While presenting Clarke with the Britannia Awards for British Artist of the Year on Friday night at the British Academy Britannia Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, “GoT” co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss recalled her auditions for the role.

Even after showing HBO executives the pilot for “GoT,” Clarke was asked to audition again for the president of the network.

The meeting took place in “HBO’s corporate theater, which was large, dimly lit and empty except for us two and the president of HBO,” Weiss said. “We were smiling. He wasn’t. It was quite possibly the least inviting audition environment we had ever witnessed.”

After Clarke’s initial reading, said president remained poker faced.

“Emilia asked if there was anything else she could do to lighten the mood and David asked, ‘Can you dance?’ And without missing a beat, Emilia did the robot,” Weiss said. “She did it with commitment and she did it well…and even the president had no choice but to smile. She got the job 10 seconds after she left the room and the two of us ran to tell her before she left the building because letting her get on an 11-hour flight home without knowing seemed like cruel and unusual punishment.”

In her acceptance speech, Clarke suggested that Weiss and Benioff “deserve their own bravery award for hiring someone whose biggest job up until than was catering parties dressed as a Snow White.”

I’ve added some photos to the gallery as well:

   

Gallery Links:

• APPEARANCES > 2018 > Oct 26: 2018 British Academy Britannia Awards – Red Carpet
• APPEARANCES > 2018 > Oct 26: 2018 British Academy Britannia Awards – Show
• APPEARANCES > 2018 > Oct 26: 2018 British Academy Britannia Awards – Press Room