If you were shocked at Daenerys Targaryen's turn to madness in episode 5 of “Game of Thrones” on Sunday, you certainly weren’t the only one. Not only were viewers rattled by Khaleesi’s sudden turn to ruthless killing, but actress Emilia Clarke herself had a hard time swallowing the pill of her character’s insanity.
Clarke took to Instagram on Monday showing off a pre-shoot selfie the day they started filming the episode. The photo features Clarke in a wig cap, looking distressed while holding a bottle of champagne.
The caption reads, “This is what it took not only to shoot ep5…but to watch it too!”
But in a behind-the-scenes interview with HBO, Clarke described the moment of Dany’s insanity using a chocolate cake analogy.
Just went the bells chime, and the war could end without blood, Dany decides to head to King's Landing and burn everything to the ground. “Every single thing that's led her to this point, and there she is alone. We've all got this part of us that goes, 'I'm going to put that chocolate cake down, I'm going to walk away.'"
She continued, “We can't be getting into these moral conundrums all the time. I'm not saying chocolate cake is a moral conundrum…but those things that you wrestle with in yourself.”
It wasn’t easy for Clarke to get into character for this episode. For starters, she had to look out over “King’s Landing” while riding a “dragon” – all things she had to make up in her head while she sat on a mechanized, green prop in a completely green room. On top of that, Clarke herself is nothing like Daenerys in this episode.
“Emilia’s really nice, and she cares,” director Miguel Sapochnik says in HBO's behind-the-scenes clip. “She’s a whole bunch of things that Dany isn’t, so reaching this part of Dany is a tough call for her.”