Interview: Morfydd Clark on ‘Saint Maud’ and the Future of Horror
“I don’t feel that I’m a transformative actor,” says Welsh actress Morfydd Clark. “I feel that I play versions of myself.” Anyone who has seen her performances in ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’, ‘Eternal Beauty’ and ‘Saint Maud’, all of which were released within the last year to almost unanimous critical acclaim, would tell you otherwise.
Her performance in Rose Glass’ ‘Saint Maud’, which debuts in US theaters in a limited release today before being released on Epix and VOD on February 12, is at first a widely restrained display of grace and professionalism that gradually sours into a haunting, blistering portrayal of unprocessed grief and trauma. And while her short performance in Craig Roberts’ ‘Eternal Beauty’, as a younger version of Sally Hawkins’ lead character Jane, is cut from the same cloth, the execution itself couldn’t be any more different. Jane is increasingly emotional, unafraid to externalize her feelings instead of internalizing them the way Maud does. Both performances are also worlds away from the two different characters she portrays in ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’, Armando Iannucci’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ beloved 1850 classic novel.
Clark initially auditioned for the role of David Copperfield’s childish and precocious wife Dora but Iannucci was so impressed with her audition tape that upon meeting her over dinner, he immediately offered her the role of Copperfield’s warm, loving mother, Clara, as well. “I was kind of like, ‘Oh my God!’ because I didn’t know that was in the works,” she recalls. “I just basically kind of underreacted [at first] because I so wanted to scream [in excitement], I was like ‘Hmm, okay’ like really serious and cool about it. But then after I said goodbye, I went to the toilet and had a little scream about it.”
Throughout the rest of our conversation, Clark displays the same type of enthusiasm and graciousness about everything from getting to work with some of the biggest names in the UK film industry (“I just felt like I was constantly trying to like not be creepy [on set] because I was with all these people that I’ve watched [on screen] so much and who I know a lot about,” she exclaims) to the fan frenzy that has attached itself to ‘Maud’, with a barrage of fanart and tributes making their way online months prior to the film’s release. “It’s funny thinking of people talking about Maud so much when the point of the film is that nobody pays any attention to her,” she muses. “It’s really amazing to see.”
‘Saint Maud’ also marks her debut as a lead actress, coming after years of solid bit performances in a wide variety of films including 2016’s ‘Love & Friendship’ and 2017’s ‘The Man Who Invented Christmas’. “I’m definitely nervous about it. I’ve never been a lead in anything before so I don’t know how [that experience] is going to feel like,” she says from New Zealand, where she’s currently filming Amazon’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series. It’s been a long time coming and Clark spent months gearing up for the stateside release of the film back in April of last year before a global pandemic forced everything to shut down. “It is kind of daunting when have to rev yourself up to it possibly coming out but then it doesn’t so now I’m just kind of like, ‘I’m not going to [think about it] until 24 hours before it’s set to come out!’”
To be fair, ‘Saint Maud’ had a more than stellar reception when it debuted on the festival trail back in fall 2019. From a standing ovation from genre lovers at its world premiere as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness line-up last year to incredibly positive buzz at the 2019 London Film Festival, critics have largely championed the film, praising its performances and heralding Glass as the next coming of horror filmmaking. “‘Saint Maud’ went down so nicely at festivals that I’m like, ‘Maybe just leave it at that! That’s it! We don’t have to release it,’” she jokes. “It’s been amazing seeing how the people who saw it in the in the film festival circuit are still so behind it.”
Clark’s experience at the film’s global premiere in Toronto was an incredibly positive one. “The Midnight Madness crowd was so warm and also so ready to have a good time,” she recalls. It was a “remedy”, she says, to her earlier experience at the same festival for ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ premiere. “It was terrifying,” she exclaims. “I ended up actually fainting during the Q&A, which was just so embarrassing. I was really jet-lagged and hungry. I hadn’t eaten because I was in this posh dress and I was kind of terrified because I’ve never done anything like a premiere [before] and I was like ‘What if I faint every premiere? What if I’m like a fainter and I can’t deal with this?’”
‘Saint Maud’ is at times a very difficult film to watch, with Glass subjecting her main character to a variety of terrible situations, each one worse than the last. It is an incredibly taxing role, requiring its actor to dive into extremely dark places in order to perfectly capture the harrowing essence of the character. “I remember just lying on my bed staring at the ceiling because I just couldn’t believe what I was reading,” Clark recalls. Asked if it was difficult for her to get in the character’s headspace, she pauses for a second before responding. “I think that the themes of ‘Saint Maud’ have been in my thinking for a long time,” she says. “I can be quite fragile at times and I very much know that I’ve stayed intact because I’ve been [lucky enough to be] loved and looked after. But I also realize that [that support system] is not that there for lots and lots of people.” She says the film has taught her to be kinder to strangers, who may be struggling or going through something behind closed doors. “I just felt like I was more in tune to how I could affect someone like Maud just by kind of being a bit grumpy getting off the tube or something like that. So I think it really has stayed with me in a positive way.“
The film also touches on incredibly timely themes and subjects, including the mistreatment and abuse of nurses by an institution that fails to provide a solid support system for them. “I was quite lucky that lots of my family work for the NHS. I’m an actor, I don’t actually know anything about [that experience] but I was talking to my mum about it and she was saying that sometimes you see terrible things as a medic, a nurse or a doctor, or just someone working in a hospital,” Clark explains. “You’re all party at times to horrific things, but you can deal with that if you feel you’re doing your job well as a whole. But what breaks you is when you feel [like you caused] someone’s pain and humiliation, like if you’re constantly not there in time to change someone or get them to the toilet or make sure that they’ve got their water in time. [These medical professionals] have to deal with all the things that society has [abandoned] so they’d often be the only person there for someone when they were dying. We’re asking too much of them with too little reward.”
‘Saint Maud’ opens with a devastating scene of Maud hopelessly staring at the dead body of a former patient, the woman’s blood literally on her hands. Haunted and shell-shocked by the experience, she stares up at the ceiling where she spots a cockroach (whom the cast and crew have dubbed Nancy the Cockroach, Clark tells us) scuttering away, her only companion amidst a terrible tragedy. Abandoned by her superiors and shunned by her co-workers, she completely throws herself into her own twisted form of religion in order to cope. “We’re constantly fascinated by the monsters of medicine who do bad things,” Clark elaborates. “But then you also have people who’ve gone into medicine to do good things feeling that they’ve become a monster because they can’t do enough. I really felt that that’s definitely how Maud felt and how, in order to escape from this feeling that she has caused harm, she had to remove any sense of wrongdoing from herself entirely, which then makes her terrifying because she’s so blinded and convicted.”
While ‘Saint Maud’ draws on many other films, including ‘Repulsion’ and Martin Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver’, it is a wholly unique experience, bringing together a familiar combination of elements and conjuring up something new in the process. In a genre that’s been largely dominated by male filmmakers, it feels like a breath of fresh air and a hint at where the genre may be heading to next. “I think, with horror fans particularly, there’s a thirst for the next push, like ‘Where’s the edge? Where are we going to next?’” Clark reflects. “I kind of think horror definitely lends itself to women and the queer community for example, because there’s a slight sense of danger everywhere you go. With any group that has to be careful in the way they move around the world, they’re attuned to danger in a different way and are also probably gaslit more than certain members of society. We’re constantly being told that there’s no monster when we know there is. I’m really glad we’re starting to see more diversity both in front of and behind the camera but I still think we’re at the beginning of that journey and I’m excited to see where it goes.”
Next up for Clark is her role as the younger version of Cate Blanchett‘s Galadriel in the aforementioned Lord of the Rings series, which will undoubtedly raise her profile to even higher levels. For now, though, she is bracing herself for the US release of Saint Maud, which has been delayed three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic but is finally being released in limited theaters today. “I am so happy, nervous and excited for people to finally see Saint Maud,” she says. “I hope you love and fear her as I do. Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive [throughout] the long wait and to everyone who has kept demanding to see it. Maud has finally risen.”
Saint Maud is now playing in US theaters, and will be released on Epix and VOD on February 12.