It feels like yesterday sometimes, but 10 years have passed since HBO aired the first episode of Game of Thrones, “Winter Is Coming.” Starting on Apr. 17, 2011, the lives of many of the actors from the GoT cast changed, including that of Emilia Clarke. The British actress had only a couple of roles before landing the part of Daenerys Targaryen, one of the two last survivors of a long dynasty of Westeros rulers. While talking with EW, Clarke joked that she’s still too young to take a serious retrospective look at the fan-favorite series. However, she didn’t shy away from putting out her thoughts.
“The experience was so enormous, and so all-consuming, and defines me at that young moment in my life,” she said. “You kind of look back at it like you would high school or college. When you’re young like that, you’re so in the moment.”
Clarke portrayed the Mother of Dragons until the last season, when her character dies after being stabbed by her nephew/lover, Jon Snow.
“We were all very much in the moment that we were in, and very unaware as to how it was going to be received, what people were going to think, who we were going to be at the end of it. I’m going to call us kids, because we were — we were just having fun, experiencing this crazy thing. And it was joyous for that. That first season was nonstop joy, and so much fun. I look back at it with complete love.”
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In the meantime, HBO is planning to expand the Game of Thrones world with a few more spinoff series. And Clarke couldn’t be happier about it.
“Godspeed, everyone! You do you, you go, Glenn Coco!” she added laughing. “It’s just inevitable. I wish you all the best, it’s gonna be whatever it will be, but of course they’re doing more. You can’t create something that big and not have people go, ‘And? What else? This is really good! Let’s do loads more!'”
She also praised Miguel Sapochnik, who worked as a director on the series and now is the co-showrunner of House of the Dragon, the Targaryen-centric prequel series.
How do you think Emilia Clarke fared as Daenerys Targaryen? Let us know in the comments section below.
