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ОглавлениеEMILIA CLARKE
Born in 1987, Emilia Clarke is a young actress best known for her career-making role as Daenerys Targaryen. Alongside Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys is George R. R. Martin’s favourite creation from the books, and it’s not hard to see why.
Her character’s transformation as the series develops is a startling one, and it required an actress capable of excelling as both a shy girl and later a fierce and loyal leader.
When she is first introduced in the series, Daenerys is meek and completely dependent on her brother, Viserys. He treats his sister as a toy, something malleable for him to manipulate at will and which he can subject to his mood swings, and his cruel and violent streak. And while Daenerys would burn with the same obsession as her brother – the belief that the Iron Throne was their denied birthright – it was Viserys who held this belief from the start.
Daenerys is the only daughter of King Aerys II – the Mad King – and was conceived shortly before Robert’s Rebellion that ended her father’s reign on the Iron Throne. Her father died before her birth, with her mother dying just after labour, and she was born at her family’s ancestral seat, Dragonstone. She and her brother were smuggled from Dragonstone garrison before they could be turned over to Robert’s soldiers, and were instead taken to the Free City of Braavos. They were eventually forced out of their home, and took to wandering the nine Free Cities in a bid to find support for Viserys’ attempt to wrestle back the throne.
However, Viserys’ desperation amuses many, and he is dubbed The Beggar King. That is, until they find what they want in Pentos, with a powerful Magister named Illyrio Mopatis helping them to reclaim their royal honour. Viserys hatches a plan with Illyrio to marry Daenerys to Khal Drogo, the brutal leader of the Dothraki clan, in the hope that he will lead his army against the King.
In the books, the character is far younger than the one portrayed in the series – something that shocked Clarke. ‘Whilst it’s not set in a specific time period because it’s fantastical, it’s kind of loosely based around what you may believe to be social situations in medieval times,’ she said to heyyouguys.co.uk. ‘In that sense, everything was younger, people died younger, so it’s less shocking in terms of that. But at the same time, it just proves that she’s more of a complex, incredible character that she came to those realisations so young.’
During the wedding, she receives three dragon eggs from Illyrio – merely decorative symbolic stones, as dragons were believed to be extinct. Westeros knight Jorah Mormont offers both books and his service.
Because Daenerys is something of a nomad herself, she feels beholden to her new family – and stands up to her bullying brother, before eventually watching him die at the hands of her husband, Drogo.
After the death of her beloved Drogo, she constructs a funeral pyre for his body, placing her dragon eggs near his body and stepping on to the blazing fire. Jorah is convinced it’s suicide, but she knows differently, strongly believing she has a connection with the dragons. And her instincts are right – the following morning she is alive with three hatched dragons clinging to her charred body.
As her dragons grow, so do the tales around the Seven Kingdoms, leading to a whole host of danger that comes with owning such prized creatures. After seeking shelter and barely escaping with their lives in the Qarth, she looks to find more support for her attempt to win back her believed birthright.
‘I just think of her getting stronger and stronger,’ said Clarke. ‘She gets her trust boundaries tested to the max in season two, so in that sense it’s intriguing. She’s coming up with having to deal with [being] not only a woman, but a young girl in a man’s world, in a male-orientated society that she has to come up against, and even having dragons doesn’t seem to make a huge amount of difference.’
SPOILER
Without Drogo, and with only Jorah’s words to comfort her, Daenerys begins to grow tired of Jorah’s advances and of him thinking of her as only a child, so she sets out her claim as a kind but strong leader – using her dragons against those cities who use slaves, and asserting her leadership over Jorah.
Unsurprisingly, there are people that would like her killed, and she is only saved from an assassination attempt by a man named Arstan Whitebeard – who ends up being famed knight Barristan Selmy. Exiled from his Kingsguard duties by Cersei Lannister, he seeks Daenerys out as the true queen of the Seven Kingdoms. He also tells her that Jorah was once a spy for Varys at the Red Keep, keeping him informed of Daenerys’ movements.
She sends them both on an apparent suicide mission during the Siege of Meeren, and when they both survive Selmy apologises for his duplicity. Jorah is less pleading, however, and, while she wants to pardon him, she has no choice but to banish her former right-hand man.
Word quickly starts to spread around Westeros of a young queen with dragons. However, after a six-year-old girl is believed to have been killed by one of her dragons, she orders them to be locked below ground to prevent any more similar deaths. But one of them, Drogon, named after her beloved husband, escapes.
She marries again in a bid to quell the wars that rage around her as she attempts to get the boats to lead her army to King’s Landing. Ending the slave trade has destroyed the economies of several Free Cities, and as such there is much diplomacy needed for her to survive. When Drogon appears in a gladiatorial pit marked for her honour, he is wounded by an animal handler. However, she rushes to his defence, mounting him and then flying away.
For Clarke, it wasn’t a part that came easily – the role was originally played by another actress in the un-aired pilot before she was eventually cast as Daenerys.
‘I was only aware of it when we got down to the final stages really, that they had already cast someone who was in a pilot that was only seen internally,’ Clarke said to heyyouguys.co.uk.
‘Once they decided to give the whole show the go-ahead, they decided to do a number of recasts, including Dany [Daenerys] as a character.’
Clarke was born in London, and quickly showed an interest in acting after seeing the musical Show Boat on stage, where her father worked as a theatre sound engineer. She studied at the Drama Centre London, and eventually landed a small-screen role in an episode of the soap Doctors in 2009, and then in 2010’s Syfy movie Triassic Attack.
Clarke remarked, ‘I told my parents I wanted to be an actor and they were getting ready for a life of unemployment so they’re just happy I’m in work!’
She then landed the role in Game of Thrones. ‘My life is pretty much unrecognisable to what it was before. It’s incredible!’ she said to heyyouguys.co.uk. ‘Never in a million years did I think I’d be doing something like this now, this early on so fresh out of drama school. Even having Game of Thrones, I never knew that it would be the success that it was, and hopefully will continue to be.
‘They took a massive risk with me. I had a couple of auditions then a screen-test in LA and then they gave me the part. It was as simple as that, there’s no huge story to tell.’
She says about her character, ‘I think first and foremost she’s a survivalist, and she knows what she needs to do to survive. Unlike many other characters in the show, she doesn’t have an egotistical need or desire or want for the Iron Throne; it’s something that is her destiny, that she genuinely doesn’t have any control over. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown” – if she didn’t have to do it then she probably wouldn’t. In terms of that, she just realises what her options are and has to make an incredibly difficult choice. I have a problem with her using her sexuality. It’s more she knows what she has to do and, as a result of that, finds the love that she finds with Khal [Drogo] and grows in confidence.’
