Nathalie Emmanuel has said that Emilia Clarke stepped in after a male Game of Thrones co-star made an inappropriate comment about her “revealing” costume.
The actor, 31, joined the cast in the HBO show’s third season as Missandei, the loyal ally of Clarke’s character, Daenerys Targaryen.
The pair swiftly became friends, with Emmanuel explaining how they “always looked out for each other” as they were “the only girls on a male-dominated set”.
One such moment saw an unnamed male actor also starring in the series making a comment about the outfit Emmanuel had to wear.
Emmanuel told Vogue: ”In my first season, my costume was pretty revealing, and there was an incident with a supporting actor who made a comment about it on set – I mean, typical – and Emilia straightaway had my back. It got handled.”
She added that the experience of being one of the only few women on a set full of men “bonds you in a certain way”.
Emmanuel also spoke about the backlash to the death of her character in the show’s divisive final season.
Upon the broadcast of the episode, many fans criticised showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss for their decision, with filmmaker Ava DuVernay tweeting: “So… the one and only sister on the whole epic, years-long series? That’s what you wanna do? Okay.”
“It definitely caused me to reflect a lot more – about race and diversity more generally,’ she said.
“At the end of the day, if there’s ever a show on the level of Game of Thrones again, representation has to be part of the conversation from the beginning. That way, there’s no single person who has to represent every other person of colour.
Months after the controversy, Emmanuel defended Benioff and Weiss, calling them “legends”.
Game of Thrones’ final season caused disappointment among many fans. Many of the show’s stars leapt to its defence, while others – including Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) and Conleth Hill (Lord Varys) – expressed frustration over how their storylines ended.
