Seven years after the Game of Thrones finale, Emilia Clarke has given a deeply personal and reflective look back at her decade-long journey playing Daenerys Targaryen. In a new podcast with Elizabeth Day, the actress described the show as an experience that continues to evolve in her mind with time and distance. Clarke explained that her perspective on the series keeps changing every year.
“It changes all the time, changes every year. There’s distance there. So I can see it fully for all that it is,” she said.
Quick read:
- Emilia Clarke reflects on her journey as Daenerys
- She says she and her co-stars grew up on the set
- She acknowledges it as the biggest part of her youth
How she grew up
She admitted that even a year after filming wrapped, the scale of the phenomenon was too overwhelming to fully process. Clarke compared the entire Game of Thrones era to high school, calling it a defining chapter of her youth that lasted ten years of her life. The relationships formed on set felt like family, complete with highs and lows.
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“Those friendships and relationships that you have become like family… there was fighting and there was difficult times and there was wonderful times, but there was life. People got married, people got divorced, people got kids.”
Difference between doing vs watching
Looking back, Clarke said the true enormity of the show lies in the lived experience, both what she felt while filming and the intense reactions she received from fans. She revealed that being recognized in public used to trigger panic attacks, especially in the final years of the series. Yet with time, her feelings have softened into appreciation.
“That was lightning in a bottle. That was my youth. That was like extraordinary, this extraordinary thing. And I was a part of it.”
Clarke noted that the personal experience of making the show and its massive cultural impact still feel far apart in her mind.
“The lived experience versus looking back on what you felt when you were filming it and what you see it to have been from a cultural point of view… I think it’s going to take me a few more years to try and marry them up.”
Seven years on, Emilia Clarke’s honest reflection shows both the pressure and the lasting impact of being part of one of television’s biggest cultural moments.
