Emilia Clarke’s ‘brain and soul’ needed Game of Thrones break

Emilia Clarke is preparing to make her big theatre debut this month following the end of Game of Thrones and admits her ‘brain and soul’ needed a break from the hit show. 

The 33-year-old actress played Daenerys Targaryen in HBO’s fantasy series for eight seasons and said farewell to the iconic character when GoT ended last summer. 

With a new horizon of opportunities, Emilia has set her sights on theatre and will star in West End play The Seagull later in March. 

And it couldn’t have come at a better time as the actress was more than ready to rest the Mother of Dragons. 

‘It’s been really nice. I think my brain and my soul probably needed a bit of a break from it because it just kept going and getting bigger, and bigger and bigger,’ Emilia told Zoe Ball on her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show on Tuesday. 

‘I could never quite see what it was because we were in it. I always used to say that it was like we all just got in this bunker for 10 years and then came out and was like, “Where are we? What’s happened?” 

‘So it feels very freeing to be free literally from the show. That being said, Daenerys is very much a part of me.’ 

Emilia went on to recall recent advice from a producer, who said that ‘an actor is the character’s best lawyer’, which resonated with the actress as she would constantly defend Daenerys’ controversial character development in later episodes. 

‘For everything that happened, I was literally like, “But here’s why, this is what my girl [means]…”,’ she admitted. 

Although she’s enjoying the new acting gigs, Emilia is still holding onto a piece of Daenerys thanks to a very thoughtful present from her brother. 

‘I was such a frustratingly good girl, I didn’t [take any props from set]. I abided by the rules,’ Emilia revealed. 

‘However – I’m just going to say this live on radio – my amazing brother, who worked on the show as well, this Christmas gave me the best Christmas present ever. In one of the battle scenes I think, he got one of the Targaryen flags, so I opened it this Christmas and just burst into tears.’ 

Her bro’s definitely earned brownie points there. 

She added: ‘So that’s going to take pride of place. I kept asking the Thrones lot, please can I have a wig? A coat?’ 

The Seagull will see Emilia tread the boards at London’s Playhouse Theatre alongside Tamzin Outhwaite, Sophie Wu, Robert Glennister and other Game of Thrones alumni including Indira Varma, Tom Rhys and Daniel Monks.