CULTURE

Emilia Clarke Asks Beyoncé to “Please, Please Still Like Me” in New Yorker Interview

“Please, please still like me even though my character turns into a mass-killing dictator!”

May 20, 2019

Courtesy HBO

In a new interview with The New Yorker, the Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke shared her thoughts on the fate of her famed character, Daenerys; the show’s final episode; and, most important, Beyoncé, a noted Khaleesi fan. Clarke first met Bey earlier this year at Jay-Z’s Oscars afterparty, at the Chateau Marmont, in what was a veritable collision of queens. As the actress recounted, Beyoncé (“this vision, this angel, this incredible woman”) came up to introduce herself, saying she thought Clarke was “brilliant.”

Game of Thrones actors have had to keep plot points under lock and key; the entire cast is notoriously tight-lipped. And so, since the episode showing Daenerys’s burning of King’s Landing was months away from airing, Clarke couldn’t exactly tell Beyoncé that her favorite character would soon go on a genocidal rampage. “All I wanted to scream was ‘Please, please still like me even though my character turns into a mass-killing dictator!’” she said. “‘Please still think that I’m representing women in a really fabulous way.’”

Clarke said she understands why Daenerys snapped—after all, she had lived through eight seasons of torture and death, including the demise of her children, both human and dragon. “We all have that thing,” Clarke said. “Whether it’s binging on chocolate or drinking seventeen bottles of wine or having an affair.” Or killing thousands of people with dragon fire. Relatable content!

Fans haven’t responded well to Game of Thrones’ eighth season, and The New Yorker asked Clarke what she would have changed, had she been in charge. “I would’ve loved some more scenes with me and Missandei,” she said. “I would’ve loved some more scenes with me and Cersei.

“The genocide was there,” she continued. “That was always going to happen. And I just think more dissection and those beautifully written scenes that the boys have between characters—that we are more than happy to contently sit there and watch ten minutes of two people talking, because it’s beautiful. I just wanted to see a bit more of that.”

Clarke magnanimously added that she was “in no position to critique the geniuses that have written eight seasons’ worth of wonderful stuff.” Viewers were clearly okay with it.