TIME – Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke thinks she has chemistry with the dragon she rides — even though in real life it’s a bright-green rig, a bit like a mechanical bull, that moves like the fictional, animated creature. Clarke explains their bond: “ You get a romantic couple onscreen, and chances are they’ve had sex… Half of that reason is that as an actor, you’re convincing yourself you’re in love with that person.”

Or that creature. Clarke’s bond with her beasts has helped Thrones soar — and helped her transcend jitters on her first major acting job. “I’m 5-ft.-nothing, I’m a little girl,” she says. “I’ve got the face of a chubby six-year-old. You walk onto set and you’re like, ‘Hey guys, I hope you like me! How can I help? What can I do? How can I be helpful?'” Perched on the dragon and empowered to “go crazy,” she says, her insecurities fall away: ” Hey, everybody! Now who’s shorty?! ”

Clarke spoke to TIME in January for our cover story on Game of Thrones, whose seventh season premieres July 16. Here’s an edited transcript of that conversation.

You joined the Game of Thrones cast fresh out of drama school — this is one of your very first jobs. When you walked onto the set and saw the enormous apparatus in place, what went through your mind?

Fear! I was just petrified! I genuinely was so scared — I was so fresh out, a year and a bit, so I’d done a couple of little things, but this was the first proper thing that I’d ever done. I was just thinking at any moment they would fire me, and at any moment they’d be like, Just joking, take the wig off.

The entire first-season arc begins with you living in fear and ends with you striding out of the fire, reborn. Do you feel as though, similarly, you’ve come into your own as an actress?

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