Note: This article is full of spoilers for season 8, episode 4 of Game of Thrones, ‘The Last of the Starks’.
Game of Thrones actress Nathalie Emmanuel has said that the outcry following her character’s death has highlighted a lack of diversity on the show.
Nathalie portrayed Missandei in HBO’s adaptation of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series – introduced back in season three and eventually meeting her grisly end in season eight.
However, since her decapitation at the hands of The Mountain, Nathalie recognises the online backlash as a conversation-starter about race and representation in the TV industry.
Home Box Office (HBO)
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the actress reflected on Missandei’s demise: “When I read the script for it, I was like, not surprised that she died because I had been expecting it for a really long time. So many people die in that show and I guess I didn’t think I was any safer than anybody else in that respect.
“But I am fully aware and engaged in the conversation of representation, because I am the only woman of colour in this show that has been on there regularly for many seasons and Jacob [Anderson, who plays Grey Worm] and I are fully engaged in that conversation constantly and throughout our whole time together.
“I understand people’s outrage,” she continued. “I understand people’s heartbreak, because this is the conversation around representation.
“It’s safe to say that Game of Thrones has been under criticism for their lack of representation and the truth of it is that Missandei and Grey Worm have represented so many people because there’s only two of them.”
HBO
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She added: “This is a conversation going forward about when you’re casting shows like this – that you are inclusive in your casting. I knew what it meant that she was there, I know what it means that I am existing in the spaces that I am, because when I was growing up, I didn’t see people like me.
“It wasn’t until she was gone that I really felt what it really, truly meant until I saw the outcry and outpouring of love and outrage and upset about it, I really understood what it meant.”
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