September, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 57FROM TOP: HELEN SLOAN/HBO; LUCASFILM LTD./DISNEY
all of these books about grief, but there’s no
g uide. Like, ‘Oh, on Tuesday, you’ ll feel this,
but on Thursday, you’ll be here.’ ”
Three weeks after her father’s death,
Clarke began filming the seventh season
of Game of Thrones. A few weeks before it,
Brexit had happened. “ The world felt like a
scarier place once my dad wasn’t in it,” she
says. “And then those two things happen-
ing in quick succession threw me off bal-
ance and made me re-evaluate who I am.
And it was in that re-evaluation that I was
like, ‘I’m a fucking woman, and there aren’t
ver y many of us per forming in the env iron-
ment that I’m performing in. I need to be
incredibly sure of the ground on which I’m
standing, and I need to take ownership of
the choices I’m making.’ ”
That included the way she comported
herself on set. Clarke’s general approach to
the world is self-deprecating levity. “When
one spends your days discussing the poli-
tics of King’s Landing, it’s very important
not to forget to do your penguin dance be-
tween takes,” co-star Peter Dinklage says
of her capacity for goofing around, whileshe describes what goes
through her mind when
acting opposite a me-
chanical dragon thusly:
“I’m like, ‘Is he clench-
ing? Is he farting? What
doyouwantmetodo?’”
But over the course of
the show, Clarke’s own
vulnerability has shrunk
as Khaleesi’s power has
expanded. “You don’t get
tobeamotherofdragonswithoutachange
ortwo,”shesays.“Beingabletoencompass
and understand the kind of woman who
could conquer armies and topple societ-
iesallowsme,theactor,tostandfirmlyin
thoseshoes.”Whichcameinhandyonset
when something would remind her of her
father and literally “take my breath away”,
she says. “You underestimate the enormity
ofit.Ididn’tknowfeelingthiswaywaspos-
sible.” In those moments, she’d gather her
strength and try to channel that emotion
into her work. “I was like, ‘I’m not gonna
letyouseemecry.Thatain’thappening.’”
Instead, she’d steal away for a moment and
then come back to being Khaleesi.or clarke, khaleesi’s
story is about to come to a
close. Sometime next year,
the final episode of Game
of Thrones will air and the
role that she’s been play-
ing for almost a decade, the
role that “saved my ass in so many ways- propelled my ass, really”, will be over.
“There’s going to be a shake-up of my iden-
tity, I think,” she says of that inevitability.
“And I feel like I’m only going to under-
stand what the last seven years has been
when we stop.”
She promises the upcoming episodes of
the epic will not disappoint. “Spoiler alert- I normally don’t spend very much time in
Belfast, but this last season I spent a little
more time there,” she says, throwing a hint
to the GoT obsessives. “It’s a really inter-
esting season in terms of some loose ends
that have been tied, some really satisfying
plot points, some things where you’re like,
‘Oh, my G od. I forgot about that!’ Rumours
are going to be confirmed or denied.” But
Khaleesi’s plotline will continue through to
the end. “I mean, I have no doubt there’ll be
prequels and sequels and who knows what
else. But I am doing one more season. And
then that’ll be it.”
After that eighth and final season,
Clarke will have a freedom that she hasn’t
had since she was cast at age 23. The
roughly seven months of each year she’s
spent waking up at 3 a.m. to get into hair
and makeup, the 18-hour days in which
she’s pretended to ride a dragon or lead
an army or walk naked through fire, will
suddenly be hers again. The thought is
both daunting and titillating. “It makes
me emotional to think about,” she says.
“It’s my beginning, middle and end – the
single thing that has changed me most as
an adult.”
Not that freedom is here yet. When she
returns to London in a few days, it will
be for the Han Solo Star Wars prequel, in
which she presumably plays yet another
bad ass woman. “All I can say is that she’s
awesome,” Clarke tells me. “Like, legit,
that’s all I can actually get away with say-
ing. There’s a stormtrooper with a gun,
and he’s going to come walking in any
second.”
After Star Wars, Clarke’s ultimate goal
is to create the kind of shop that rights
the wrongs she’s witnessed: “I would love
to start a production company that was
just full of nice, funny women”, and where
the vibe was one of “ ‘Yeah, I’ve got a pair
of tits, and aren’t they lovely? Aren’t they
great? You do too! They’re great, you’re
in the club!’ ” In the meantime, she says,
she’s been working on expanding her mind
rather than shrinking her bottom. “I’ve
suddenly got a ferocious need to learn
things. Like, I listen to podcasts manically - The New York Times and The Guard-
ian and The Economist and TED Talks
and Fresh Air. I need information. I’m
like, ‘I just want to know as much as hu-
manly possible.’ ” Which means that for all
Khaleesi has given Clarke, Clarke’s in the
process of reciprocating. “Khaleesi got a
little something extra this year, you know
what I mean? She got a little something
else going on.”
From
We s t e r o s t o
‘Star Wars’
Right: Clarke has
come of age playing
Khaleesi. “It’s my
beginning, middle
and end. You don’t
get to be a mother
of dragons without a
change or two.”
Below: Filming the
upcoming Han Solo
movie. From left:
Christopher Miller,
Woody Harrelson,
Phoebe Waller-
Bridge, Alden
Ehrenreich, Clarke,
Joonas Suotamo
(Chewbacca),
Phil Lord and
Donald Glover.