Game of Thrones was everybody’s most loved show for nearly a decade, and then suddenly it wasn’t. Season 8 of the show was poorly received, and there was overwhelming criticism from the fandom. The show’s rankings even dropped. Now, months later, we’re still talking about it, the fans and the stars of the show, both. In a recent interview, Emilia Clarke revealed her heartbreak about the backlash. Read on!
We recently reported that Emilia Clarke, who played the role of Daenerys Targaryen on the show commented that she felt “profoundly flattered” about the backlash that the show’s final season received. Now, in a new interview with The Daily Telegraph, Emilia revealed her true feelings about the fan backlash to the final season:
“I was too busy focusing on my own reactions to really pay too much attention, if any at all. The only thing I felt truthfully sad about was that [executive producers] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] are my really good friends, and so it’s for them that I feel heartbreak, because it’s theirs.”
She talked a bit more about the reactions to the finale:
“Everyone is going to have their own opinion and they’re fully entitled to them. It’s art and it’s to be dissected and taken on in whatever individual way you wish.
And if you’re sad that the show is done and you’re sad because you enjoyed watching it, then that’s sad. It sucks this wasn’t the perfect ending that people were hoping for, but I truly believe we would never have made everyone happy.”
She was asked about what she did about the backlash regarding how Daenerys’ story arc ended, to which she said:
“I don’t Google myself; I don’t read reviews. Which makes it sounds like I’ve got my sh*t together, but it doesn’t help me to hear someone say, “You’re great,” and it doesn’t help me to hear someone say, “Hey, you piece of sh*t, why are you so fat?” Those are the extremes you deal with when you read about yourself on the internet, so I simply don’t.
I don’t feel pressure to follow up the show because it’s unfollowable. I’m not going to go off and be like “Oh well, dragons are my thing…” I can’t be a crazy woman demanding dragons forever! “These aren’t as good as my last dragons!” Can you imagine? [Laughs.]”
She was also asked if she felt a sense of freedom after finishing up with Thrones:
“Absolutely. It really was the greatest moment of my life, but there is an absolute freedom that Thrones has given me — a gift-wrapped present in a little bow saying, “You’re now financially secure enough to not have to panic, so what do you want to do?”
That kind of freedom is wonderful. I could never see it during the time I was filming, because I was too close to it.”
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