Emilia Clarke is setting the record straight regarding the long-running rumors surrounding her Game of Thrones paycheck. More than a decade after reports claimed the actress earned an estimated US$300,000 per episode, Clarke, best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen on the hit HBO fantasy series, described the figures as “grossly exaggerated.”
“In her latest interview with Variety, Clarke shared her honest take on the rumours, saying: “Can you imagine? I would be driving my Porsche!” Although she did not reveal her actual salary on the program, she insisted that the numbers circulating on social media were widely inaccurate.The actress also did not directly address Variety’s previous 2017 report, which suggested that some key cast members were earning as much as $500,000 per episode in later seasons of the hit HBO series.Clarke has previously spoken about pay parity on the soap, revealing in a 2018 interview that she earned the same as her male counterparts.“It was my first job and I was not discriminated against because I was a woman, in my salary,” she said at the time during an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival.While Clarke appears to refute reports about her earnings, details of some cast members’ salaries have emerged over the years.
According to Page Six, court documents from a legal dispute involving Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and his former manager revealed that the actor earned up to $1.07 million per episode for at least six episodes of the show’s final season.Meanwhile, Sophie Turner previously spoke out about reports that she was earning $175,000 per episode. “Kit made more money than me, but he had a bigger story,” Turner said in a 2019 interview with Harper’s Bazaar.In her conversation with Variety, Clarke also talked about losing out on an Emmy for her role on the series. “I’m embarrassed to admit that not winning an Emmy was a really big deal,” she admitted. The actress also revealed that she missed Hollywood parties after the loss.Premiering in 2011, Game of Thrones became one of television’s most successful and influential series before ending in 2019. The fantasy drama also starred Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and many other favorites.
