Emilia Clarke Defended Nathalie Emmanuel Following Sexist Comment From 'GoT' Extra
*Warning this article may contain spoilers*
Emilia Clarke stepped in to defend her Game of Thrones co-star Nathalie Emmanuel after an extra made a sexist comment about the actress’ ‘revealing’ costume, Emmanuel has said.
Emmanuel joined the hit HBO series in season three as Missandei, the devoted friend of Clarke’s character, Daenerys Targaryen. The pair became friends in real life, with Emmanuel recently stating that they ‘always looked out for each other’ as they were ‘the only girls on a male-dominated set’.
According to Emmanuel, Clarke once stepped in to defend her after a male co-star made an inappropriate comment about what she had to wear for a scene.
‘In my first season, my costume was pretty revealing, and there was an incident with a supporting actor who made a comment about it on set – I mean, typical – and Emilia straightaway had my back,’ the 31-year-old told Vogue. ‘It got handled.’
During an interview with Dax Shepard on his podcast Armchair Expert last year, Clarke revealed that her nudity scenes in Game of Thrones lead to her being pressured to undress in other acting roles.
She told Shepard: 'I’ve had fights on set before where I’m like, "No, the sheet stays up", and they’re like, "You don’t wanna disappoint your Game of Thrones fans". And I’m like, "F*ck you."'
The star revealed that she would cry in the bathroom before particular scenes, recalling saying to herself: '"Whatever I’m feeling is wrong, I’m gonna cry in the bathroom and then I’m gonna come back and we’re gonna do the scene and it’s gonna be completely fine".'
In her interview, Emmanuel also opened up about the issue of diversity in the series and made particular reference to the backlash its showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss faced after her character was killed off in the final season.
After the season aired, filmmaker Ava DuVernay tweeted: ‘So… the one and only sister on the whole epic, years-long series? That’s what you wanna do? Okay.’
‘It definitely caused me to reflect a lot more – about race and diversity more generally,’ Emmanuel added.
So... the one and only sister on the whole epic, years-long series? That’s what you wanna do? Okay. #GOT pic.twitter.com/O5G6YZMj0g
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 6, 2019
‘At the end of the day, if there’s ever a show on the level of Game of Thrones again, representation has to be part of the conversation from the beginning. That way, there’s no single person who has to represent every other person of colour.’
Game Of Thrones culminated in 2019 after eight seasons. During its run, the show became one of the most adored on TV and propelled its cast to household name status. Despite the show's immense global following, the final series - and ending - divided fans.
Earlier this year, former ELLE cover star Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark in the series, discussed the show’s ending with us.
‘I didn’t watch it,’ she said. ‘I began watching when the last season started,’ she continued. ‘I was planning to watch the rest, but then I fell behind. And then I started reading all these comments online…
‘I feel like not everyone can be satisfied with the ending. Especially a show that’s been going for 10 years at that point. People have so many ideas about how they want it to end. You can’t make every fan happy.’
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