Emilia Clarke's Got Us All Weepy With Her Behind-The-Scenes Selfie With A Beloved Fallen Character
"The Long Night," the third episode of the eighth and final season of HBO's Game of Thrones, has taken social media by storm, shocking us all with some intriguing new plot developments (such as Arya Stark taking down the Night King) and some heartbreaking character deaths.
Among those we lost on Sunday night's episode: Ser Jorah Mormont, the exiled knight who pledged his loyalty to Daenerys Targaryen from the moment she became a Khaleesi, a queen of the nomadic Dothraki, in Season 1.
Fittingly, he died in her arms during the Battle of Winterfell, shortly after the Night King erupted into thousands of ice shards.
It was a sad end for one of our mainstays, and Emilia Clarke, who plays our Dany, paid tribute to her costar Iain Glen, who played Ser Jorah right to the bitter end.
These two have no doubt grown very close over the years, and Clarke shared a behind-the-scenes selfie of herself and Glen––still in his battle makeup––captioned with lyrics from Bonnie Tyler's 1988 hit "The Best."
Ser Jorah's death was one of the saddest moments from "The Long Night," bringing the story of a great knight's lifetime of service to a close.
Fans loved Clark's tribute, too.
Ser Jorah was a hero and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
You bet he was, and don't forget the moment Dany's dragon came down to grieve alongside her!
Ser Jorah was at Dany's side from the very start––of course, you've been pretty invested in their relationship!
In a cast of such great characters, he immediately stood out.
No, we're pretty sure you're crying.
IT DEFINITELY DID.
Even HBO was emotional.
In a recent interview with People, Clarke shared that she and Glen became instant friends from the moment he comforted her following a mishap during her first day on set:
"The first day on set I fell off my horse and cried. I have the most visceral memory of the first day, it is Iain Glen calming the horse, calming me, and I was like: 'That is my friend for life.'"
Glen, for his part, revealed that he tried to make a farewell speech during his last day on set but that the "words didn't come out."
He expressed his gratitude for the experience:
"I've really enjoyed the journey as a whole. I loved going on the journey with Peter Dinklage, we had great fun doing that. But Daenerys and being by her side has always been my strongest association."
We'll miss you, Ser Jorah, but we're certain you're still watching over your Khaleesi.
Emilia Clarke Opens Up About The Life-Threatening Brain Aneurysms That Almost Caused Her To Leave 'Game Of Thrones'
The talented actors and actresses starring in Game Of Thrones don't have easy lives. Every season they say goodbye to more cast members, and they wonder if they're going to be the next one to leave.
But it turns out some cast members have even bigger worries.
In 2011, just before Game Of Throneshit the big time, one of its most iconic stars was almost forced to step down from her role altogether.
Now known worldwide for playing the iconic mother of dragons Daenerys Targaryen, Emilia Clarke talked to the New Yorkerabout how that almost never happened.
"It was the beginning of 2011. I had just finished filming the first season of Game of Thrones...with almost no professional experience behind me, I'd been given the role of Daenerys Targaryen," began Clarke.
"Despite all the looming excitement of a publicity campaign and the series première, I hardly felt like a conquering spirit. I was terrified. Terrified of the attention, terrified of a business I barely understood, terrified of trying to make good on the faith that the creators of 'Thrones' had put in me. I felt, in every way, exposed. In the very first episode, I appeared naked, and, from that first press junket onward, I always got the same question: some variation of 'You play such a strong woman, and yet you take off your clothes. Why?' In my head, I'd respond, 'How many men do I need to kill to prove myself?'"
Game Of Thrones - Daenerys Targaryen Best Momentswww.youtube.com
"To relieve the stress, I worked out with a trainer. I was a television actor now, after all, and that is what television actors do. We work out," she continued.
But then, something started to feel wrong.
"On the morning of February 11, 2011, I was getting dressed in the locker room of a gym in Crouch End, North London, when I started to feel a bad headache coming on. I was so fatigued that I could barely put on my sneakers. When I started my workout, I had to force myself through the first few exercises."
"Then my trainer had me get into the plank position, and I immediately felt as though an elastic band were squeezing my brain. I tried to ignore the pain and push through it, but I just couldn't. I told my trainer I had to take a break. Somehow, almost crawling, I made it to the locker room. I reached the toilet, sank to my knees, and proceeded to be violently, voluminously ill. Meanwhile, the pain—shooting, stabbing, constricting pain—was getting worse. At some level, I knew what was happening: my brain was damaged."
Clarke was suffering symptoms from a bulging or ruptured blood vessel in the brain, called an aneurysm. The symptoms she describes here are textbook indicators.
She went on:
"I heard a woman's voice coming from the next stall, asking me if I was O.K. No, I wasn't. She came to help me and maneuvered me onto my side, in the recovery position. Then everything became, at once, noisy and blurry. I remember the sound of a siren, an ambulance; I heard new voices, someone saying that my pulse was weak. I was throwing up bile. Someone found my phone and called my parents, who live in Oxfordshire, and they were told to meet me at the emergency room of Whittington Hospital."
Clarke said she was sure it was the end.
"When I woke [from brain surgery following the aneurysm], the pain was unbearable. I had no idea where I was. My field of vision was constricted. There was a tube down my throat and I was parched and nauseated. They moved me out of the I.C.U. after four days and told me that the great hurdle was to make it to the two-week mark. If I made it that long with minimal complications, my chances of a good recovery were high."
And make it she did, but the hurtles weren't over.
"I was told that I had a smaller aneurysm on the other side of my brain, and it could 'pop' at any time."
"Even before we began filming Season 2, I was deeply unsure of myself. I was often so woozy, so weak, that I thought I was going to die.
"Staying at a hotel in London during a publicity tour, I vividly remember thinking, I can't keep up or think or breathe, much less try to be charming. I sipped on morphine in between interviews. The pain was there, and the fatigue was like the worst exhaustion I'd ever experienced, multiplied by a million. And, let's face it, I'm an actor. Vanity comes with the job. I spent way too much time thinking about how I looked. If all this weren't enough, I seemed to whack my head every time I tried to get in a taxi."
"If I am truly being honest, every minute of every day I thought I was going to die."
The second time she went in for a scan, the second aneurysm had doubled in size.
She recounted:
"When they woke me, I was screaming in pain. The procedure had failed. I had a massive bleed and the doctors made it plain that my chances of surviving were precarious if they didn't operate again. This time they needed to access my brain in the old-fashioned way—through my skull. And the operation had to happen immediately."
"I spent a month in the hospital again and, at certain points, I lost all hope. I couldn't look anyone in the eye. There was terrible anxiety, panic attacks. I was raised never to say, "It's not fair"; I was taught to remember that there is always someone who is worse off than you. But, going through this experience for the second time, all hope receded. I felt like a shell of myself. So much so that I now have a hard time remembering those dark days in much detail. My mind has blocked them out. But I do remember being convinced that I wasn't going to live."
But Clarke tells this story with home.
"...I survived. I survived MTV and so much more. In the years since my second surgery I have healed beyond my most unreasonable hopes. I am now at a hundred per cent."
She is also looking to help beyond her personal sphere.
"Beyond my work as an actor, I've decided to throw myself into a charity I've helped develop in conjunction with partners in the U.K. and the U.S. It is called SameYou, and it aims to provide treatment for people recovering from brain injuries and stroke."
When you're a Khaleesi both on-screen and off, even your most laborious experiences become ways to help others.
Thank you, Emilia Clarke, for sharing your story.
Emilia Clarke Did The Robot During Her 'Game Of Thrones' Audition—And It Helped Her Book The Gig
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of the television series Game of Thrones, revealed that, during her audition process, Emilia Clarke got the part of dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen at least partly due to her impressive robot skills.
Benioff and Weiss told the story while presenting Clarke with the award for British Artist of the Year at the Britannia Awards.
Game of Thrones Creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss presented Emilia Clarke(Britannia Awards 2018)youtu.be
According to the pair, the pilot had already been shot with Clarke. However, the president of HBO wasn't going to let the show move forward until he'd given his final approval for the actress playing Daenerys. Clarke came in for another audition in what Weiss described as a genuinely foreboding "corporate theater:"
"[It was] large, dimly lit and empty except for us two and the president of HBO. We were smiling. He wasn't. It was quite possibly the least inviting audition environment we had ever witnessed."
@marcmalkin Awww! That's a really nice speech from Dan and David. gotta love that all these GoT memebers support ea… https://t.co/lZmXITltCW— Lord Kakuzu (@Lord Kakuzu) 1540661324.0
After her first reading, the president of HBO hadn't cracked a smile. Sensing the atmosphere was dragging down the mood of the room, Weiss described how Clarke tried to liven things up:
"Emilia asked if there was anything else she could do to lighten the mood and David asked, 'Can you dance?' And without missing a beat, Emilia did the robot … She did it with commitment and she did it well…and even the president had no choice but to smile. She got the job 10 seconds after she left the room and the two of us ran to tell her before she left the building because letting her get on an 11-hour flight home without knowing seemed like cruel and unusual punishment."
@getFANDOM @IndieWire ofn 😂😂😂😂— Vivian (@Vivian) 1540661023.0
When Clarke accepted her award, she commented that Benioff and Weiss "deserve their own bravery award for hiring someone whose biggest job up until then was catering parties dressed as a Snow White."
Emilia Clarke Thanks Game of Thrones Creators for Her Big Break | Britannia Awards | BritBoxwww.youtube.com
#EmiliaClarke once played Snow White...sorta. https://t.co/cPsWz9OyEx— Marc Malkin (@Marc Malkin) 1540612464.0
emilia clarke used to cater kids parties dressed as snow white before getting casted in GoT,,, brb im criying— sofi (@sofi) 1540613576.0
Bosses on #GameofThrones say they gave Emilia Clarke her part on the show within 10 seconds - because she did the r… https://t.co/zjVKKanjTl— CapitalSWales News (@CapitalSWales News) 1540631282.0
The way we see it, everyone involved with Game of Thrones deserves an award. Thank goodness the president of HBO came to his senses and brought Clarke on board!
Woman Wants To Call Off Her Wedding Because Of Her Lack Of Bridesmaids, And Her Heartbroken Fiancee Turns To The Internet For Advice
Planning a wedding can be a nightmare for some people. It's amazing how quickly an event that is supposed to be about the couple can turn into a whole big production about literally everybody else. I know from experience, I actually cancelled my wedding and surprised people with a beach BBQ/wedding because planning it got to be so stressful. So when one heartbroken man asked Reddit what to do about his fiance's struggles with planning their wedding, I felt for the bride-to-be way down deep in my bones.
He explained that she had no female family members and no friends, so she had gotten fixated on the idea that she would have no bridesmaids. She's an elementary school teacher and writer who is pretty uncomfortable in social settings, so she didn't have a whole lot of chance for connecting with people. The groom has a large group of friends, but she's not so social. She was so upset that she was considering cancelling the wedding entirely! He was genuinely heartbroken that he couldn't help her feel better.
Reddit offered a few bits of advice for him. Some have been edited for clarity.
H/T: Reddit