JOIN USIn the game for a long run
Emilia Clarke has a pretty good idea what she’d be doing if she hadn’t landed the career-making role of Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen on the hit television series Game of Thrones.
“There’s a wicked bar in Hackney I was working in, so I’d probably still be there,” she laughs.
“Game of Thrones was the creation of my career. It opened all the doors.”
Her starring role in the show has taken her to the Broadway stage, where she took the lead in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and to Hollywood and a major role opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Genisys, the fifth instalment of the sci-fi action series which began in 1984, before the 28-year-old British actress was born.
In Terminator Genysis, Clarke takes on the iconic role of hard-as-nails heroine Sarah Connor, who is protected by Schwarzenegger’s T-800 terminator, known as the Guardian.
“It was a double-edged sword for me because one of the reasons I wanted to take the role is that I grew up being inspired by Linda Hamilton’s brilliant Sarah Connor, so as an actress I jumped at the chance,” she says. “It was only later that the pressure of what I’d taken on dawned on me.”
“In Game of Thrones I’m lucky enough to play a strong woman who doesn’t really get her hands dirty, so I came to this movie with none of the skills I needed to play Sarah Connor. I had to learn a lot, namely the gun training. I had military advisers helping me out, and I really wanted to beat the boys, so I made sure I was training enough to have the strength to be able to last a day’s filming carrying those guns.”
Schwarzenegger was one of the guys who was impressed by Clarke’s preparation and work ethic. He had watched Game of Thrones and had admired Clarke, but was unsure whether she would be a suitable Sarah. “She is spectacular in that series, but I was wondering how she was going to make the transformation,” he says.
“And then when she came on board and I saw her regimen, I felt really comfortable that she would be able to pull it off. I saw her put in endless hours of weapon training and she spent days and days working with stunt people on various different stunts and she had a personal trainer who hardened her up and got her into shape, so I knew she had the will to succeed.”
Clarke refuses to take anything too seriously. She dodges questions about her personal life — she says she is not in love and has no boyfriend at the moment — and would rather be flippant than serious.
Born in London, the daughter of a businesswoman and a theatrical sound engineer, Clarke was introduced to show business at the age of three when she saw her father working on a production of the musical Show Boat.
She appeared on stage in school and local productions and had a guest spot on an episode of the BBC soap opera Doctors when her breakthrough came with the role of the white-haired princess Daenerys Targaryen in the complex medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones.
Clarke’s portrayal of an innocent teenage bride who discovers world-conquering resources of strength, courage and cunning within herself won over critics and audiences.
Clarke was recently quoted in a magazine as saying there was a 50-50 chance that Kit Harington’s Jon Snow may return to the series after being killed off.
Her quote electrified the web and renewed speculation about Snow’s possible return.
“Oh goodness,” she says, “the honest answer is that I don't know because I haven't read the next season’s scripts. The show’s creators keep really tight-lipped about any future plot points. I have asked them on numerous occasions what will happen in this forthcoming season and they’ve told me absolutely nothing.”
As fans of the show know, just about anything is possible. “As soon as you start to really fall in love with a character we just kill them so goodness knows who’s next,” she says with a laugh.
“It’s been quite a journey,” she continues. “I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a character where I get to show the audience her back story. The only way that you’re truly going to find the empathy of an audience is to show them what you’ve been through. With Daenerys we see the pain and the struggles that she had throughout season one, and we go from that desperate point of being a used and abused young girl, to riding off into the sunset on a dragon. It’s kind of amazing.”
But despite her hectic schedule and the scripts that keep coming her way, Clarke is determined to make room for a return to the stage.
“There’s a big scheduling sticking point,” she says. “A movie has a lot more fluidity, in that you can come in for a day and go back for a day. I really want to go back to the West End and do a play there. That would be kind of the Holy Grail.”
Clarke credits her family with giving her the strength and self-belief to take on roles that are far removed from her real self. All the same, she says she can see her parents looking at each other and saying: “We have no idea where that came from.”
“I’m really not too sure myself,” she says. “I’m just so incredibly grateful that I get to have fun and play make-believe every day.”