Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones! We will keep talking and talking, and the discussions won’t end. Just what George R.R. Martin could feel about his song. Celebrity interviews reveal so much about the show they worked on that one wonders at the multiple levels actors operate upon. As the show becomes a distant truth in the past, and the cast moves on with other things in life, they could get more and more honest with their opinions about it. Emilia Clarke, our very own (yes, despite the ending) Daenerys Targaryen, opened up a little more about her feelings regarding Game of Thrones and the whirlwind final season while talking to The Times at the rehearsal space of her upcoming West End play, The Seagull.
The treatment that the mother of dragons received in the last season of Game of Thrones was something that irked a lot of fans. But what about Emilia? Did it bother her? “Yeah, I felt for her. I really felt for her. And yeah, was I annoyed that Jon Snow didn’t have to deal with something?… He got away with murder – literally;” she let out.
The hateful reaction that the show got from so many people around the globe, has been surprising for a lot of cast members. However, Emilia did take the audience into account when she took stock of it all. “When the show did end, it was like coming out of a bunker. Everything felt really strange. Then obviously to have the backlash it did… I knew how I felt when I first read it, and I tried at every turn, not to consider too much what other people might say, but I did always consider what the fans might think; because we did it for them, and they were the ones who made us successful, so… it’s just polite, isn’t it?” Clarke said.
The first six seasons were a treat for the fans, the build-up, the pace! But the last two seasons came under immense scrutiny, for having seven and six episodes respectively; as opposed to the usual count of ten. This was namely because a good number of people thought that the creators, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, hurried the story to its end; not giving ample time for the character-arcs to mature properly. Emilia echoed this opinion at least partly, “We could have spun it out for a little longer,” she said. The talk about the need for more dialogue in the final season led to her saying, “It was all about the set pieces. I think the sensational nature of the show was, possibly given a huge amount of airtime because that’s what makes sense.”
Furthermore, she reacted whether she was happy about the timing of the ending, “I mean, ‘happy’ is a funny word. It’s a strong word. Again, the show was so big. I was a small cog in a very, very, very big machine”. Being the subject of so much attention as part of Game of Thrones, she said, “Doing a show so many people had opinions about doesn’t serve your creativity at any level.”
Emilia Clarke will play Nina in Anya Reiss’ adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. The play opened at the Playhouse Theater, London on March 11, and it’ll go on till May 30, 2020. We wish her the best of luck for all that lies ahead. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section.
