First, there was the experience of eating the horse heart itself. According to Clarke, the horse heart was made of a molded jam-like substance similar to what’s found in gummy bears. She was told the hearts would taste like gummy bears, but in fact they vaguely tasted like pasta and bleach. Altogether, Clarke estimate she bit into 28 gummy horse hearts. She vomited “quite often” during shooting (via The Mirror).
Filming was just the start of the ordeal. As Clarke explained on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in 2012 (via eonline), each time she bit into a heart it squirted fake blood that was “really, really sticky.” Eventually, she was covered head to toe in the substance. “And it kind of just stays sticky for quite a long time,” she explained. “There’s a moment when we were filming it that I disappeared and I was stuck to the toilet.”
Being cast as the Mother of Dragons was a game-changer for Clarke’s career, but it definitely had its downsides.
