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 concluded in 2019. At its peak, the series averaged over 25 million viewers per episode, leading to speculation that the main cast earned $300,000 (approximately £222,950) per episode. However, Clarke dismissed these figures as wildly exaggerated.
“We didn’t earn that much,” Clarke told Variety in a new interview. “Can you imagine? I’d have been driving a couple of Porsches!” While she did not disclose the exact amount, Clarke confirmed that her earnings allowed her to pay off her parents’ mortgage.
Game of Thrones featured one of television’s largest ensemble casts, launching the careers of actors such as Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner, and Clarke herself. Reflecting on fame, Clarke remarked: “I spent a lot of time trying to understand it. 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.”
Clarke also discussed her disappointment at the Emmy Awards, where she received four nominations without winning. In 2019, she was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Drama for the final season of Game of Thrones but lost to Jodie Comer for Killing Eve. “I’m embarrassed to admit that not winning an Emmy was a really significant thing,” she said. She skipped the afterparties, thinking, “Everyone’s over Game of Thrones now – you’re old news.” Determined to redefine success, she added: “Because clearly, I have a 13-year-old’s idea of success.”
After Game of Thrones, Clarke starred in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and the Marvel series Secret Invasion (2023), both of which received mixed reviews. Addressing the criticism, she said: “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.” She noted that entering existing franchises made negative feedback feel less personal.
Clarke is currently earning positive reviews for her new thriller series Ponies, where she and Haley Lu Richardson play CIA spies in the 1970s whose husbands die mysteriously in the field.
