Playing the role of Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones was life-changing for Emilia Clarke. Cast at the age of 22, Clarke was catapulted to global fame once the show kicked off as a worldwide phenomenon, but things could have been very different. For one thing, the London-born star nearly blew her audition.
When she arrived on set to begin filming on the first day of production, things looked similarly bleak as an incident caused the actor to break down in tears in front of the rest of the cast and crew. Though Emilia Clarke has been up to a lot since then, she still remembers her first day on the set of the show as if it happened yesterday. Keep reading to find out why Emilia Clarke cried on her first day on the Game of Thrones set and how the other actors felt when they first started filming.
The cast of Game of Thrones have opened up quite a bit about the show since it ended. Emilia Clarke has revealed that she cried on the first day that she played the iconic character of Daenerys Targaryen, but not for reasons that you might think. While the star may have been overwhelmed to be playing the character, she actually cried after suffering an embarrassing moment.
The actress, who was 22 years old at the time, fell off her horse as she shot a scene where her character had to ride through a bamboo field. She ended up crying when she realized that all the cast and crew in the area had witnessed her embarrassing moment!
“Jesus, this is my first job, this is like the first thing I ever did and they stuck me on a horse,” Clarke revealed, recalling when she cried on her first day on set. “In a bamboo field in Belfast, and it’s raining. I was falling off the horse and trying to act still, and I remember just … hanging on for dear life, and I just remember shouting ‘please stop filming!’ And I’m like ‘OK, everything’s going to be fine.’ Turn around and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, there’s like the whole crew,’ and I just cried. That was my first day on Game of Thrones.”
The Rest Of Her Filming Experience
She may not have gotten off to a great start as Daenerys, but the rest of Clarke’s filming experience on Game of Thrones was considerably better. In fact, the actress has revealed that the role not only made her a better actress but also changed her as a person:
“I had more spine-tingly, goosebump, joyful, punch-the-air-yay days on this show than anything in my life,” she said (via Mental Floss). “That’s the thing about Dany: every season she gets better, every season there’s something else bigger than the last season, better than the last season.”
Playing Daenerys Pushed Her To New Heights
If we look at Clarke’s long list of acting credits since she was first cast as Daenerys Targaryen, it’s obvious that playing the character opened up new doors for her. It also likely expanded her range as an actor and pushed her to new heights.
Some of the more memorable of her roles since the beginning of Game of Thrones are Lou Clark in Me Before You and Kate in the holiday flick Last Christmas, which was released in 2019. Clarke is currently filming a mini-series called Secret Invasion which is set to debut in 2022.
Maisie Williams Got Lost In Imagination When She First Started Filming
Before the final season of Game of Thrones aired in 2019, the cast sat down and opened up about their memories in an exclusive special called The Cast Remembers. Maisie Williams, who played the role of Arya Stark, admitted that her first day on set was also memorable, but for a different reason.
She revealed that she got completely lost in imagination as she played the role of the second-youngest Stark child and pretended that everything she was filming was actually happening and she really was in Westeros.
Kit Harrington Recalls Being “So Nervous” On His First Day
Emilia Clarke wasn’t the only Game of Thrones actor to suffer from a little apprehension on the first day of set. Kit Harrington, famous for his portrayal of Jon Snow, took fans down memory lane during his interview for the TV special, recalling how he was “so nervous” on his first day.
Sophie Turner Was “Terrified”
Like her castmates, Sophie Turner who played Sansa Stark, was also very nervous when she first started on Game of Thrones. In her interview, she remembers being “so overwhelmed and terrified” at the prospect of working with great actors like Sean Bean, Mark Addy, and Lena Headey.
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