After the conclusion of Game of Thrones' eighth season, the hit HBO series has come to an
end. And over those eight seasons, we've seen Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen,
quite literally transform into a seasoned star before our eyes. Here's just how much
she's changed.
Long before Clarke became the Breaker of Chains, she was living a very simple life in Oxfordshire,
a town about an hour's drive northwest of London. The star told Rolling Stone:
Yet and still, Clarke and her older brother left their Thomas Kinkade-esque English countryside
home to attend a private boarding school in Oxford. She explained their experience at
St. Edward's school simply:
During her time at the boarding school, she said she tried to fit in but never quite did.
Unlike her classmates who had dreams of becoming professionals, like lawyers, and were interested
in sports, Clarke was more interested in the arts.
While her mom worked in marketing, Clarke's father was a sound designer and worked on
several plays in the theatre district of London.
Even before Clarke started attending school, her transformation as an actor was already
taking shape. When she was just 3 years old, she accompanied her dad to work and became,
quote, "entranced by backstage life." And when Clarke's father took her to see Show
Boat for the first time, her infatuation with acting only grew. As she wrote in a personal
essay published in the New Yorker:
From then on, acting was Clarke's main focus.
At 5 years old, she got her first lead role in a school play. Still, Clarke's dad wasn't
on board with her acting ambitions. Said Clarke of her dad's opinion on actors: "He knew plenty
of actors and, to his mind, they were habitually neurotic and unemployed."
Of her younger self, Clarke wrote that she was, quote, "hardly a prodigy." She forgot
her lines in that very first play and ended up staring into the audience. However, despite
that failure, she found a strength that wound up serving her well over the years:
Of course, Clarke persisted. She would go on to star in several school productions and
even auditioned for the West End production of The Goodbye Girl, though she didn't get
the part.
Once Clarke graduated, she applied to several prestigious art schools, but each rejected
her application. The actress revealed that she eventually reapplied and was finally accepted
into the Drama Centre London. Though, she admitted she only just barely made it — and
only because a student who had been accepted dropped out of attending due to a broken leg.
And even after that, Clarke recalled that she was, quote, "never the favorite."
It's hard to imagine Clarke not excelling in drama school, but her Rolling Stone profile
explained that Clarke was often cast to play, quote, "old ladies and bedraggled prostitutes."
In 2010, Clarke, despite never having landed a major leading role, auditioned for the role
of Daenerys Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones. She explained that the odds were stacked against
her from the start in her essay for The New Yorker:
The first lines she had to learn were from the scene in Season 1, Episode 4 in which
Daenerys' brother attempts to hit her. The other lines came from the Season 1 finale,
"Fire and Blood," where Daenerys walks into a fire and — spoiler! — comes out unharmed.
After reading for the series in London, she was called to Los Angeles, California to read
once more — this time before the series' creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss as
well as HBO execs. There, she was reminded of all of the women with whom she attended
drama school. She recalled:
Nevertheless, the brunette Brit got the part.
Although you'd never know it, Clarke swears she's terrible at doing her own hair. When
speaking to Harper's Bazaar, Clarke admitted she's never had the skill for it — and she
has come to accept that she probably never will.
But that's not all. When she's tried to curl her hair, the results have been, well, let's
say a combination of not so hot and extremely hot:
Fortunately, Clarke's inability to manage her hair was rarely a problem during Game
of Thrones' eight season run. The HBO series is based on the books by George R.R. Martin
and, in those books, Daenerys is described as having long, silvery hair. This would mean
Clarke — a natural brunette — would not only have to don a wig, but a bald cap too.
Game of Thrones hair designer Kevin Alexander explained to Time that a bald cap had to be
used because a regular mesh cap would show Clarkes' brunette roots.
Alexander revealed that deciding on the perfect color for Daenerys' hair was difficult because,
quote, "everyone had an opinion." It took at least two months and six or seven wigs
to settle on the right shade of blonde. Now, Clarke has a total of four wigs, which have
even been named: Dany, Diva, Candice, and Blondie.
Clarke would stay committed to her natural dark hair until the final season of Game of
Thrones. She explained her thought process to Vanity Fair, saying,
In a video interview for Rolling Stone's "The First Time" series, Clarke recalled the first
time she ever looked up her name on a search engine.
"The first time I googled myself was pretty much the last time I googled myself because
I don't do it anymore.”
"People have a lot of opinions on my butt."
So, what's up with the butt obsession? Clarke didn't reveal what exactly people were saying
about her backside on the internet, but whatever it was, it was clearly enough to scare her
out of Googling herself for good. Be nice, Internet.
Although Clarke has a body double, she made the decision to star in her own nude scenes.
She told Entertainment Weekly in 2016:
Still, Clarke said she wanted to remind everyone that those early nude scenes from those first
episodes were a long time ago — when she goes down that path now, she's able to take
charge and ensure there's a closed set:
That said, her scenes have not been without criticism — and she's not taking that criticism,
uh, lying down, so to speak.
The actress told Elle:
In fact, the star was a fan of the 2017 love scene in which Daenerys takes more control
of her sexuality:
We didn't know it at the time, but over the years that Game of Thrones has shown Daenerys
Targaryen growing into the role of the dragon queen, Clarke herself was going through a
major transformation herself. In an article for The New Yorker, the star revealed that
she had a brain aneurysm when she was just 24 years old. After having a "minimally invasive"
surgery to seal the aneurysm, Clarke began her recovery in the hospital. There, she experienced
aphasia, a disorder resulting from brain damage that affects one's ability to speak. This
terrifying condition lasted for a week.
While in the hospital, Clarke was also informed by doctors that she had another, smaller aneurysm
on the opposite side of her brain. The plan, at that time, was to keep an eye on it. When
doctors found it had gotten larger, they performed a proactive surgery, but during the surgery
she suffered a "massive bleed," which led to her having major brain surgery. Recovering
was neither physically nor emotionally easy for the star. And it's nothing short of remarkable
that she was able to do so while filming Game of Thrones and completing interviews.
When interviewed for Rolling Stone's "The First Time" series in 2017, Clarke was asked
when she first realized she was famous. In response, she relayed an anecdote about when
her older brother first discovered she was famous:
"When the Simpsons did the Game of Thrones opener, and there was my character. That was
pretty cool."
Rolling Stone contributing editor Alex Morris said the star has changed since he met her
in 2013, when she was pretty much unrecognizable without the blonde wig:
When he met back with the star in 2017, though, he wrote that it'd become obvious that she'd
changed. She'd become more "Khaleesi-esque," according to Morris:
Quite a transformation for someone to make by their 30th birthday, that's for sure.
Ahead of the 2019 Oscars, Emilia Clarke debuted her new hair. She captioned her Instagram
photo: "Blondes have more fun eh?! Well I will see about that." The star's hair was
cropped short and back to a stunning brunette shade.
Before going back to her brunette locks, though, the star had been rocking her bleached blonde
hair that, over time, was getting shorter and shorter. She told Harper's Bazaar in September
2018 that she had to keep cutting it because her hair was practically "dying" from all
of the bleach. She explained that she was actually attempting to grow out her blonde
hair because of the damaging effects of bleach and because she had started to, quote, "miss
having nice hair." She teased the idea of getting a pixie cut, but revealed that she
probably wouldn't.
When Clarke showed up on the red carpet in February 2019, she managed to pull off a familiar
shade, but in a whole new way. No, it wasn't a pixie, but we can't help but wonder: will
she attempt that look in the future? Hmm…
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more List videos about your favorite
stuff are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.