Entertainment

'Game Of Thrones' Star Emilia Clarke Shares Her Fave Animoji & It's Peak Khaleesi

by Sophy Ziss
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

On Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen isn't exactly known for being "fun." The actor who plays the fearsome Khaleesi, though, is a gem offscreen. In fact, Emilia Clarke shared a dragon animoji on Instagram, which is just the latest sign that she's more like her character than we thought. The actor's Instagram account is a delightful carnival of extremely English romps across the world. Sometimes, they're posts in which the actor posts political messages accompanied by her dog, but most of the time, they're posts in which Clarke rests at a music festival or seems overjoyed to be spending time with her Game of Thrones (production designer: Deborah Riley) co-stars. Even on set, where it's totally normal to be hanging out with them. Clarke's dragon animoji from Apple, however, is adorable.

In a short video posted to her Instagram account, Clarke reveals that an Apple expert came to her home to explain the iPhone's newer features to her. He pointed out that the latest software allows users to animate certain emoji with their likeness, and it was game over for Clarke. The actor plays a character famous for her dragon children — and, it's rumored, dragon blood — so it makes sense that her first move with animoji was a talking dragon.

Have you ever heard an actor squeal with joy over a dragon emoji speaking with their voice? Well, you're about to. But if you can't listen to the video right now, the dialogue is as follows: "Mother of Dragons," she intones in a dramatic voice, "Khaleesi! Emilia Clarke here as a dragon to tell you..." — here, the actor pauses — "...That this is very cool!" Then, she giggles, and the animoji ends.

For someone whose television career hinges almost entirely upon her relationship to dragons, you'd think Clarke would steer clear of them in her personal life. But, thankfully, that is not so, since she's clearly overjoyed by this dragon animoji. Maybe Game of Thrones is getting to her? After all, she's been filming the show since 2010, and only in 2017 did she dye her hair an icy blonde IRL. Perhaps she's going Extreme Method for the final season of Game of Thrones. Or maybe she's just a big, adorable, easy-to-please dork? Either way, it's great.

This is far from the first time the actor has goofed around about Game of Thrones. As previously mentioned, she's posted snaps of her coworkers on- and off-screen to Instagram, the most dazzling of which has to be the video of broody Kit Harington pretending to be a dragon behind-the-scenes. Another time, she bumped into former TV husband Jason "Khal Drogo" Momoa, and the two hung out for a few hours. They got drunk together, and Clarke was so thrilled that she posted an absolutely heart-melting Instagram caption.

You might think you fan out over Game of Thrones, but your fandom is nothing compared to Khaleesi's. Clarke is on the show and is still delighted by everything about it. It's almost enough to make fans start to worry about what will happen once the series wraps.

Though the final Game of Thrones season is at least a year away, it's little things like this that keep fans going. Finding out that Kit "Jon Snow" Harington and Rose "Ygritte" Leslie are shutting down production to make sure everyone can come to their upcoming wedding is beyond cute. The announcement that Maisie "Arya Stark" Williams will be a bridesmaid in her on-screen sister and real-life BFF Sophie Turner's wedding was enough to make everyone wish they had a Game of Thrones family.

And, Clarke's infinite joy when it comes to all things Game of Thrones is invigorating. It lets fans know that it's still cool to really love the series, even with Season 8 so far away.