Game of Thrones: Emilia Clarke watched videos of Hitler to prepare for season 8 finale
The actress said she felt 'numb' watching the final episode
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Your support makes all the difference.Following the conclusion of Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke has revealed that she watched videos of dictators such as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to prepare for her final speech.
In the final episode, after Daenerys has taken control of King’s Landing, the would-be dictator addresses her army in two made-up languages, Dothraki and Valyrian.
To perfect the speech, Clarke told Variety that she studied “dictators and powerful leaders” speaking different languages to see if those listening could understand the tone and the theme of the speech, if not the language itself.
“In giving all these speeches in fake languages, I watched a lot of videos of - now it seems funny - dictators and powerful leaders speaking a different language to see if I could understand what they were saying without knowing the language,” Clarke said. “And you can! You absolutely can understand what Hitler’s f**king saying, these single-focus orators speaking a foreign language.
“So I thought ‘If I can believe every single word I’m saying, the audience won’t need to be looking at the subtitles much'.”
During the interview, Clarke also said that she wasn’t prepared to feel “so numb” while watching the final episode.
According to the 32-year-old, herself and the cast have been “saying goodbye to [the show] for a while,” with the understanding throughout the last couple seasons that the “end is coming”.
As for her thoughts on what the lasting legacy of the show will be, Clarke said she believes it will be a discussion of power, and what it “does to a single human being, a group of human beings, and the people they are meant to be serving”.
You can read the full interview here.
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