Emilia Clarke is nothing like her GOT character

THE mother of dragons knew the big secret about Game Of Thrones Season Six before most of the cast. And it was all thanks to wine. SOME SPOILERS.

WARNING: SPOILERS

EMILIA Clarke lied to me.

The last time we met, only a few months ago for the Season Six premiere of Game of Thrones, she talked about Jon Snow’s death. She told me he was gone for good.

But Clarke, 29, who plays Daenerys Targaryen, knew the truth before most of the cast.

“I read the script (for the Season Five finale) and called Kit to see if it was for real, that he’d been killed off. I was so heartbroken when he said it was true,” she tells news.com.au

“So we finished filming in December and then I was out for supper with him in January and I said, ‘So, what did they give you as a wrap gift?’ The production is really good at giving wrap gifts when people are killed off. And he was like, ‘They didn’t give me anything’.” She grins. “And I thought, ‘what?’ Then I gave him a glass of wine and he told me,” she laughs.

Clarke may embody the female warrior from her iconic roles in Game of Thrones and last year’s lead in Terminator, but the petite 152cm actress, and those who know her, can’t help but be amused at her unlikely “ferocious” image.

“My parents look at each other saying, ‘We have no idea where that came from’,” she smiles.

The Emilia Clarke we see in Game Of Thrones.

The Emilia Clarke we see in real life. Picture: Leon Neal/AFP

“I’ve played roles that are very outside who I am naturally. But I love the strength of women. It’s wonderful and in Game of Thrones, we keep seeing the women on the show getting stronger and stronger.”

In her upcoming film, Me Before You, a drama adopted from the 2012 best-selling novel of the same name, she plays Lou Clark, a formidable woman of a different kind. She’s a “care assistant” to a wealthy and accomplished man (Sam Claflin) whose life derails when he has an accident that leaves him a quadriplegic.

She says, “Lou is incredibly strong in a much more tangible, real way than anything else I’ve done. It was a terribly feminine set as both the director and writer were women.” She smiles. “And then we had Sam Claflin.”

The movie is an over-the-top weepy and audiences should be warned not to leave the tissues at home.

Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin in a scene from Me Before You.

Clarke recalls the craziest thing she ever did for love. “I was a teenager so I was very young. It was like the first one and I remember I sat outside his house in the rain because we’d had a fight and I got really sick,” she recalls.

“So, yeah, that was pretty stupid.”

As for her current romantic status, she says, “I don’t have a boyfriend. There we go. Single!”

But make no mistake. The woman who was heralded Sexiest Woman Alive last year by Esquire magazine is certainly not short of admirers.

Clarke has kept her romantic life very much under the radar. She went out briefly with Seth McFarlane in 2012 and was rumoured to be in relationships with James Franco, and Jai Courtney, her Terminator co-star in 2015.

Emilia Clarke was named sexiest woman alive by Esquire magazine last year. Picture: Esquire

She seems resolute and content in her decision to stay single for now. “I’ve got a very fulfilled career so my downtime is few and far between. My hobbies right now are seeing my friends and family when that’s possible, my family dog. My life is kind of as normal as one would expect,” she says. “And I also love collecting art.”

Emilia Clarke did a sultry photo shoot for the May issue of Australian Vogue magazine. Picture: Vogue

Now that she’s become a huge international success, Clarke can afford some of the nicer things in life. “I have some lovely clothes and some really nice shoes,” she says. “But the best thing about fame and success is being able to take care of my family. That was the first thing I did and will always do.”

And the downside? “Well, I learned very quickly that you should never Google yourself,” she says. “But I’m protected to an extent because of the (silver) wig I wear on the show,” she says. Clarke is a natural brunette and therefore not instantly recognisable.

She says she can still go to her local pub in Hampstead.

“Did it recently,” she says. “It was good for an hour-and-a-half. It was solid and yeah, my mates would go up to the bar and it was fine. The wig in Game Of Thrones just does so much and then after a little while you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s beginning.’ You kind of sense it. You sense the change in the air and then you’re like, ‘Time to go home!’”

Looking back, what would Emilia say to herself if she had the opportunity to travel back five years to when Game Of Thrones began?

“I’d say, ‘Hang on!” she laughs.

Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin attending the world premiere ‘Me Before You’ Picture: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP