Game Of Thrones: Emilia Clarke AKA Daenerys Targaryen Improvised A Scene In Valyrian During Season 5 Recalls Director Jeremy Podeswa
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HBO’s Game of Thrones, which first aired in 2011, has been one of the most loved fantasy dramas on television recently. And we recently got to know that the cast wasn’t immune to ad-libbing quite a few scenes. Read on to known which scene Emilia Clarke improvised before while shooting.
A new story from James Hibberd’s Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series. In it, the writer revealed that Emilia Clarke delivered a lengthy speech in the show’s fake language of Valyrian.
The scene in question took place in the fifth episode of Game Of Thrones Season 5. Titled ‘Kill the Boy,’ the episode saw Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen sending a rather hard-hitting message to Meereen noblemen. In it, the dragon queen gathered three heads from the noble Meereen families, after the death of one of her trusted confidants and landed up killing them – the blood wasn’t on her hand though.
The episode director, Jeremy Podeswa, revealed that the speech Emilia Clarke’s Dany delivers to the three noblemen was initially in English, but things changed. The director recalled, “Then [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] came down – they were watching the scene being shot – and they said, “Wouldn’t it be great if the scene was in Valyrian?””
He continued, “I went over to Emilia, and I was like, “I know this is a really big ask, but do you think you could figure out a way to do this in Valyrian?” She said, “Yeah, sure, I think I can do this.’ And I’m all, “Really?””
For those who do not know, whenever a scene in Game Of Thrones features scenes with characters speaking the Valyrian or Dothraki, prep for the same is handled in advance by the show’s linguist, David Peterson. The actors saying those lines, often spend a considerable amount of time rehearsing to ace them.
The director added that in around 10 minutes, Emilia Clarke had put together things that Daenerys had said in the past that made sense. He continued saying that she delivered a powerful monologue in a rather chilling fashion. The director said, “I just had to hand it to Emilia for taking on the challenge and making it completely credible.”
Praising Emilia Clarke further, Jeremy Podeswa added, “Every single take, every intonation, and the way she phrased everything, you completely understood what she was meant to be saying. Then the subtitles all seemed authentic to what she was doing.” He continued, “She knew the language well enough at that point to make it all work. It wasn’t tracking perfectly in Valyrian, but no fan ever noticed it. She did an amazing job,’ Podeswa said.
James Hibberd’s Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series was published in October. Stay tuned to Koimoi for more such news.
