Don’t misunderstand: Emilia Clarke adores her role as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones. But she’s also sick of hearing people talk about the show’s dragons and nudity instead of its rich story and complex characters.
“I’m starting to get really annoyed about this stuff now because people say, ‘Oh, yeah, all the porn sites went down when Game of Thrones came back on.’ I’m like, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale?’ I fucking love that show, and I cried when it ended because I couldn’t handle not seeing it. That is all sex and nudity. There are so many shows centered around this very true fact that people reproduce,” she tells Harper’s Bazaar, in which she is not only featured on the cover of the December/January edition but also the focus of a gorgeously photographed centerpiece story. “People fuck for pleasure—it’s part of life.”
It’s a very frank answer, but one that fans of Clarke are used to, given her direct way of answering interview questions and never shying away from colorful language. That refreshing style is on full display in the Bazaar article, in which she discusses everything from dating and finding true love to her frustration at finding herself when her career began.
As to the former, being one of the most well-known actors in the world doesn’t mean that love falls into Clarke’s lap. Relationships change as we get older, she says, and the romantic notion of finding “the one” is something on which her perspective has shifted as well.
“There is ‘the one’ for particular parts of your life … So when I was in my teens, there was ‘the one’ for my teens, for sure, and then, you know, there’s ‘the one’ for the next time of your life,” she says.
Clarke also talks about how her career itself has changed, transforming into the worldwide fame she enjoys as a strong female leader from a beginning in which she wasn’t sure she had the “right look” for roles she was interested in.
“It got me angry. Well, no, not angry. … But it pushed me into another casting type; forced me to be an actor,” she says. “Instead of … the light, airy stuff, I would be the granny who cracks wise, or a down-and-out hooker who has seen better days.”
The article is peppered with other interesting tidbits, ranging from her family history — she’s one-eighth Indian — to her love of Italian people. “People in Italy let you know how they feel,” she says. “I like that I don’t need to guess.” Obscenities are still sprinkled here and there, letting readers know for sure — as if they had any doubt — that this is authentic Clarke, regardless of the sumptuous, high-fashion shoots that accompany the article.
Read the full article here.
Thank you Emilia for a refreshing and truthful look at the realities of life instead of spouting the usual platitudes that most people out there will say these days in order to avoid being pulled over and bullied by the PC police.
Amazing shoot…very feminine.
Emilia’s cupboard under the stairs is much more luxuriously appointed than Harry’s.
So beautiful photo shoots….she looks like a beautiful wild tropical flower with this white flower dress in the first photo and so dynamic and adventurous in those ala explorer clothes [hut,shirt and pants]in the second ..exactly like our Queen in the show..beautiful and feminine but also dynamic and adventurous ..i love her..
Just a gorgeous, gorgeous shoot….and a good article. I must discover and own that lipstick, it is killer. 😍
I like her comments about nudity. * The prudishness of some people about nudity is bothersome when they can’t just keep it to themselves. It’s one thing to not be comfortable with it and just not watch, but it’s another to publicly complain in some kind of attempt to force personal morals on others. Not all nudity is distasteful or really even pornographic, in the way people think when they hear that word. I believe it’s closer to reality much of the time and actually less distracting than censored and/or broadcast network programs. It’s often humorous to see the methods they use to prevent nudity… and I personally think they lose feeling and depth of scenes in the process.
* We have to remember that Emilia isn’t against her own nudity. She just doesn’t want to be known for it and wants to choose when it’s necessary and how it’s done. The example being that she herself said “it’s all me” for the dosh khaleen temple burning scene after a couple years earlier reportedly not wanting to do nudity on the show all the time.
Every time I see a shoot of her all I can think is there is no way we will be deprived of seeing a crown on her head right?!?
The shoot is a little too on the nose of “English Rose” for my liking, but its still nice.
Her interviews are always lovely
She seems like such a genuine person. I’d love to grab a pint with her some time.
I really had an emotional reaction to these photos earlier today when I saw the Harper’s Bazaar shoot. Just beautiful.
Emilia is fucking wonderful as ever, the pictures are beautiful… but… am I the only one who got a big wiff of English colonialism and glorification thereof from the pictures/story?
An interesting and accomplished female actor. She has a look that reminded me immediately of Elizabeth Taylor in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
She could do Maggie the Cat in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She would be amazing in a remake of Butterfield 8 or anything that even hints of Audrey Hepburn.
Clob,
The question about nudity is also so culture specific. Americans are more prudish than Brits, both more silly prudish than most Europeans and any Nordics.
Sauna is an integral part of my culture. Usually families go together, mum, dad, kids, all nekkid. Even kids with aunts and uncles, cousins. Daugther-in-law may feel a bit uncomfortable going to the sauna with father-in-law, but it doesn’t usually happen. You skirt around it by women’s turn, men’s turn, kids saunaing through both.
The big hoo-haas of GoT showing naked flesh isn’t very big in my country. It’s not “titillating” like it is im the US and the UK, which get the most media exposure, and somehow define the media narrative.
Oh, and it’s not unusual for friends, female and male, to go to sauna together. We’re all naked, but there’s nothing “sexy” about it. The sauna is a place of relaxation and physical and mental cleansing. And we’ve all seen naked ladies/men before, so that’s kind of meh.