Emilia Clarke has set the record straight on her Game of Thrones salary.
The actor, 39, portrayed Daenerys Targaryen in all eight seasons of HBO’s fantasy show before it came to an abrupt end in 2019.
At the height of its popularity, Game of Thrones was a pop culture phenomenon, averaging more than 25 million viewers per episode – and so it makes sense that its stars would be remunerated generously.
Rumours that the main cast were being paid $300,000 (approximately £222,950) per episode, however, were wildly exaggerated, according to Clarke.
“We didn’t earn that much,” she told Variety in a new interview. “Can you imagine? I’d have been driving a couple of Porsches!”
Although she did not specify the correct figure, Clarke was able to pay off her parents’ mortgage with her earnings.
Game of Thrones boasted one of the largest ensemble casts in television. The show launched the careers of several actors including Clarke, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner and more.
Elsewhere in the interview, the actor spoke about how fame affected her life. “I spent a lot of time trying to understand it,” she said. “And then you realise, it’s just a formula: the less you’re on TV, the less famous you are. It comes and it goes.”
The Me Before You star also reflected on her disappointing run at the Emmy awards, where she was nominated a total of four times but won none.
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In 2019, following the final season of Game of Thrones, Clarke was up for Best Lead Actress in a Drama for the first time, having previously been nominated in the supporting actress group.
She lost the award to Jodie Comer who won for Killing Eve. “I’m embarrassed to admit that not winning an Emmy was a really significant thing,” she said.
Clarke skipped the afterparties, and recalled thinking to herself: “Everyone’s over Game of Thrones now – you’re old news.”
The actor was determined not to put so much stock in awards recognition from then on, wishing to redefine her version of success. “Because clearly, I have a 13-year-old’s idea of success,” she said.
After Game of Thrones came to an end, Clarke went on to star in major franchise outings such as Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and the Marvel series Secret Invasion (2023) – several of which were not well received by fans and critics.
On Secret Invasion, she told Variety: “I don’t think no one liked that show, guys. I’m sorry! Star Wars? They didn’t like it. Terminator? That should never have happened. But these were jobs I said yes to, you know what I mean?”
Addressing the negative feedback on those projects, she said: “I entered into already existing franchises so when they don’t work out, it’s not personal.”
Clarke is currently earning positive reviews for her new thriller series Ponies, in which she and Haley Lu Richardson play CIA spies in the Seventies whose husbands mysteriously die in the field.
