LOTR: The Rings Of Power’s Morfydd Clark Has Surprising Reaction To Series Criticism
The Rings of Power has seen much criticism during its 1st season, but Galadriel actress Morfydd Clark isn’t backing down from the critiques.
It’s no secret that many viewers have offered some rather critical opinions on Amazon Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power throughout its first season. But Morfydd Clark appears to hold a surprisingly pragmatic view of such reactions.
While The Rings of Power’s stars continue to suffer from racist attacks by fans, there are some legitimate concerns shared among the series’ viewers. The Lord of the Rings show did come out of the gate swinging, boasting huge viewership numbers during its initial episodes. Unfortunately, those stats began to drop quickly as viewers lost interest over the season, with only 37% of US audiences and 45% of international crowds sticking around for the whole thing.
Some credit that loss to a lack of cohesion and direction on The Rings of Power’s part, with season 1 seemingly being a prohibitively expensive setup for the actual story. But Clark, who plays Galadriel, isn’t put off by these comments; she seems to welcome them. “I think you create art for it to be critiqued,” Clark explained in an interview with Den of Geek. “It doesn’t really exist as a piece of art if it’s not there to be looked at and discussed. I’ve been in a few horror films, and I’ve really loved the conversation about that. I think it’s kind of the same with fantasy, it taps into different parts of different people. So it’s been really interesting, actually. My sister’s very online and sends me the bits that she thinks I’ll find really interesting about people’s discussions of what they got from [The Rings of Power].”
However, this doesn’t mean Clark is letting the racist backlash against The Rings of Power actors of color slide. “I do think there is a big difference between critique and abusing people,” Clark continued, calling out those using racism as an excuse to harass the show’s stars. “I’m really proud that the show is cast the way it is and that there’s diversity in our cast. And it’s been wonderful now to have people critiquing it as a piece of art.” The harassment got so bad that even Lord of the Rings movie actors spoke up against the backlash.
The Rings of Power season 1 mostly sets up a more directed story for season 2. Alongside Clark, it stars Markella Kavenagh, Robert Aramayo, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Nazanin Boniadi, Tyroe Muhafidin, Charles Edwards, Daniel Weyman, Owain Arthur, Charlie Vickers, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Maxim Baldry, and even that doesn’t cover all the important characters. They star as figures new and returning in a Middle-earth set before the original Lord of the Rings, where the Dark Lord Sauron has seemingly vanished. But things aren’t as they seem, and by the end of the season, each of these characters’ lives have been irreversibly changed as Sauron himself has returned and destroyed a once great kingdom of Men to create his new land of Mordor.
The Rings of Power writers will take legitimate criticisms to heart for season 2. So it looks like those concerned that their good-faith complaints may be drowned out by racism can rest easy looking forward. Here’s hoping the actors get some respite from such attacks while the show can reach its full potential.
