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Beyond the complex plot, detailed costuming and political intrigue, GQ owns up to why HBO’s Game Of Thrones really is a must-see: Emilia Clarke
GQ was sitting with Emilia Clarke – the breakout star of HBO’s award-winning fantasy series Game Of Thrones – and had decided, when faced with the 25-year-old Londoner who ended the first series as a dragon-toting warrior badass, the show’s de facto lead and in the affections of all who’d seen it, to nerd-quiz her on the programme.
Even by the standards of other HBO shows such as Band Of Brothers or The Wire, the forthcoming fantasy series, Game Of Thrones is a sprawling mass of interweaving characters and intersecting plot lines. Benefiting from a generous budget and a starry cast (which includes Sean Bean, Mark Addy and Jason Momoa), it’s a dizzying, bloody history of feuds, affairs and intrigue.
Game Of Thrones is so intricate, in fact, that some characters are only glimpsed for a few minutes, at least in the opening pair of episodes we saw before heading off for a series of round-table interviews.
She was as charming and cheerful as you can imagine, meeting with us and fielding questions about her work. Topics range from various aspects of her performance, her familiarity with the novels (on the face of it, she’s probably read them more times than I have!), and a whole lot more. It was a pleasure speaking with her!
Q: What it’s like filming in Dubrovnik?
“It’s absolutely amazing! I can’t believe we could find a place that genuinely come from A Song of Ice and Fire. I love having days off there, too. It was really good.”
‘Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke On Daenerys’ ‘Blueprint’ For The Future
Her role as the Mother of Dragons has made her famous, but Emilia Clarke sounds relieved that she hasn’t really had to deal with the pitfalls of fame since the debut of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” (Sundays at 9 p.m. ET).
“I’m really oblivious to it, because I look so different,” said Clarke, whose natural brunette hair color makes her look quite dissimilar from her character, the white-haired, royal exile Daenerys Targaryen. Still, people do occasionally recognize her: A woman in a department store in Los Angeles was too stunned to get on the elevator when she saw that Clarke was in it. “Khaleesi?” the fan asked.
It was May of 2010, and House Gatewatch was in need. We’d been stewing for over a month with the news that the role of Daenerys Targaryen was being recast. We’d heard nothing but conflicting reports, had experienced the Elena Satine Twitter debacle, and had seen more “butterface” comments regarding Dany’s former actress than might be considered polite in any neanderthal-run society. To say moods were foul would be putting it lightly.
Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Queen of Dragons, true heir to the Seven Kingdoms and a heroine to millions of fans of the A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels. It would be a big part for any actress, but for Emilia Clarke it was also her first major role: a baptism of fire in more ways than one.
In the first season, Daenerys saw her brother Viserys (Harry Lloyd) crowned in molten gold, and her husband Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) die not once but twice. Then, in the final scene of the series, she walked naked from her husband’s burning funeral pyre, three newly hatched dragons snapping at the air around her.
