Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Some actors have the worst luck in picking solid roles. More often than you might think, they get a strong start and then pick stinker after stinker for their next big appearance. For example, Sarah Michelle Gellar became a teen icon thanks to Buffy the Vampire Slayerbut afterwards, she had an almost supernatural ability to pick doomed TV shows that died after one season. As for Kevin Costner, he dazzled in unconventional dramas like Field of Dreamsbut he developed a seeming fetish for doomed epics like The Postmanand he pissed away his beloved Yellowstone role to spend $38 million of his own money to make the failed Western Horizon: An American Saga.
These two, like most actors, don’t say much about their previous failures, preferring to look forward rather than backwards. Recently, however, the hottest TV actor of the modern age decided to buck this trend and acknowledge that she had made some bad decisions when it came to picking her next role. That actor is Emilia Clarke, who became a household name after the breakout success of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Recently, she gave a hilariously frank interview where she made fun of her most hated roles while making it clear that she doesn’t blame the fans for those projects failing.
The Naked Truth
Emilia Clarke’s recent interview with Variety was surreally fascinating. She wasn’t going out of her way to promote any upcoming projects or even just satisfy her own vanity. Instead, she largely focused on some of the missteps she had taken as an actor. Acknowledging that she felt bitter after not winning an Emmy in 2019 because she felt like she had become “old news,” she also opened up about long-festering gossip, including rumors of how much the Game of Thrones cast made and whether she experienced any sex pests on that set (the answer was no, though she declined to comment on whether anything like that happened on the set of Solo or Terminator: Genisys).
Soon enough, she began dishing about her failed attempts to distinguish herself from Game of Thrones. When talking about how fans reacted to Secret Invasionshe adopted a silly voice and said, “I don’t think no one liked that show, guys. I’m sorry!” The seal broken, she continued: “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?” Fortunately, she doesn’t blame the different franchise fandoms for these film failures. “I entered into already existing franchises,” she said, “so when they don’t work out, it’s not personal.”
She’ll Be Back
Honestly, this is a very refreshing attitude, especially when you compare Emilia Clarke’s humility with various stars who have blamed fans for their projects failing. When Ocean’s 8 bombed, star Mindy Kaling blamed “white men” for simply hating what she, a woman of color, had created. Similarly, when A Wrinkle In Time disappointed, Captain Marvel star Brie Larson notoriously lashed out at a certain type of critic: “I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work … It wasn’t made for him!” Meanwhile, Ghostbusters (2016) star Melissa McCarthy questioned the real motivation of fans hating that reboot by saying, “I just don’t know why people are so afraid of women.”
So, while the bar is obviously in hell, Emilia Clarke deserves full props for not lashing out at fans after starring in three failed franchise projects (four if we count that final Game of Thrones season). She understands that fans want what they want, and if she or her projects fail to deliver, she doesn’t get offended. Eventually, the Game of Thrones actor decided to stop focusing on starring in the next big thing and start picking roles “for no other reason than that I would enjoy that job.” That’s really the healthiest approach to Hollywood, and her humility is enough to make fans fall in love with her all over again.
Not bad, huh? Especially for a girl whose most famous character solved all her problems by setting them on fire!
