For eight seasons of Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke brought the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen, to life. Through it all, she dealt with many difficulties in order to play the role. But there is one scene in season eight that stands out for the actress herself.
She describes preparing for the scene as being very difficult, especially since she felt a lot of pressure to get it right. However, that is not the only difficult thing Emilia Clarke has dealt with for her Game of Thrones role as Daenerys Targaryen. Find out what struggles she has gone through, including the hardest thing she learned for season eight of the HBO show.
What difficult things did Emilia Clarke deal with playing Daenerys Targaryen in ‘Game of Thrones’ before season 8?
Though the role of Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones is a great part in many ways for Emilia Clarke, that doesn’t mean it is without its fair share of difficulties. In a 2017 interview with the Mirror, Clarke remembers the time when she had to eat a fake horse heart during season 1 of the HBO show. The horse heart was, according to the actress, “made….out of solidified jam.”
Clarke recalls that “it tasted like bleach and raw pasta.” She had to eat about “28 hearts” while filming the scene. She describes it as “truly disgusting.”
What awkward things did Emilia Clarke deal with while playing Daenerys Targaryen in ‘Game of Thrones’?
Though playing Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones is a dream role for Emilia Clarke for many reasons, it does have its awkward moments. And these awkward moments involve horses in quite a different way than the above fake horse heart situation. While they may not be as disgusting, they are certainly awkward and probably difficult to deal with as well.
For The Hollywood Reporter in 2015, Clarke describes her “most embarrassing moment on set.” According to the actress, during the filming of season one, “day one of Game of Thrones…[she] was on a horse and had to maneuver said horse through a field with some trees, and then fell off the horse.” As she “was kind of clinging on for dear life”, she turned around and noticed crew members looking at her and “burst into tears.”
What was the hardest thing Emilia Clarke had to learn in season 8?
It wasn’t as disgusting as eating a fake horse’s heart or as awkward as falling off of a horse in front of everyone. Yet it was no less difficult than both of the aforementioned things. According to Emilia Clarke in a featurette on the Game of Thrones season 8 Bluray and DVD set, reported by Entertainment Tonight on their website, she had a difficult time learning Daenerys’ final speech to her armies.
She “spent a huge amount of time learning it.” She “knew [the] speech was going to be really important.” Though she “was in hell” learning the speech, it all paid off in the end. Clarke, “for the first time in [her] whole Game of Thrones career…got [it] word perfect.”
According to the actress, when she was saying the speech, “magic happened.” She “woke up in the morning, went on, and it all came out.” She believes that she “was probably fighting not what [she] was fighting, but what [her character Daenerys] was doing.”
