‘I stand by Daenerys, how could I not?’: Emilia Clarke reacts to Game of Thrones’ divisive ending

Fans are not alone in thinking that Daenerys Targaryen was underserved in Game of Thrones, as actor Emilia Clarke has revealed she was ‘flabbergasted’ when she first came to know about her character's fate back in 2017.

The actor said she had to read the story ‘seven times’ to make sense of the plot. “What, what, what, WHAT!? Because it comes out of f**king nowhere. I'm flabbergasted. Absolutely never saw that coming,” Clarke told Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview. The actor said she received the scripts the moment she landed at Heathrow Airport. She ‘completely flipped out’ and left the airport in a hurry.

Once at home, the actor said she had to ‘physically prepare’ to read the script. “I cried. And I went for a walk. I walked out of the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet. I didn't come back for five hours. I'm like, ‘How am I going to do this?’” she said.

At the table read, Clarke sat across from Harington so she could ‘watch him compute all of this’. When they got to their final scene together, Harington said he looked at Emilia and went “No, no...” And Clarke nodded back, sadly, “Yes…”

“He was crying. And then it was kind of great him not having read it.” Clarke, however, felt her final moments on the show were depicted beautifully. “I feel very taken care of as a character in that sense. It's a very beautiful and touching ending. Hopefully, what you'll see in that last moment as she's dying is: There's the vulnerability — there's the little girl you met in season one. See? She's right there. And now, she's not there anymore… But having said all of the things I've just said, I stand by Daenerys. I stand by her! I can't not.”