Enchanting Emilia Clarke

September 14 2026

Press/Gallery: Emma D’Arcy and Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones Targaryen baddies, present at Emmys

The actors behind Daenerys and Rhaenyra Targaryen are back together.

2 Game of Thrones stars from separate shows reunited at the Emmys.
Emilia Clarke and Emma D’Arcy, famous for playing Targaryen baddies, presented an award at the ceremony.
The Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon stars’ characters have drawn comparisons.

EW Two Targaryen baddies reached across the Game of Thrones multiverse to reunite on stage at the Emmys.

Emilia Clarke and Emma D’Arcy came out during TV’s big night on Sunday to present the award to Sally Field for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

“In the Game of Thrones universe, Emilia is my great-great-great-great-really-great-granddaughter,” D’Arcy began the bit, which included some High Valyrian speak.

Clarke broke into the zeitgeist as Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, on HBO’s Emmys juggernaut Game of Thrones. D’Arcy continues that legacy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, the star of prequel drama House of the Dragon, which began a couple hundred years before the events of the flagship series.

D’Arcy continued their Emmys moment by announcing that Clarke will introduce the winner of the category in High Valyrian, the mother tongue of House Targaryen.

It all surprisingly meant more than an entertaining piece of show business when the camera cut to David Benioff, a co-creator of HBO’s Game of Thrones TV series with D.B. Weiss, to witness Clarke’s delivery.

Other actresses nominated in the category with Field included Claire Danes (The Beast in Me), Carey Mulligan (Beef), Sarah Pidgeon (Love Story), and Sarah Snook (All Her Fault).

Both characters have drawn comparisons among fans as female members of the storied dragon-riding House who’ve tried to lead but were steered toward the infamous Targaryen madness. If you ask D’Arcy, however, the comparisons don’t hold water.

“Maybe part of me is quite keen to not conflate [the characters] too much because I think that the forge that shapes Rhaenyra is really specific,” D’Arcy told Entertainment Weekly. “Rhaenyra, right into season 3, is trying to weigh up different versions of her premiership based on the advice and guidance she gets from various friends and colleagues. I wanted to preserve as many future possibilities in that character as possible for as long as possible.”

Regarding their first meeting with Clarke, D’Arcy said, “She was so beautiful. She connected with me right at the beginning, before [House of the Dragon] season 1. We met, and she gave me loads of really, really generous advice, actually. But most of that was about what it is to be one of the faces of a show like this, managing and negotiating a franchise of this size, and also advice for shooting for such long periods. Her guidance was really pragmatic and very useful.”

House of the Dragon’s fourth and final season will start filming in 2027 ahead of a premiere in 2028.

PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2026 > Sep 14: 78th Primetime Emmy Awards
PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2026 > Sep 14: 78th Primetime Emmy Awards – Fuji Water
PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2026 > Sep 14: 78th Primetime Emmy Awards – Show

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September 09 2026

Press: Emilia Clarke to make National Theatre debut in ‘Plenty’

Directed by former National Theatre Director Richard Eyre, the play examines post-World War II disillusion through the life of ex-secret agent Susan Traherne.

9 September, 2026, 15:00

London Theatre: Games of Thrones star Emilia Clarke will make her National Theatre debut in David Hare’s Plenty, which begins performances in the National’s Lyttelton Theatre in spring 2027.

Directed by former National Theatre Director Richard Eyre, the play examines post-World War II disillusion through the life of ex-secret agent Susan Traherne. Plenty will be staged ahead of the play’s 50th anniversary.

Clarke made her West End stage debut as Nina in a 2022 modern staging of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, directed by Jamie Lloyd.

Further artistic team, casting, and performance dates are to be announced.

Check back for Plenty tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

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June 19 2024

Press: Game of Thrones star: ‘Surviving brain injuries gave me a fire to keep going’

Around 1.3 million people in the UK are living with the effects of a long-term brain injury but there is a lack of awareness around them. Emilia Clarke aims to change that

PHOTOSHOOTS & OUTTAKES > 2024 > 2024 The Big Issue

BIG ISSUE Emilia Clarke asked doctors to let her die when she had her first brain injury.

She thought she would never work again. She had aphasia which affected her speech, and if she could not speak, she could not act. If she could not act, she could not live.

“I didn’t see any point in carrying on,” the actor admits. It was the beginning of 2011 and Clarke had just finished filming the first season of Game of Thrones, the epic fantasy series which catapulted her to fame in her 20s for her starring role as Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons.

It was the first of two brain aneurysms which almost killed her and changed her life.

We meet in her small London office with its big wide windows and light pouring into the room. Clarke has deep eye contact beneath those beautifully expressive eyebrows, and an enormous smile.

Beyond Game of Thrones, she has starred in films including Me Before You, Last Christmas and Solo: A Star Wars Story and had stints on stage. From an outsider’s view, she is living her dream and seems to adore life and the people around her.

So how does it make her feel that she wanted to give it all up?

“I get it. That was what it felt like at the time. I think if someone said to me today that I won’t be able to communicate, I would probably say the same thing. I can feel empathy for how I felt in that moment.”

Her mother Jenny, sitting beside her and quietly listening to what must be painful words from her daughter, points out that many people have wonderful lives after losing their ability to communicate through a brain injury. Clarke agrees passionately.

“My entire job is reflecting life and humanity. In that moment, I felt that if I couldn’t do that one thing that I can do, I couldn’t see a way through it.

“If that had happened, I would have overcome it and something transformative would have happened. But I’m not going to sit here and say for one minute that the first time someone hears that, they aren’t going to think: ‘What’s the point?’”

But there is a point. There is life beyond brain injury. There is hope.

Emilia Clarke and her mother founded their charity SameYou in 2019 to develop better mental health recovery after brain injuries and advocate for change. They are now partnering with Big Issue Recruit to support survivors and their loved ones into work with the help of BIR specialist job coaches.

“Having a chronic condition that diminishes your confidence in this one thing you feel is your reason to live is so debilitating and so lonely,” Clarke, 37, recalls.

“One of the biggest things I felt with a brain injury was profoundly alone. That is what we’re trying to overcome.”
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June 19 2024

Press: “I was just not ready”: The role Emilia Clarke called catastrophic

FAR OUT MAGAZINE It doesn’t feel like that long ago that Emilia Clarke was an unknown name in Hollywood, with the actor only taking her first steps in the industry in 2009. Even then, her roles were minor, with it taking another two years for her profile to reach a global audience thanks to the release of HBO’s fantasy behemoth Game of Thrones, which catapulted the newcomer to international acclaim.

Clarke certainly wasn’t alone in her sudden rise to stardom, as Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, and Maisie Williams were just three actors who found great success off the back of the HBO show. Unlike Williams and Turner, Clarke was a little older when she arrived in Game of Thrones’ Westeros, making her transition into other Hollywood roles that much quicker.

All while she was still working on the series, Clarke also found the time to appear alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Genisys, as well as Solo: A Star Wars Story, two films that fired her into a pair of Hollywood’s most beloved franchises. Though both films failed to catch the imagination of fans, there was no doubt that they placed Clarke in a newfound position of prosperity.

Yet, not everything during this period of time was so successful for Clarke, with the actor bravely taking to Broadway in 2013 only for things to go badly wrong. If taking to the stage is a risk in itself, playing an iconic character is even braver, with Clarke adopting the character of Holly Golightly in a stage adaptation of the 1961 Blake Edwards movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, starring Audrey Hepburn.

Slated by critics, Clarke admitted to the BBC that her time in the role was a “catastrophic failure” before explaining, “It was just not ready. Was I ready? No, I was definitely not ready. I was a baby. I was so young and so inexperienced”.

Despite being 27 years of age when she appeared on stage, Clarke had only taken a small handful of professional roles before she was in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, with Dom Hemingway being her only major feature film and Game of Thrones her only significant TV credit. Indeed, without the necessary experience and with the added pressure after becoming a household name, it’s no wonder that Clarke flopped.

Ever since Game of Thrones came to an end in 2019, Clarke has failed to find proper consistency, only finding small slices of success in Marvel’s Secret Invasion mini-series and the charming festive flick Last Christmas.

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June 18 2024

Press: Emilia Clarke Signs on With French Spirits Producer Known for Meteorite-Infused Vodka

BOTTLERAIDERS – Over a decade after its debut in 2011, “Game of Thrones” has recaptured the public’s attention with the highly anticipated second season of “House of the Dragon.” Though Emilia Clarke — the actress who plays Daenerys Targaryen — does not appear in the new show, her star power has found other ways into the headlines.

On Wednesday, Pegasus Distillerie announced Clarke as its new Global Brand Ambassador. Founded in Meursault, France, the distillery was conceived by master distiller Maxime Girardin as a tribute to the historied Burgundy region. Though the exact details of the partnership haven’t been elaborated on, we’re sure to see Clarke sipping on all manner of French spirits in months to come.

“As an actress, I pour my all into my craft, and Pegasus lends similar care and attention to detail into every bottle they produce,” Clarke said in a news release. “They create spirits in small batches prioritizing the finest organic ingredients and hand-picked botanicals and citruses from the surrounding regions. To me, this is French luxury at its finest.”

All the brand’s products revolve around a loose astronomy theme. In addition to its flagship Pegasus Vodka, the distiller produces an Orion Gin made with locally harvested thyme, verbena, orange mint and monarda alongside an Eau d’Or Liqueur made with citrus and orange blossoms.

Commemorating its entry into the American market, Pegasus recently elevated its inspirations to meteoric heights. In April, the distiller unveiled a vodka aged inside Italian terracotta pots that contained a suspended meteorite at their center. Brimming with the “unrivaled taste and structure” of chondrite, a mineral unique to meteorites, the admittedly gimmicky liquor went on sale at $200.

“I am so pleased to welcome Emilia Clarke to the Pegasus family,” Girardin said. “In many ways, I see her as an égérie, a muse – her elegance, stamina, and joie de vivre embody Pegasus’ core values and speak to the brand’s mission of savoring life to the fullest whilst creating lasting memories.”

Clarke isn’t the first in the “Game of Thrones” family to throw their hat into the alcohol market. In 2023, co-star Jason Momoa teamed up with fashion designer Blake Halvorson to launch the sustainably-produced Meili Vodka. A few months later, actor James Cosmo — portrayer of the brooding Jeor Mormont — launched a blended scotch whisky.

At its peak, the show was a goldmine for co-branded alcohol releases. Dozens of wines, beers and spirits with creative names like “Three-Eyed Raven Dark Saison Ale” and “White Walker by Johnnie Walker” flooded liquor store shelves to the delight of die-hard fans. There were a few highlights; Clynelish Reserve Game of Thrones Edition was a shockingly tasty scotch worthy of the show’s prestige reputation.

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