Emilia Clarke spent almost a decade of her life on the set of Game of Thrones, and more than the global fame she received while portraying Daenerys Targaryen, she also witnessed her own growth. She was 24 when the first season aired on HBO in 2011, and she went on to play the Mother of Dragons until 2019.
Within that span of time, she experienced a lot of personal things that tremendously affected her life and even her career. All of these things took place while working on the series, and the actress revealed it sometimes made her feel upset.
Emilia Clarke on Why She’s Sometimes Lonely on the Set of Game of Thrones
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, 38-year-old Emilia Clarke expressed her honest feelings about juggling a very massive television role while dealing with her own personal crises. During that period, she lost her father, then she suffered aneurysms in 2011 and 2013.
All of that happening while ‘Game of Thrones’ was happening, it sometimes could be very confusing. There were times when I was really sad on that show, just simply because I was a young woman in her 20s.
Indeed, she was at the beginning of a promising career and yet she was already experiencing a life-threatening illness. On top of that, her father, who encouraged her to pursue her passion for acting, died of cancer.
All of these hardships only fortified Clarke’s will to persevere and move forward. She was able to put things in perspective and realized that the character she was portraying on television could be a reflection of her own progress. “It’s not a shabby role to be associated with,” she said about Daenerys Targaryen. The English star hopes to be associated with the fictional figure “with a certain caliber of work.”
Despite the demands of her role, Clarke holds Daenerys close to her heart. Evidently, there’s no other role in her career that would come close to the magnitude of the fierce and fearless Mother of Dragons.
Emilia Clarke Commented on Daenerys’ Controversial Arc in Season 8
Five years have passed since Game of Thrones wrapped up, and many fans are still upset about the anticlimactic ending. But, Clarke has shared her own thoughts about the choices that Daenerys made towards the final season and why she firmly stands by them.
Speaking with The New Yorker, the Secret Invasion star admitted that upon reading the script, she only did what an actor would do. “You have to agree with your character. If you don’t agree with your character, then you shouldn’t take the job,” Clarke said.
She found herself sitting there and thinking how she could make good of what was already written on paper. Clarke believed in the writers of the show, the ones who shaped her character for television, and as an actress, it was her job to interpret it and bring it to life.
Game of Thrones is currently available to watch on HBO.
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