Despite Having a Tough Time With Horses, Morfydd Clark Sprung a Surprise in $1,000,000,000+ Series Once

When Amazon Prime came out with the TV series ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ around a year ago, it was big news for all fans of fantasy and JRR Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Universe. The show, based on appendices from the original trilogy of books by Tolkien and some instances from Silmarillion, involves a lot of horseriding scenes. Instead of relying entirely on CGI, a lot of those scenes were done as live-action sequences. This meant one of the show’s protagonists Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel, had to do a lot of her own horseriding sequences, just like any equestrian would. Finding those scenes incredibly difficult, she has a whole new appreciation for the horse trainers on the set.

The Rings of Power made huge news last year for being the most expensive series ever made. It cost Amazon Prime more than a billion dollars to produce the whole show, with the first series itself costing them $462 million. While a lot of it is CGI heavy, the horses and all the riding scenes amidst picturesque landscapes are real.

Morfydd Clark learned to deal with horses from scratch

Amazon Prime spared nothing on creating the Rings of Power. The show is set with the backdrop of Middle Earth, thousands of years before the Hobbits even existed. Tracing the origin of Sauron, Morfydd Clark dons the role of Galadriel in the show, which was previously played by Cate Blanchett in the movie trilogy. Clark, however, wasn’t an expert in horseriding for the scenes and had to undergo intense training for the same.

In a 2022 interview with Variety, director Charlotte Brandstrom said that while Galadriel is an expert in horse riding, actor Morfydd Clark who portrays her isn’t. Clark told to Variety, “I can’t believe that was possible. Before doing this, I thought so much of horse stunts were CGI, but it wasn’t”. Clark finally pulled it off after four months of training, three hours every day, with professional horse riders and trainers.

Clark continued, “There were loads of amazing stunt riders on this, but their horses were incredible and so was the connection they had with them. Seeing the stunt team say goodbye to their horses when we finished was really emotional”. Clark rode a horse called Titan and was the most well-trained of them all, to suit Galadriel’s expertise in horseriding. Director Brandstorm too had to work hard for getting the scenes right.

How the horseback fighting scenes played out in The Rings of Power

Charlotte Brandstorm directed episodes 6 and 7 of the 8-episode in the 1st season of the series. The 6th episode, titled ‘Udun’ was full of horseback knights battling orcs who were invading their land. Inspirations for the scene ranged from pop culture to history. While Braveheart and Gladiator were obvious inspirations for huge battle scenes on horseback, real-life ancient battles such as Ukrainian Cossacks during the Battle of Klushino also helped her in imagining the sequence.

READ MORE – As Joaquin Phoenix Gears Up for the Napoleon Biopic, Animal Rights Activists Blast the Actor for His Horse Riding Scene

In the end, Clark pulled off her scenes with horses, which were a lot, with great ease and mastery, thanks to her months of training. Brandstorm too got the exact shots she wanted. Rings of Power is set to return sometime in the future, and it will take off from the cliffhanger it left it in. What happens to Sauron and Gandalf and Galadriel and the Harfoots and other characters remain to be seen. Until then, fans can play the best Lord of the Rings games to keep them hooked for season 2.

Watch This Story: Baby Biles turns into Simone Biles, mother teases about her joining gymnastics