It’s been 10 years since “Game of Thrones” aired its very first episode, so there are plenty of retrospectives out there, including some interviews. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Emilia Clarke looks back on that first season, and also the future of Westeros.
“I honestly still look back at it and go, ‘I’m so not at a point where I can retrospectively see this for what it is.’ I think I’ll be 90 when I can actually do that,” Clarke tells EW. “The experience was so enormous, and so all-consuming, and defines me at that young moment in my life. You kind of look back at it like you would high school or college. When you’re young like that, you’re so in the moment.”
Clarke has been open in the past about the ugly side of being a part of “Game of Thrones,” the pressure from both fans and the studio, and her health struggles during production, but even through all that, she remembers her early days on the show fondly.
“I look back at the person who was there and go, ‘You really have no idea what’s coming. You have no idea what’s about to hit,'” the actress adds. “And it was beautiful for that. We were all very much in the moment that we were in, and very unaware as to how it was going to be received, what people were going to think, who we were going to be at the end of it. I’m going to call us kids, because we were — we were just having fun, experiencing this crazy thing. And it was joyous for that. That first season was nonstop joy, and so much fun. I look back at it with complete love”
A decade later, and there is no leaving Westeros, with HBO adding more and more projects to the ever-expanding world of the show — as long as they are not in print, apparently. When asked about the upcoming spin-offs, Clarke laughs. “Godspeed, everyone! You do you, you go, Glenn Coco! It’s just inevitable. I wish you all the best, it’s gonna be whatever it will be, but of course they’re doing more. You can’t create something that big and not have people go, ‘And? What else? This is really good! Let’s do loads more!'”