Even with all the publicity she's received since Game of Thrones premiered, there are
still plenty of fun facts and discoveries to be made about the talented actress Emilia
Clarke, a singular talent who still has an extraordinary future ahead of her. Here are
just a few of the untold truths about Clarke's life and career.
Thanks to her starring role in HBO's massive hit series Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke
has become one of the most recognizable faces on television.
Beyond Game of Thrones, Clarke has appeared in other high-profile roles too, including
star turns in films like Solo: A Star Wars Story and Terminator Genisys. So far, her
most significant role has certainly been Daenerys Targaryen, otherwise known as Khaleesi and
the Mother of Dragons.
Game of Thrones is a notoriously fleshy adventure series, and Emilia Clarke racked up quite
a few nude scenes during the show's first season. In 2017, she told Actors on Actors:
"The naked stuff is always difficult… it's always kind of hard because it's just… uncomfortable
for many, many, many, many reasons."
As she told Entertainment Weekly, her life took a turn for the incredibly awkward when
she wound up watching one of those nude scenes with her family. Whoops.
"I ended up sitting them down and being like, ‘Let’s watch it’ — and then instantly
regretting it. … My dad was like, ‘Again?'”
Graham Norton was clearly tickled by that anecdote:
"Did you watch it with your parents?"
"Yes."
Clarke also had no qualms about appearing nude on stage in a production of Breakfast
at Tiffany's, which premiered at New York's Cort Theater in 2013. Naturally, a big name
like Clarke drew huge crowds, including some exceedingly creepy patrons who took photos
of Clarke during her nude scenes.
Unfortunately, the show was slammed by critics and closed after only 38 performances. It's
too bad her first theatrical outing was tarnished by weird audience members and bad reviews...
but at least now she has a Broadway credit to her name, and there will likely be many
more in the future.
After her breakout role on Game of Thrones, Clarke was inundated with film offers, with
one big franchise standing out from the pack. Reportedly, Clarke was offered the lead role
of Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey, the first in a trilogy of theoretically sexy
films based on the bestselling series of trashy novels.
Ultimately, Clarke decided to turn down the role, which famously went to Dakota Johnson,
who starred alongside British actor Jamie Dornan for the entirety of the series.
In a 2015 interview with Kiss FM, Clarke played a little bit coy about the decision:
"Is it true that you turned down the Fifty Shades of Grey role?"
"Ooooh… well! Uhhhhh… ay-juh… Yeah."
Clarke has explained why she made that decision. Fifty Shades could have certainly given her
more exposure as an actor, but it wasn't the kind of exposure she wanted. After her history
of nude scenes on stage and screen, Clarke didn't want to be labeled as any specific
type of performer. She says she really doesn't regret turning down the role. Considering
the bleak critical reception the trilogy received, it seems like she definitely made the right
choice.
Add Emilia Clarke's name to the long, illustrious list of tattooed celebrities. Clarke's first
tattoo was dedicated to her role in Me Before You, where she played a big-hearted caretaker
who has a tattoo of a bumblebee. Well, guess what Clarke got inked on her pinky finger?
"I got a bumblebee."
"And what is that?"
"It's so badass. Badass girl, you got a tattoo, what'd you get? A bumblebee. There's still
plaster on it."
Naturally, Clarke needed to get a Game of Thrones tattoo, too. And guess what she went
for this time?
"I was in a tattoo parlor the other day trying to make an appointment, and they said they
were full because you're coming in to get a tattoo of a dragon?"
"Yes."
Maybe they aren't the biggest dragons we've ever seen. But they are dragons.
Clarke was seemingly born to be an actor, considering that her father worked in the
theater community in London as a sound engineer. The first show Clarke ever saw as a child
was Showboat. She was enthralled, falling in love with the theater right then and there.
However, her dad wasn't quite so enthusiastic about her goals. In fact, he took her to a
real audition in the West End in the hopes of scaring her away from the profession. She
bombed completely, showing up unprepared with just a folk song to her name.
As she continued pursuing her dream, Clarke said her dad's only advice was to be aware
of the many pitfalls of the profession. He reminded her that actors rarely make a living
off their passion and even told her that the only line she ever needed to memorize was:
"Do you want fries with that?"
We're sure her dad had the best intentions, but fans around the world must be glad Clarke
kept at it. She eventually attended the prestigious Drama Centre London, and the rest is history.
Well, more or less...
After graduating, Clarke's acting career got off to a rather quiet start. She had a few
bit parts in commercials and made appearances on British shows like Doctors and even a dreadful
SyFy original movie called Triassic Attack. In 2010, Screen International named her one
of the "UK Stars of Tomorrow," and they were right on the money: She scored her audition
for Game of Thrones shortly after that career milestone.
But Clarke still had to make sure her bills were paid. At the time she landed the role,
Clarke was reportedly working six jobs, including a gig as a real estate agent.
Due to the importance of that particular audition, Clarke called in sick to her catering job
that day. Obviously her efforts were well worth it, as she booked the role of a lifetime
and quickly became one of the most celebrated young actresses in the industry. Take that,
catering job.
The fact that Clarke even got to audition for Game of Thrones is rather extraordinary,
considering the pilot had already been shot by the time she got that fateful call from
her agent. However, the original pilot was a dismal failure. Before you think that's
too harsh a description, it comes from series creators David Benioff Benioff and D.B. Weiss,
who blamed unclear storytelling, melodramatic death scenes, and bad casting. They eventually
reshot about ninety percent of the episode.
The creators have politely declined to discuss why they recast the role of Daenerys, which
was originally played by actress Tamzin Merchant, best known for roles like Catherine Howard
on The Tudors. The original pilot never saw the light of day, and now it's impossible
to imagine anyone but Clarke playing Daenerys.
Over the course of seven seasons, she's been nominated for several Emmy awards and has
made the role completely her own. She'll probably be referred to as the "Mother of Dragons"
for many more years to come.
Emilia Clarke is the first to admit that her Game of Thrones audition took an odd turn.
Prior to her audition, she'd spent hours scouring Wikipedia to learn more about A Song of Ice
and Fire, George R. R. Martin's book series on which Game of Thrones is based.
As she told Jimmy Fallon, showrunners Benioff and Weiss asked Clarke about her other talents
after she read a few lines of dialogue. Then they suggested that she do a dance.
"I just… I don't know how to do it, but I did the Funky Chicken. And it kind of morphed
into The Robot… And I sort of heard, I heard some laughter going on…"
Afterwards, she evidently didn't feel particularly hopeful about the audition. Of course, she
was cast in the role shortly afterwards.
Clarke may have gotten giggles out of the showrunners, but they still got a taste of
the remarkable intensity she uses to bring Daenerys to life. In fact, it sounds like
they were completely sold on her right out of the gate.
"Our certitude was as religious as Daenerys's: She was the one."
Until recently, Emilia Clarke kept one period of her life completely private. In a moving
personal essay published in The New Yorker in March 2019, she revealed that she'd survived
a very serious health scare. During a session with her personal trainer, Clarke suffered
a debilitating brain aneurysm. Only a third of patients survive what she endured.
After a minimally invasive form of brain surgery, Clarke learned that she had a smaller aneurysm
elsewhere in her brain that could also pop. Shaky, exhausted, and partially reliant on
morphine, Clarke bravely went back to work and continued filming Game of Thrones. Then,
in 2013, the second aneurysm burst, requiring a much more invasive surgery. An incredibly
difficult road to recovery lay ahead.
"The second one, a bit of my brain actually died. If a part of your brain doesn't get
blood to it for a minute, it will just no longer work."
In her essay, Clarke writes that she's now, quote, "one hundred percent" recovered. She
also started a charity called SameYou to help patients suffering from strokes and other
brain injuries. As a professional actress and public figure, Clarke's brave decision
to speak out about the most difficult period of her life speaks volumes about her character.
Despite her personal successes, 2016 was a difficult year for the young star. In the
aftermath of Brexit, an issue near and dear to Clarke's heart as a Londoner, she lost
a family member shortly after the vote, and both situations set her adrift personally
and professionally.
Clarke's father had suffered from cancer for years and succumbed to his illness in July
2016. Sadly, she couldn't be there during his final days. While his health declined,
she was filming a movie in Kentucky. After cutting the filming short, she finally arrived
in London only to learn that he'd already passed away. This was absolutely devastating
to Clarke, especially since she was due back on the Game of Thrones set in three weeks.
She told Rolling Stone that the experience only made her stronger. Since her father's
death, she's praised the nurses who cared for him, vowing that she'd always support
England's medical community from that day forward. In 2018, she became an ambassador
for London's Royal College of Nursing, joining in the school's ongoing campaign for financial
support from the British government and the NHS.
When a cast is sworn to secrecy while filming one of the world's hottest shows in far-flung
locations, it's only natural that they'd become close friends. Clarke is no exception. Daenerys
started off the series with a wedding to Khal Drogo, played by future Aquaman star Jason
Momoa. The two became fast friends while they were quartered in Morocco together.
Though Drogo was dead by the end of the first season, Momoa and Clarke have remained very
close. In fact, they refer to each other as, quote, "the moon of my life" and "my sun and
stars." To this day, Momoa seems like one of Clarke's biggest supporters, and fans are
always delighted by their reunions, which have taken place at major award shows and
Comic-Con, where Momoa made a surprise appearance that did indeed succeed in startling Clarke.
Now, as the show ends, Clarke will almost certainly be closing out her character's storyline
alongside Kit Harington. He of course plays the brooding Jon Snow, the presumed bastard
who is actually Daenerys' royal nephew and her new lover. Yup. Luckily, she and Harington
seem to be having a great time together on set, especially when they're joking around
about their love scenes.
"I mean I think 'ughhh' might be the reaction."
"I like looking at her and going 'Ugh, god, I'm sorry.'"
The pair have been friends since the first season, and each of them is excited to finish
the series with a friend at their side.
As Daenerys, Clarke is no stranger to traveling through foreign lands, often on foot. At the
beginning of Game of Thrones, she begins a long journey from the native land of the Dothraki
warrior clan, located across the Narrow Sea from Westeros, in order to finally take back
the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms.
She gets turned around several times over, ending up in Slaver's Bay and subsequently
taking control of several slave cities before finally ending up in Westeros in the seventh
season. Thanks to this storyline, Clarke herself has gotten to travel to several exotic filming
locations over the years, including Croatia, Ireland, Iceland, and Spain.
Like her character, Clarke became a world traveler at a young age. At just 16, she embarked
on a backpacking trip through Northern India, continuing into Tibet, having made the journey
to scatter the ashes of her grandmother, who was born in Delhi. A few years later, she
made a similar journey through Southeast Asia as well as South Africa, proving that she's
just as adventurous as her signature character. No surprise there!
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