Emilia Clarke has revealed she is done with the fantasy genre, after finding fame with Game Of Thrones.
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The British actor played Daenerys Targaryen, the “Mother Of Dragons”, for the show’s entire run from 2011-19, playing a pivotal part in the divisive final season. Almost seven years on from the show’s conclusion, however, she has said she is reluctant to appear in anything similar in the future.
Speaking to The New York Times, the actor simply said: “You’re highly unlikely to see me get on a dragon, or even in the same frame as a dragon, ever again,”
The HBO series ended in 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. The actor said it forced her into a period of reflection. “It was the first time in my professional life that I stopped,” she said. “I had a full mental breakdown. It was almost as if the timing of the pandemic was bang on.”
She said that period led her “to realise that I could try and get some autonomy over my choices, my work. So much of my career didn’t reflect my taste, I just sort of shot out of a cannon.”
Those choices have included Marvel TV show Secret Invasion, and forthcoming spy series Ponies, which debuts on streaming service Peacock in the US on January 15 (a UK release is yet to be announced).
Elsewhere in the interview, she reflected on the downside of the worldwide fame Game Of Thrones brought her. “I never get to meet someone for the first time,” she said, “because they’re not being themselves. There’s just always this other thing in the way of interactions.”
In 2024, Emilia Clarke opened up about a brain bleed she suffered in 2011, and how she feared it might result in her being fired from the fantasy series. She recalled: “When you have a brain injury, because it alters your sense of self on such a dramatic level, all of the insecurities you have going into the workplace quadruple overnight.”
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