Emilia Clarke Says Game of Thrones Taught Her About Feminism

While Game of Thrones‘s Daenerys Targaryen has undoubtedly inspired innumerable women all over the world to embrace their inner queens, she’s undoubtedly had her most profound impact on one woman in particular: Emilia Clarke, Khaleesi‘s IRL alter ego. In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Clarke explained how playing Dany onscreen for the past seven years has taught her more about female empowerment and practically forced her to embrace her feminism.

“It’s given me a real insight into what it feels like to be a woman who stands up to inequality and hate,” she said. “And as [Daenerys] has become more empowered as a woman, you can’t hide any more. You are adding to the voices that are going to make people realize an equal society is what we’re aiming for.” Clarke shared that, because she grew up with her mother as the primary breadwinner in her household, seeing women in positions of power has always been the norm for her. “That’s the lens through which I’ve been fortunate enough to view the world,” she said. “It’s only when you go to school that you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s different, that’s weird.'”

As intertwined as Dany and Clarke have become over the past several years (blonde hair included), however, the British actress revealed that she has no idea how Dany’s story ends in the show’s final season, set to premiere sometime in 2019. “They’ve written a number of different endings, so none of the cast know what the actual ending is. If there’s ever a leak of any kind, don’t believe it, because it’s probably not true,” she said. “We have a very strict social media ban this year because people need to stop spoiling it for everyone. It’s really frustrating.”

Clarke’s GoT costars have also spoken about the upcoming ending of the hit fantasy series. In October, her onscreen love interest-slash-nephew Kit Harington revealed that a table read of the final episode had brought him to tears. “We had a read through last week in fact, so I know everything now,” he told BBC’s The One Show at the time. “I cried at the end. You have to remember that eight years of it—no one really cares about it more than us.”

Related: Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke’s Style Is More Fairytale Princess Than Mother of Dragons