Emilia Clarke denies $300k per episode Game of Thrones salary rumors

Emilia Clarke has set the record straight on her Game of Thrones salary, saying her rumoured wage was overblown by fans.

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The British actor played the “Mother of Dragons” Daenerys Targaryen for the show’s entire run from 2011 to 2019, playing a pivotal part in the divisive final season. Some seven years on from the show’s conclusion, she’s put long-circling rumours about her salary to rest.

At the height of its popularity, the fantasy show became a pop culture phenomenon, averaging more than 25 million viewers per episode, so it made sense to many that its stars would be generously compensated.

However, rumours that the main cast were being paid $300,000 (£222,950) per episode were greatly exaggerated, Clarke told Variety .

“We didn’t earn that much,” she said in a new interview. “Can you imagine? I’d have been driving a couple of Porsches!” While she didn’t specify the correct figure, Clarke did reveal she was able to pay off her parents’ mortgage with her earnings.

Elsewhere in the interview, she touched on the show’s final season, saying she was “absolutely livid” about her on-screen demise.

Earlier this month, her former co-star Kit Harington defended the season, saying he still felt very “defensive” of the show. Season eight was seen by many fans as a major disappointment, with complaints including a rushed pace and unclear character motivations.

During a panel discussion at Motor City Comic Con in Michigan, the actor opened up about his feelings on the show’s finale, saying: “The season eight thing, guys, I feel very protective of it still,” he said.

“And the reason is, cause I mean, I guess you all saw it from the outside, whereas I saw it from the inside. So I knew, I know how much care and how much love and how much work and how much life went into making it, and the conversations that would have happened and the arguments around the table about what way to go, and what thing to do.”

As for Clarke’s spell on Thrones, she previously opened up about a brain bleed she suffered in 2011, and how she feared it might result in her being fired from the fantasy series . She recalled: “When you have a brain injury, because it alters your sense of self on such a dramatic level, all of the insecurities you have going into the workplace quadruple overnight.”

The post Emilia Clarke shuts down rumours she was paid $300k per ‘Game of Thrones’ episode: “Can you imagine?” appeared first on NME .

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