Emilia Clarke has addressed the negative responses to several of her big and small-screen projects, including Marvel's Secret Invasion, Terminator Genisys, and Game of Thrones.
Though the final season of HBO's fantasy drama series does have its share of defenders, it was widely viewed as a disappointing swansong for the mega-popular show. The final two episodes, in particular, came in for a lot of backlash thanks to some highly controversial creative decisions, one of which saw fan-favorite Daenerys Targaryen (Clarke) "break bad" by laying waste to King's Landing and the thousands of innocent people who lived there just so she could take her revenge on Cersi Lannister (Lena Headey).
Then, in the series finale, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) killed his lover/aunt when he realised that she'd succumbed to madness.
During an in-depth interview with Variety, Clarke admits to being "absolutely livid" about her character's fate, but there was very little she could do about it.
“Aside from what I brought as an actor, I didn’t have any creative input, nor did I want any."
Clarke goes on to describe showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss as "geniuses," but also very “fastidious about us saying the lines exactly as they’ve written them.”
“I was given the seasons, and I, to the best of my ability, empathized and understood and tracked every choice she made so it felt like mine,” she says. “I felt like that was what my job was.”
Clarke's role in GOT required a lot of nudity and some pretty full-on sex scenes. The actress says she didn't experience any "bad stuff" while working on the show, but has “experienced lack of care on other jobs, which I think could have been prevented with some consideration.”
“I don’t want to specifically say,” she responds when probed for more details. “There’s just been a number of occasions where I’ve been like, ‘This ain’t right.’ And again, it’s not through someone abusing power; it’s through lack of thinking and care.”
As for Secret Invasion, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Terminator: Genisys:
"I don’t think no one liked that show, guys. I’m sorry!” she says in a goofy voice. “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? I entered into already existing franchises, so when they don’t work out, it’s not personal.”
Secret Invasion proved to be one of Marvel Studios' more divisive Disney+ shows, and it's probably fair to say that even staunch defenders of the bleak sci-fi thriller were let down by the season finale.
One of the more lambasted aspects of the episode was the climactic battle between the villainous Gravik and Talos' daughter G'iah (Clarke), who powered up to become a hugely formidable "Super Skrull," displaying the abilities of various other MCU heroes.
At the end of the finale, G'iah is recruited by senior MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth, which would seem to suggest that there are (or were) plans for the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe down the line. A rumor did the rounds that G'iah will actually return as the leader of her own team of British-based heroes back in 2023, but we haven't heard anything about her MCU future since.