religious obsession that saw the actress give her all in the leading role. Her portrayal of the disaffected nurse landed her a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination as well as a BAFTA Cymru award for Best Actress.
Before then, Clark largely starred in period pieces, such as Love and Friendship, Madame Bovary, and The Personal History of David Copperfield. However, Saint Maud really highlighted Clark’s ability to contort herself into a truly terrifying and mesmerising performer.
Her most recent role sees her play the Elven warrior Galadriel in the new television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Clark cited her Welsh fluency as helping her connect deeper to her character, who sometimes speaks Elvish. She said: “I feel I can be much more romantic and deep in Welsh. So that was really useful for me because I was thinking, ‘[What’s the] language of her heart? What language does she think in?'”
In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, the rising star detailed five of her favourite films that have inspired her love for cinema. One film that she, rather ironically, finds herself revisiting, again and again, is Groundhog Day. She explained, “I started watching it when I was really little with my dad because he loves it, and it was one of those films that every time that I watched it, every year or so, and would get more and more of the jokes, and I still feel that every time I watch it, there’s something else that I haven’t noticed. And it made me fall in love with Bill Murray, and that has lasted all my life.”
She cites Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro as “the first super-adult film” she watched. After three watches, she is unsure if she can ever watch it again. “I don’t know if you’d describe Pan’s Labyrinth as horror, but it was the first horror film … that I’d seen shine light on the horrifying things that people do, and kind of also [include] fantasy with that. There was lots in Pan’s Labyrinth that I thought was kind of childish until I saw Pan’s Labyrinth. It was the sort of things that I liked that kind of weren’t adult or grown-up, and Pan’s Labyrinth kind of opened that to me and just devastated me in a way that no film ever has.”
Clark declared her love for Baz Luhrmann, who most recently directed Elvis. Her favourite of his is Strictly Ballroom, stating that “it makes me so happy.” Detailing further, she continued: “That scene where he’s dancing on his own was very sexy to me as a 12-year-old. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what are these feelings I’m having for this man dancing in his little vest’… Strictly Ballroom is something I’ll watch if I’m feeling — well, kind of any mood, but particularly if I’m feeling a little blue. It’s like injecting happiness into my veins. And I just love the colours. I can see the colour palette so clearly in my mind, and it brings me such joy — and also just the dancing is amazing.”
In keeping with her love for period dramas, as demonstrated by her filmography, Clark selected Sense and Sensibility, starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. “I have a sister, and I feel the dynamic of them — it was a film that made me understand myself and my world. I struggled to pick an Austen that I like the most because I just love them all, but I think that film is so perfectly adapted, and they’re wonderfully acted and so gorgeously shot.”
Morfydd Clark’s five favourite films:
- Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
- Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
- Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, 1992)
- Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1996)
- Twin Town (Kevin Allen, 1997)
Finally, Clark selects the late-1990s Welsh film Twin Town, which stars Rhys Ifans and his younger brother Llyr. She shared: “I watched it alone from home and what was really wonderful about Twin Town is that — it’s kind of the great thing about being Welsh, is that it’s so small, you go on nights out, and you see rugby players, and then I watched Twin Town and then realised that one of the actors in it walks his dog on the same old railway line as us, I was like, Oh my gosh, this guy is an actor. I’d say Twin Town is hilarious, it’s kind of grim, and it’s Welsh, and I love all those things — and Rhys Ifans.”
