EMILIA CLARKE
Clarke is branching out into varied new roles.
As Games of Thrones commences its last season, Clarke reflects on her time on the show, and what the future holds.
Charming and down-to-earth, Emilia Clarke is best known for her iconic role on Game of Thones. But now that the final season is going to air, will a move towards more conventional projects be her biggest challenge yet? She chats to MiNDFOOD about her family, saying goodbye to the show that has defined her career, and what the future holds.
Meeting Emilia Clarke, the actor seems sunny and charming. You would never guess, at first glance, that her life has been touched by tragedy.
“I’ve suffered personal loss myself,” she says, referencing the death of her father, Peter, in 2016, “and when something like that happens it makes you even more empathetic to others. It makes you realise that your desire inside to do something profound and to use your influence isn’t actually a desire at all – it’s a need.”
The loss of her father to cancer, although painful, has certainly served to centre the actor in the midst of the global fanfare surrounding Game of Thrones. And there’s a certain sense of irony to this – as, is often the case, her parents were both strongly protective of their daughter when she decided to pursue a career in the film industry, having come through the ranks at the Drama Centre London.
“My father always wanted me to understand the realities of the business,” she says. “He worked as a sound engineer in the theatre, and when I was young my parents would take me to various shows – I think in the hope that I would eventually grow bored and start thinking about taking my career in a different direction.
“They knew very well that acting is about facing up to a lot of rejection and disappointment, but that wasn’t on my mind – instead, I just loved the beauty of the empty stage and everything associated with it. I knew I so wanted to be a part of that, and I couldn’t think about much else … I still can’t.”
Undoubtedly it is this passion for her work that has led to her success on Game of Thrones, and why she is so excited for the eighth and final season of the show – a television adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire – to air this year. It is a bittersweet ‘end of the road’ for Emilia Clarke, for her character Daenerys Targaryen, and for a cult of fantasy fans right across the globe.
But every ending is the perfect opportunity for a new beginning – a chance for the British actor to spread her wings and take on new roles. Not that Clarke hasn’t been involved in other projects during the eight-year period that Game of Thrones has been on the air, of course. In fact, she has been involved in some relatively highprofile films. Still, Clarke’s turn as Daenerys – the ‘Mother of Dragons’ – is so iconic that her other work tends to fade into the background.
In Terminator Genisys, she is a perfectly credible re-imagination of Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor – and yet there is something tangibly unnecessary about the reboot that detracts from her performance. Then, in Solo: A Star Wars Story, only the recruitment of Ron Howard spared those involved considerable ignominy after financiers ignored the public’s diminishing appetite for prequels. Even by Clarke’s own admission, the characterisation of her role of Qi’ra was poor and the outcome average. Perhaps you could even draw in the perfectly good intentions of Me Before
“The smallest of gestures can have the most dramatic effect.” EMILIA CLARKE
You, where Clarke and her co-star Sam Claflin delicately construct a touching portrayal of disability and heartbreak.
You sense the ‘Mother of Dragons’, even earning a reported £2 million per episode, has driven this chariot of ice and fire just about as far as it can go. It’s time for something new.
While Clarke’s current partner, Charlie McDowell – the American film director and writer probably best known for his movie The One I Love – is certain to keep a steady hand in proceedings, Clarke will perhaps never get a better chance to draw a line and start again. She has two films in pre-production – Above Suspicion, a true story that combines FBI espionage and romance; and Last Christmas, a light-hearted, seasonal romance set in London – and it seems that there’s never been a better time for Clarke to take stock of where she is and find her new direction. The freeing of the creative shackles also affords Clarke the option of exploring philanthropic projects. As early as 2011, when Game of Thrones was enjoying its first screening, the then25-year-old became an ambassador for The SMA Trust – an organisation that helps those with spinal muscular atrophy. Meanwhile, just last year she became a representative for the Royal College of Nursing in the UK.
“I’ve put my name to other projects, but it always comes down to human welfare, for me. I’ve always firmly believed that we need to help those less fortunate, because sometimes the smallest of gestures can have the most dramatic effect.”
But before she can stride out on her own with new projects and philanthropy, there’s the last season of Game of Thrones to get through. Clarke admits to having mixed feelings about saying goodbye.
“I guess I’m dealing with a real contrast of emotions,” she says. “It’s a really poignant period for myself and the cast, and a very thrilling one at the same time.” Of course, Clarke realises that it’s not just the cast that’s invested in the show’s final season. The fans have high hopes too.
“I think, this season, the expectation has been more so than normal,” she says thoughtfully. “The wait has seemed intolerable and it has been the same for all of us; but you can be sure it will be worth the wait. You’d better believe it.”
The end of the last season left viewers with dozens of questions as to the fate of their favourite characters – but Clarke isn’t giving away any hints. “I’d never preempt anything I’m in,” she exclaims. “Where’s the fun in that? Firstly, I want the audience to enjoy the reveal just as much as we do, and secondly, so much changes along the way that I could find myself giving out false information!”
Series co-creator and showrunner David Benioff seconds the notion that Game of Thrones has ultimately been a work in progress from Day One. “Right from the beginning we have wanted to tell what we thought was a 70-hour long movie,” he says. “It turns out the movie is actually now going to be 73 hours long, but we are most definitely coming to the end.
“It’s been a long time – and it would have been a huge blow to lose any of the core members of the cast along the way; so with that in mind, we are elated to have kept everyone. We now get to finish the show the way we always wanted to, and Emilia has always been central to that.”
Indeed, Clarke’s character Daenerys (known to fans as Dany) has been pivotal to the show’s plot, and she’s certainly a fan favourite. So how does Clarke feel about letting her go?
“Will I miss her?” Clarke ponders. “Most certainly. Yet, I feel everything, over time, runs its course, and we are probably where we are for a reason.
“Dany has so many interesting elements to her, and perhaps we’ve all been a part of this story for long enough now. I think that one of the most profound messages I will take forward with me is that nothing remains the same forever,” she says. “And by that I mean, what makes Dany truly stand out is how she has transformed from a girl with very low self-esteem into a very confident and empowered woman.
“Dany figures out she has the strength and qualities of leadership which are equal to that of any man,” she continues, “and yet she can wrap these in the style and sensitivity that she has as a woman, and that is a truly wonderful gift – that innate understanding of herself which allows her to become this very commanding and powerful being.”
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY
In this Star Wars spinoff, Clarke plays Qi’ra – Han Solo’s childhood best friend and first love. But there’s a lot more to her than meets the eye. Solo director Ron Howard has described Qi’ra as morally questionable; “a much different sort of a character” from Daenerys.
ME BEFORE YOU
Adapted from a bestselling novel by author Jojo Moyes, this romantic drama sees Clarke star as Louisa – a cheerful and quirky woman hired as a companion to a young man (Sam Claflin) who became paralysed in an accident.
TERMINATOR GENISYS
Clarke plays the legendary role of Sarah Connor in this reboot of the Terminator movie franchise. In this fifth film, Sarah is re-imagined as a young, headstrong heroine determined to take control of her own destiny.