Emilia Clarke covers the new issue of Glamour – not the special edition which has a “women of all sizes” theme – to promote the new season of Game of Thrones and her role in the film adaptation of Me Before You, which will be out in June. I’ve always found Emilia’s interviews sort of hit-and-miss. She’s funny and surprisingly down-to-earth, but she’s not really a soundbyte-celebrity, nor does she ever get up to a lot of gossipy activities. But I enjoyed this piece – you can read the full interview here. Some highlights:
Her mother worked a high-powered management job: “My dad worked away a lot, on tour, so my mom would pick my brother and me up from school. She’d be on a conference call on loudspeaker while hanging out with us, so I’d be listening and saying things like, “I don’t think John knows what he’s talking about.” I absorbed a business mentality. In terms of feminist issues, my mom never told me, like, “It’s gonna be tough. You’ve got boobs.” But I saw that there was no difference between my mom and my dad in terms of what they were capable of because of their genders.”
On the Game of Thrones audience being 40% female: “I love that so many women watch the show. If you look at Game of Thrones on face value—blood, tits, dragons, swearwords—you’re like, Oh, this must be for guys. But if you take that away, the story lines are fascinating depictions of the struggle for power. And women are in on that conversation!”
Whether she ever saw Jason Momoa naked: “Oh, I did. I saw his member, but it was covered in a pink fluffy sock. Showing it would make people feel bad. It’s too fabulous. No, I don’t know why. But I’d like to bring your memory back to Mr. Michiel Huisman [Khaleesi’s love interest in seasons four and five] and I copulating for the first time, which began with me saying, “Take off your clothes,” and then you got to see his perfect bottom.”
How she interprets Daenerys’ rape in Season 1: “Yes. Well, Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s arranged marriage, and the customary rape that followed—ask George R.R. Martin why he did that, ’cause that’s on him. But I thought the consensual sex she has thereafter was genius. She is physically saying, “You can’t rape me again. I’m going to be in control and show you something you’ve never seen before.” At the heart of it, we’re telling a story; you need that part of the story to feel empathy for Daenerys. You see her attacked by her brother, raped by her husband, and then going, “F–k all of you, I’m gonna rule the world.” That’s where we are now.
The role she really wanted: “[The robot] in Ex Machina. I mean, Alicia Vikander is brilliant in it. Looking at the performance now, I was so wrong for it.”
The pros and cons of dating Seth MacFarlane: “Well, a con is you have strangers giving you love-life advice like, “I’m a big fan of the show, and I’m not sure what you’re doing with that guy,” which I didn’t react well to. That happened in New York when Seth and I were together. This guy started to give me advice: “Can I get a selfie? And by the way…” Unh-unh, bro.
If she wrote Game of Thrones fan-fic: “I want to see Daenerys and her three dragons share the throne. Eat goat they’ve barbecued. And bring back all the pretty boys, get them to take their trousers down, and be like, “I’m now the queen of everything! I’d like close-ups of all the boys’ penises, please.”
That’s not bad fan-fic at all. Dany on the Iron Throne, with Tyrion at her side, and somehow she uses Melisandre’s magic to clone Prince Oberyn so he can just strut around naked all the time. How about that? And Dany can use Arya Stark as one of her most trusted assassins, and Ice Zombie Jon Snow will lead the army to fight the White Walkers in the north. BAM! I just wrote the next two seasons. As for seeing Jason Momoa naked… well… God, she’s lucky.
Photos courtesy of Glamour, Instagram.
He’s married. I would take it easy if I were her
Yes I thought the same thing so she gets the serious side-eye. Sometimes its best to not even answer the question. Plus the reporter shouldn’t have even asked the question but these days some people seem not to have any boundaries,
Agree. I was jealous and I’m not even married to him.
I have always sensed a pretty strong chemistry between these two, but I think her comments are all in good fun. I don’t think Lisa Bonet has anything to worry about.
YEah, I think they are just flirty friends – nothing more.
Don’t forget, Emilia had to get naked around Jason a lot. A LOT. It’s clear that they were really supportive of each other, especially when you think about what a vulnerable position she was in.
Not to mention, Lisa Bonet seems very, very secure. Plus wasn’t she actually a part of that group where that Paris picture was taken?
Yes, she’s commented before on basically having to get naked in front of everyone very early on and that he would joke around and make her laugh. I think they forged a strong bond–if Lisa is fine with it, I think it’s kind of sweet. For all the talk of penises and boobs, they strike me as having a sibling type of relationship more than a romantic one.
It makes sense that they would forge a tight bond in those circumstances. GOT was Emilia’s first big job, and she had to constantly get completely naked AND pretend to have sex with Jason. I can see how they would get close.
His comments about “his khaleesi” on IG are interesting…they seem very, very…close…
not everyone is insecure and abusively possessive. him and Lisa Bonet have an open marriage anyway. do you think those two sexy people are celibate when they are apart?
You must be close friends with them, to know this.
Wow, I had no clue they had an open marriage. Has this been confirmed?
no im not close friends with them i just have a bit of life experience to know that not many people are monogamous, specifically not people in the entertainment industry.
do you really think people as hot as them are celibate for weeks and months?
If you think being unhappy with someone talking about your husband’s penis is “abusively possessive” I’d suggest doing a bit of research on the subject, because you’re pretty far off base.
Abusively possessive? Ha! Oh, you weren’t kidding. What an interesting life you must lead.
They’re good mates. I think she’s just joking around!!
Seriously. Calm down people, these two appear to be friends. And obviously Lisa Bonet knows that this type of thing in a part of her husband’s job. I’m sure she doesn’t sweat it.
It sounds affectionate but not like actual flirting. Lisa Bonet seems incredibly self-possessed. I’m sure, if she read these quotes, she would just nod and smile.
I agree. I worship Lisa, in fact I am coming back as Lisa Bonet in my next life. But I didn’t just base my comment on this one interview, though. I think when you’re famous, you have to be aware that any hint of flirtation or attraction to a coworker will be blow up and dissected. I therefore think it’s disrespectful not to be very, very careful about your comments. I like this Emilia, and I’m not saying it’s the end of the world or a big slap in Lisa’s face, and I don’t think it was intentional, but I think it’s careless, and will probably cause speculation that might be uncomfortable for everybody concerned.
He has some interesting things to say about “his khaleesi” on IG. He also has only posted one pic of Bonet in at least a year on IG…tons of pictures of other people, of his kids etc. None of her…
You forget who he’s married to.
The show’s full of nudity – there wouldn’t be a show without the p0rno element – so I think Emilia’s comments were okay. She joking and I’m sure she knows his spouse pretty well. You’d do that – introduce each other – if you had to do all those nude scenes together. Aside, I find this show extremely trashy.
I know it’s all in good humour but let’s imagine a scenario where a guy gave this interview and that line with seeing the girl’s vaginas
It’s been a very consistent criticism through all of Game Of Thrones run that they’re VERY liberal about showing women’s bodies, but there’s been very little male nudity. The adult female main characters (with an exception here or there) have all had to get naked a lot while their male counterparts tend to stop at a butt shot. That’s what she’s referencing.
false equivalence. men and women are not equal so you cant just switch the genders. its a completly different thing if a woman talks like this about a man. women cant objectify men.
Um, some things are different for men and women but not objectification.
Not that I criticize her much, she was joking and I personally would be fine with men talking like that, but maybe she should not have said it anyway.
Sure they can. Although it doesn’t have the same malicious power that when men do it, because there’s no system of oppression in place for men like there is for women.
“women cant objectify men”.
Wow, that’s like saying minorities can’t be racist.
@SilkyMalice: exactly, thats why women cant objectify men.
V4Reak: spot on, its like saying that because its the same thing. minorities lack the power to be racist.
Power is irrelevant. If you hate someone based on their race, you are racist. It can be easy to get warped living in the west but every corner of the globe isn’t living under the thumb of the white overlords who are out to oppress everyone.
If a white person went to live in parts of Japan or China or India or Namibia or PNG you bet they would face racism from some people. Not everything is about America.
Sarah – you’re conflating racism and prejudice.
Your argument would hold more water if GoT didn’t have a serious imbalance in nude depictions across genders. And sexual assault.
The dudes don’t defend us nearly as much as women defend them.
I think Alfie Allen is the one male who has had to get naked (at least full frontal) the most. I remember being shocked at the time–season 1?–because you rarely see full-frontal male nudity. We do get our share of good looking rears to look at–not enough of Jamie Lannister’s or the late, lamented Oberyn’s though–but few of the men have had to go the Full Monty as much as the women. That’s why a good number of the extras for brothel scenes and others full of naked, non-castmember women are from the adult film industry. Even for an actress looking for a big break, the amount of full-frontal can be a bit much. Lena Headley had a body double for her famous ‘Shame!’ walk–I don’t know if that was always part of her contract or merely because of her pregnancy. They did a good job digitizing her head onto the double’s body and Lena gave her a lot of props for how she managed to convey emotions solely through her body language.
I love Emilia, she’s really cute and comes across as a real sweetheart. But I hate how she threw George Martin under a bus with the rape question. Martin portrayed Dany’s first time as gentle whereas the show went with rough rape right from the start. I know Martin has the benefit of internal monologues but I think he does a more ample job of exploring rape and misogyny in his writing than the show which often comes across, I do believe unintentionally for the most part, as sensationalist.
Yes, I’ve read a fair bit of stuff about the books V the show and the general overwhelming consensus is that the show treats it (and women in general) way worse and includes elements he never did
Was going to say the same thing. The wedding night in the book was not like the show at all.
This. Even if you could argue that Martin has put a lot of sexual violence in the books, the show runners continuously chose to emphasize it whenever they can, which is a terrible choice. They turn the sexual violence into entertainment.
Yeah she can’t have read the books. They completely changed that scene for the show. I’m of two minds about that change. Firstly, it really bothered me when watching the first episode how virtually every sex scene was doggy style when they weren’t written that way! However, I think it was actually more realistic that this man would follow the path in the show than be this secret amazing lover from the start. I hated that she was raped but her journey was more realistic and I like that she TOOK power.
@SKF,
The annoying thing is that Clarke is one of the few actors on the show who has read the books. I read a profile about the GoT set and that she always carries a copy of the book that corresponds with the season she’s filming. She clearly forgot the differences from page to screen. Drogo still raped Dany in the books but it’s not as relentless as it is on the show. I just found it disappointing that ahe deflected blame on Martin for including rape. It’s definitely a topic worth exploring in fictional narratives, fantasy or no.
Dany was not raped for in the first night of the books, but Drogo rapes her multiple times after that so she is constantly in pain and has to muffle her screams with a pillow. Dany does not use the term rape since in that society men can not rape their wives so she does not see it that way. The same way Cersei is raped by Robert in the books which makes her loathe him but since this is revealed in book 5 in her thoughts and she does not use the word rape people miss this.
The show was planning to do the Dany/Drogo wedding night at first the same it was in the books, but then they thought it would be strange for the couple’s relationship to regress like that on screen.
I’ve always thought that scene is taken out of context from many readers because Dany was mostly talking about how much pain she is from constantly riding a horse as well.
Yes and the scene with Cersei and Jaime at Joffrey’s casket wasn’t rape in the book and Sansa wasn’t raped by Ramsey (though he did rape another character who Sansa seems to be standing in for). These decisions are on the producers/writers of the show not Martin.
I read Me Before You and was not a fan of the book. Curious to see how the movie turns out.
I think she’s lovely in interviews but she is not that great of an actress. I think she does have more personality off screen then most other actresses do but it’s a shame some of that personality does not make it on screen for her.
That being said…her best acting was opposite Momoa and Harry Lloyd (Viserys) in season 1. As good as Harry Lloyd was as Viserys, I think he would have made a much better Jon Snow than Kit Harington.
Ooo…I’ve never heard anyone mention that Harry Lloyd might have been a better Jon Snow! Intriguing thought. In retrospect, it’s truly a shame that Viserys couldn’t have stayed around longer than he did. He was fun to watch! Also love seeing Harry pop up now and again in small but memorable parts (like Theory of Everything). He should get more work.
The cover is really beautiful, probably the best I’ve seen her look.
She’s a beautiful woman. That horrible white wig on the show does not do her justice.
Isn’t she friends with Lisa and Jason? I doubt Lisa was bothered by the penis comments, and I bet it is truly fabulous;)
Oh, you know it is.
They are friends, she made a joke…seriously doubt anyone is bothered by this.
…..so, did she actually see it or was it covered by the pink fluffy sock? I need more details.
Just want to say that it’s funny to me that she took flak for dating Seth McFarlane, because I always thought that was a *huge* head-scratcher! I’ve heard some very unsavory things about him on various gossip boards, so I can’t help but side-eye her by association. The cover, however, is stunning. A lot of the photos I’ve seen don’t seem to do her justice, but this one is flawless.
Seth MacFarlane, who’s “not looking for an intellectual equal” as a partner. Big shock that people were giving her un-asked-for dating advice.
She shouldn’t be blaming GRRM for any “rape” of Dany in the books because that never happened in th book. It was clearly consensual in the book although of course it was doggy style. The show made it all rapey with the word “no” being repeated by Drogo oddly.
Too much photoshop. I thought it was Emily Blunt on the cover.
Wow, yeah she does look like Emily Blunt!