Emilia Clarke, Vogue Australia’s May cover girl, on the pressure of playing Khaleesi
EMILIA Clarke’s breakout role as the empowered, iron-fisted mother of dragons in Game of Thrones wasn’t without its challenges.
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LANDING her break out role playing the empowered, iron-fisted, mother-of-dragons warrior queen Khaleesi in Game of Thrones was not without its challenges for Emilia Clarke.
In an interview with Vogue Australia, Clarke said it took a few years before she really felt comfortable in the role.
“The first couple of years I was plagued by a kind of: ‘Oh my god, this is my first role. Don’t f--k it up. Do good, just do good,’” the 29-year-old, who appears on the cover of the mag’s May issue, said. “And there was a kind of personal intensity that went along with it because I was playing a character already loved by so many people who had read the books, and just making sure that she was what people were hoping she would be.”
Now, as the show regularly draws more than eight million viewers in the US (according to Variety), she is known universally as the “mother of dragons”. (Amusingly, Clarke’s mother refers to herself the “grandmother of dragons”).
But surprisingly, without Khaleesi’s blonde wig and army of men in tow, Clarke — who once described herself as “short and round and brown” compared to her “willowy, blonde” character — enjoys relative anonymity off-screen.
“It’s odd,” she says of her new-found fame. “You know a diehard fan when they’re like ‘Kha-leeeee-siiiiii’ and they know who I am without the wig. But then it gets more amusing at award shows. Like, the GQ Awards last year, I walked in and I’m with my mate Lola and we’re having a great time and no-one’s talking to us and that’s chill ... But then they gave me an award, so I did a little speech. And then I come off the stage and everyone’s like: ‘Oh my god, without all the dragons I didn’t recognise you!’” She guffaws.
“That was just a heightened version of what happens to me all the time. If I’m walking down the street with Kit [Harington] or Gwen [Gwendoline Christie] [her Game of Thrones co- stars] or anyone from the show, fans will be like: ‘Can you just take a picture of us please?’ And I’m like: ‘Sure I can.’”
Prankster, comic and feminist, it seems. Clarke arrived in Hollywood at a time of a new wave of feminism, where women and men alike have been calling for equal opportunity.
The women of Hollywood are taking the reins and creating their own work in front of and behind the camera, a sentiment Clarke has embraced. The actress and her best mate Lola Frears are writing a script together and have optioned a book to produce, and are planning other projects.
“I want to do as many things as possible and I just think why sit around and wait for someone else to make the opportunity for you? Why don’t I just write? And it’s so liberating. It’s wonderful. And obviously there’s a lot of other work going on, but it’s just kind of nice to know that you’re plugging away doing your own thing, creating your own path as well,” she says.
Asked if she is enjoying this time she ponders for a second, then you can tell through her words that she’s beaming that smile.
“I tell you what, it just feels really joyful. I know that sounds like such a bloody LA thing to say, but it just feels so magical,” she says. “But I can’t tell you how much I’m conscious of being grounded. And my friends and family are absolutely the first people to be like: ‘Oh, hey there, big boots.’
“On a personal level I understand what it is to be unhappy or to not succeed, so my only goal in life throughout this career is to absolutely relish in the good moments. The bad ones could be just around the corner, so it’s so important to not ever get complacent. This is my life now, but [I think] enjoy everything that you’ve got because you have no idea what’s waiting around the corner. Hopefully that will maintain a healthy, positive but not egotistical outlook. It just feels lovely. It feels really nice.”
Vogue Australia May issue goes on sale on Monday 18 April.
Originally published as Emilia Clarke, Vogue Australia’s May cover girl, on the pressure of playing Khaleesi