In 2014, Clarkson returned to Broadway portraying Madge Kendal opposite Bradley Cooper in a production of "The Elephant Man", which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. The same year, she starred opposite Ben Kingsley in the comedy-drama film "Learning to Drive", portraying Wendy, a depressed middle-aged New York book critic learning to drive from a Sikh man. John Patterson of "The Guardian" praised her performance, writing: "Clarkson gives us every ounce of Wendy’s desperation and self-loathing, and every shade of them as well. She has always been a miraculous performer." The same year, she appeared as villain Ava Paige in the major box-office hit "The Maze Runner", a dystopian film based on the 2009 young adult novel. She subsequently reprised the role in both sequels: ' (2015), and ' (2018).