Ahead of the Game

As the final season of HBO’s medieval saga roars to life, Games of Thrones star Emilia Clarke bids farewell to her empowering, dragon-blooded character – but not to the experience

When Emilia Clarke was first cast to play Daenerys Targaryen in 2011, it was a breakthrough moment for the London born actress. Her powerful character is a protagonist in Game of Thrones, HBO’s made-for-TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel series, which served as a launchpad for Clarke – and the royal role has defined her career for the best part of a decade.

For all cast members, not just Clarke, the run will soon come to an end. Her reign spans 73 episodes, but audiences are currently laser-focused on the final six and, by all accounts, the eighth and final season (which premieres on 14 April) promises to be an explosive end to the captivating saga.

“Walking into season eight for Daenerys is much the same as everyone else – on eggshells,” she admits. “I feel like every character was left on a bit of a cliff edge, in a precarious situation. So yeah, even for Daenerys it’s that way, there’s a development that happens within the season.”

When Clarke first laid hands on the final season script, she was anxious to see how the narrative was set to finish. (Her character, for the unimitated, is one of the last remaining members of her family ‘house’, and the dragon-rearing ruler is hellbent on reclaiming the Seven Kingdoms).

“I was sent the script and I read it in an afternoon, because we get sent all of the episodes,” she reveals. “And then I just left my house with my keys and walked for about three hours around London, aimlessly wandering – because it’s so epic. There’s a lot that happens.” Very tantalising – though of course, she cannot proffer more.

What she can share is being a “big fan” of television shows finishing when “you’re still ready for more, because then you’re as engaged with it as you were in the beginning, and I think that’s really important. It [can] go on too long, and you’re doing a disservice to the characters, and to the writing. I think it’s important to have that ‘want for more’.”

Clarke confesses to feeling the pressure of disappointing the fans with the final season of such a colossal show, though. “Always. Always. Because the fans are the ones who have made the show. You want very much for everyone to be happy, but in the final season of any show there’s going to be disappointed people, there’s going to be upset people, and there’s going to be fights within friendship groups. And this is just the final bit of that.”

An ardent fan base – chomping at the bit while waiting for the final season, with time on their hands – has naturally resulted in an avalanche of theories and guesswork about the direction the series will take. All of which Clarke blocks out.

“I genuinely never Google myself, and never read anything about the show online. Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. I do not find it helpful for my mental health. It’s just too much, there are a lot of opinions out there. So no, I don’t read any of that stuff. There’s stuff that people say to me like, ‘Do you believe that she’s an alien?’ I do hear a lot of it – but you also come up with your own theories, you come up with your own ideas and then you read the script and go, ‘Oh I was wrong…’”

Clarke feels emotional in saying goodbye to her character – “Every single actor on this show will have their own personal story that goes alongside the show, that marks important chapters as to who they are, defining moments in your life,” she adds. “10 years of anyone’s life is filled to the brim with big moments. And so saying goodbye to the show, saying goodbye to Daenerys, for me, is saying goodbye to a lot of those massive moments. And so it’s kind of just bittersweet. It’s the single most defining thing that has happened to me in my life. It took me from being a child to being an adult. And it’s just magic that that’s happened.”

Looking back, what does the Emilia of today say about some of those early scenes – which contained nudity? “Oh heavens, this question,” she smiles.

“On a story level, we needed to see the struggles that Daenerys has been through to have any of the empathy, understanding, and liking of her as a human. You had to see it, it couldn’t just be explained. So there’s not one part of the show that I would go back and redo. That I keep getting asked the ‘nudity question’ lately is interesting, and tells me about the society that we’re living in, as opposed to anything. But my short answer is no, I would never change anything.”

The role has “Absolutely” changed her as a woman though, she muses. “Lord knows what I’d be without her,” she laughs. “I don’t know where I’d be, I don’t know what I’d be doing. But yeah, I had absolutely no idea what it was that I was walking into. This is something that’s kind of coming up and I’m realising now that I really had no idea about anything when I started the show. Nothing. The industry, acting, TV, society, politics – nothing. I had no idea. I was 22.”

Not just for Clarke. D.B Weiss and David Benioff, the show’s creators, told Vanity Fair that her character in the series is a combination of Joan of Arc, Lawrence of Arabia and Napoleon. A character with those attributes is bound to appeal to the public – indeed, female politicians in Spain were even seen sporting t-shirts bearing a Daenerys quote, ‘I’m not a princess – I’m a khaleesi.’

"It's a show that talks about power, and puts women in a place of power, and I think that that’s unique,” assesses Clarke.

“It’s a political show and also a fantastical show, set in a fantastical time in a fantastical world. But you are putting women in a position of power. So for that to have any resonance for any woman in society – who is in a position of power, or is looking to be in a position of power – then it’s beautiful that the parallel is being drawn.”

They are incredibly different worlds, she continues, “But the essentials – the fundamentals of having an idea, believing it in enough to have people back you, and then to believe in that idea and promote yourself as someone who can lead bodies of people – are of course a similar thing. In our fantastical world the gender divide is what it is, in our society it is also what it is. I think there’s some parallels that you can draw, for sure. Though with less fire, less death.”

Such a profoundly written character, played out over eight seasons, was bound to seep into Clarke’s own real life persona, too.

“To put it one way, it has sort of allowed me to ‘fake it ‘til you make it’. A lot of Daenerys’ scenes have been in front of a lot of people, giving big speeches so just on a very practical level, me as Emilia having to get up and speak to 300 extras in a fake language, really convincing them of something, requires a lot of strength,” she explains.

“Daenerys has asked me to do that at each turn. They have asked me to walk through fire, legitimately walk through fire. And I’m definitely one to do as one’s told: as an actor you learn lines and stand on a mark. So when they ask you to walk through fire and you do, there’s a part of you that goes, ‘I just did that! That’s cool. That’s really cool.’”

It has been a wild ride – for both Daenerys and Clarke. “I mean there’s been genuinely so many crazy moments, she says, adding with a laugh, “I don’t want to bring it up again, but there was this Brad Pitt thing that happened to me…”. She’s talking about the time Brad Pitt bid (unsuccessfully) to watch Game of Thrones with her, at Sean Penn’s annual charity gala auction in aid of Haiti. “

I was literally thinking, ‘This is not even happening, this is some crazy dream’ and I’m going to wake up, 12 years old, saying ‘That was a good dream.’

It [the auction] got up to some high numbers and there was Brad Pitt leaning back in his chair and bidding. It was incredible… So that was one of the more-recent fabulous moments that would have never happened,” says a tickled Clarke.

She is not necessarily turning her back on the fantasy genre, though. Her performances thus far have led to silver screen opportunities such as starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Genisys, and playing Qi’ra in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Her approach is to ‘never say never’ to anything, she admits. “As an actor I think it’s important to keep doing as many different things as possible to just find more textures to your life and to your skills, and I think the only way you can do that is by trying everything on for size,” Clarke professes. “So I’m not saying no, I’m just probably not saying it will be my next thing.”

But it is worth remembering that there is a woman beneath the wig; Clarke memorably said, around the season three mark, that nobody would recognise her without the wardrobe prop. “I get very guarded about my anonymity. You know, I like going to the butchers and having a chat and it being a normal thing. I like human interaction, I value it, I appreciate it, it’s what makes me feel happy. So when that’s taken in that way, of someone looking at you in a different guise, it can be incredibly difficult – sort of anxiety inducing. And so the recognition has increased, for sure. Obviously there’s no getting away from it, but I think that you can live a life that is free of the trappings of paparazzi and that kind of thing.” And the actor is grateful for the recognition it has bestowed upon her life. “It’s opened a lot of doors that would remain firmly shut to me otherwise. It still is incredibly difficult to make anything, even if you’re Brad Pitt,” she explains. “It’s still difficult to go, ‘Hey I have this idea, give me some money and we can put it into a thing, and people will watch it and it’s sort of the biggest gamble you’ll ever take.’” What it has done, though, “Is allowed me to have some doors opened, and the tagline it comes with when I’m walking into that room is ‘strong, female protagonist’. That gives me goosebumps; it’s mad. I could never have in a million years thought that would be the case. It feels good. It feels very, very good.”