Emilia Clarke Height, Age, Family, Biography

 

Some Lesser Known Facts About Emilia Clarke

• Emilia Clarke grew up in Oxfordshire, England.

  A childhood picture of Emilia Clarke

• Her maternal grandmother was of Indian origin.

• During her upbringing, her mother had many rules for her, including keeping her eyebrows natural and brushing them with Vaseline before bed. Although Emilia was bullied as a child for her eyebrows, her mother assured her that she would be grateful for these rules as she grew older.

• At the age of 3, Emilia developed an interest in acting after being mesmerised by backstage life and a production of ‘Show Boat’ that her father took her to.

• While performing a school play at the age of 5, she forgot her lines. However, she remained calm and carried this mindset into her acting career.

• At 10, Emilia auditioned for Neil Simon’s West End production of ‘The Goodbye Girl.’ She even performed a contemporary Spice Girls song but did not get the part, which her father later considered a blessing as he felt it would have been difficult to read anything negative about her in the papers at such a young age.

• While studying at St Edward’s School, Clarke participated in various school productions including Twelfth Night, The Crucible, Macbeth, and West Side Story. At that time, she worked at an ice cream shop.

• Emilia and her friends felt like outsiders at St Edward’s School as it was a fancy boarding school, and they did not fit in with its wealthy environment.

• After finishing secondary school, she took a year gap and worked as a waitress.

• When she told her parents she wanted to become an actor, all they could think about was the risk of unemployment.

• During her days at the Drama Centre London, Clarke played a variety of roles in plays and often got cast in tougher roles, like a Jewish mother in Awake and Sing!, while the lead role went to her taller, blonde classmates.

• One of her first film roles was in ‘Drop the Dog,’ a short film made by students at the University of London.

  Emilia Clarke in a still from the short film ‘Drop the Dog’

• After graduating from the Drama Centre London, Emilia worked six jobs to cover bills and rent. She worked in fields like real estate, catering, bartending, and call centres.

• While working at her catering job, Emilia found out about auditions for the television series ‘Game of Thrones.’ She only had 24 hours to prepare, so she called in sick to focus on the audition. She did a fancy “chicken dance and robot dance” at the auditions and ended up securing a role in the series.

• Clarke’s performance as ‘Daenerys Targaryen’ in HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011) was highly appreciated by the audience.
  

• Emilia’s pay on ‘Game of Thrones’ started low in the first few seasons, but by seasons 5 and 6, she was earning $300,000 per episode. For the final two seasons, her salary increased to $500,000 per episode, making her total earnings over $12.5 million.

• On 11 February 2011, Emilia had a subarachnoid haemorrhage due to a burst aneurysm. She had surgery and later struggled with speaking. She had another surgery in 2013.

  Emilia Clarke during her days at a hospital receiving treatment for brain aneurysms

• Emilia has been involved with several charitable organisations. In September 2011, she became a celebrity ambassador for the SMA UK Trust, which funds research into spinal muscular atrophy.

• She started dating Seth MacFarlane, an actor and animator, in 2012 after meeting in the US. They, however, broke up in 2013 as they could not maintain long-distance.

  Emilia Clarke with Seth MacFarlane

• Emilia has appeared in some short films including ‘Shackled’ (2012) and ‘Leading Lady Parts’ (2018).

  Emilia Clarke in a still from the short film ‘Shackled’ (2012)

• Clarke has worked as a voice-over artist for animated series like Comedy Central’s ‘Futurama’ (2013), Adult Swim’s ‘Robot Chicken’ (2016), HBO’s ‘Animals’ (2017), and ITV’s ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ (2017).

  Emilia Clarke while doing voiceover for the character ‘Marianne’ of the film ‘Futurama’ (2013)

• She has also performed in some theatrical productions like ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (2013), ‘Private Lives’ (2020), and ‘The Seagull’ (2022).

  Emilia Clarke while playing the role of ‘Holiday Golightly’ (Holly) in the play Breakfast at Tiffany’s (2013)

• Emilia and James Franco, an actor and filmmaker, were rumoured to be dating after they were seen together at an NYC art fair in May 2013.

  Emilia Clarke with James Franco

• In March 2014, Clarke was rumoured to be dating her ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ co-star Cory Michael Smith after they were spotted holding hands and slow dancing at Vanity Fair’s Oscars party.

  Emilia Clarke and Cory Michael Smith at the opening night of Breakfast at Tiffany’s

• In 2014, Emilia started dating Australian actor Jai Courtney after they met on the set of ‘Terminator Genisys.’ In an interview in 2015, Jai mentioned he was single, which led to speculation that they had split up.

  Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney on the set of the film ‘Terminator Genisys’

• Emilia was offered the role of ‘Anastasia’ in the film ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ (2015), but she turned it down because of the excessive nudity.

• In 2015, Dior signed Clarke to be the face of their Rose des Vents jewellery collection.

  Emilia Clarke as the new face of Dior’s Rose des Vents

• She played the role of ‘Sarah Connor’ in the film ‘Terminator Genisys’ (2015), opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role. During the film’s promotion, they travelled to South Korea and met soldiers.

  Emilia Clarke and Arnold Schwarzenegger while posing with South Korean soldiers

• In 2015, actor and comedian Kristen Wiig appeared on ‘The Tonight Show’ dressed as Daenerys Targaryen from the Game of Thrones. Emilia loved the performance and shared a picture of herself laughing at Wiig’s act on Instagram.

  Emilia Clarke while enjoying Kristen Wiig’s act on ‘The Tonight Show’

• Emilia has appeared in many other films such as Louisa Clark in ‘Me Before You’ (2016), Qi’ra in ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ (2018), Susan Smith in ‘Above Suspicion’ (2019), and Katarina Andrich (Kate) in ‘Last Christmas’ (2019).

  Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra in the film ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ (2018)

• In 2018, rumours about Emilia and Charlie McDowell, a film director and screenwriter, started when they posted similar pictures on Instagram and were seen together a few times. By March 2019, McDowell had unfollowed Clarke, and he soon started dating actor Lily Collins, whom he married in 2021.

  Emilia Clarke with Charlie McDowell

• In 2018, Dolce & Gabbana appointed her as the ambassador for their perfume ‘The Only One.’

  Emilia Clarke as the ambassador for Dolce & Gabbana’s ‘The Only One’

• In early 2020, Clinique named Emilia as their first global ambassador.
  

• Emilia has a deep passion for music. She enjoys singing and plays the piano, guitar, and flute.

• If Emilia had not pursued acting, she would have chosen a career as an architect, graphic designer, or singer.

• She is an avid animal lover and has two pet dogs named Ted and Roxy. She adopted Ted in 2020.

  Emilia Clarke with her pet dog Ted

• Emilia loves sports and adventurous activities. She is good at horseback riding, tennis, running, skiing, sailing, rowing, ice skating, and swimming.

• Claire consumes alcohol occasionally.

  Emilia Clarke while having a beer

• She loves travelling and often shares her travelling experiences on social media.

  A picture of Emilia Clarke from one of her vacations

• She enjoys baking and often posts about her creations on social media.

  Emilia Clarke while showing off her freshly baked cupcakes

• Emilia speaks French, Italian, and German languages, but she is not fully fluent in them.

• In 2022, she lent her voice to the character ‘Malicia’ in an animated film titled ‘The Amazing Maurice.’

  A poster of the film ‘The Amazing Maurice’ (2022)

• In 2023, she worked as both an actor and executive producer for the film ‘The Pod Generation.’

  Emilia Clarke (right) (as Rachel Novy) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (left) (as Alvy Novy) in a still from the film ‘The Pod Generation’ (2023)