Emilia Clarke Fought ‘Thrones’ Team Over Making Daenerys Too ‘Cold and Expressionless’
Zack Sharf
Emilia Clarke reveals in the new “Game of Thrones” book “Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon” that she pushed back against the series’ creative team on several occasions when they gave her notes on how to play her character Daenerys that she did not want to follow (via Insider). Clarke said it was important for her to inject Daenerys with a level of humanity that viewers would relate to, and she refused to allow anyone involved with the show to make her character too “cold and expressionless.”
“There was a number of times I was like, ‘Why are you giving me that note?'” Clarke told “Fire” author James Hibberd. “While I am quite consistently a ‘How can I help?’ kind of person, there were a few moments where I was like, ‘Don’t tell me what to do with my girl. I know what to do!'”
Clarke continued, “It’s like Daenerys’ calling card became cold expressionlessness. I always wanted to infuse that with some humanity because no one’s consistently like that. I would sometimes fight back a little: ‘I get that she has to be steely and unforgiving and a powerful force. But in this moment she’s also a goddam human being. So I’m going to give you that and I really pray that you take that in the edit.'”
Clarke is far from the only “Thrones” cast member to fight the HBO series’ creative team. Ser Davos Seaworth actor Liam Cunningham is also quoted in the book revealing that he refused to let the writers have his character crush on the much-younger Missandei of Naath (Nathalie Emmanuel) during the show’s sixth season. Cunningham would’ve been around 56 years old at the time of filming, while Emmanuel was 28.
“When we first meet Daenerys, Benioff and [director Mark Mylod] wanted Davos to have a crush on Missandei. And I fought them,” Cunningham said. “I’m not fucking doing it. It’s the only thing I ever stood up to them on. The woman is a goddess, but with Davos’ history with Lyanna Mormont and Shireen, you can’t have him getting the hots for a young woman.”
“Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon” is now available for purchase.
