Categories
Health

Emilia Clarke Celebrated Her Birthday With a 'Game of Thrones' Reunion


The official reign of Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khalessi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons, ended with the Game of Thrones finale in May. While the show is no longer airing, its cast is still finding adorable ways to pay tribute to the one-time ruler of the seven kingdoms.

On Friday (October 25), Emilia Clarke, who played Dany on Game of Thrones, shared on Instagram that she was celebrating her 33rd birthday. She called in several reinforcements to help her celebrate in style, including her former Thrones co-stars Jason Momoa, who played Khal Drogo, and Kit Harrington, who played Jon Snow.

Clarke shared a photo of the trio, with Momoa standing between her and Harrington, on her Instagram. “Reunions never looked this hairy,” she captioned the picture. She also added a very specific hashtag: “#anyexcuseforamomoasandwich.”

Fans know this is a special GoT reunion for two reasons. First, Harrington and Momoa both played Clarke’s love interests on the series. Second, Clarke, Harrington, and Momoa never appeared onscreen as a group. Momoa’s character was killed in the first season; meanwhile, Harrington and Clarke didn’t share scenes together until Game of Thrones‘s seventh season. In other words, this is a Thrones mashup we never could have had while the series was airing.

Just before the trio got together for Clarke’s birthday party, she joined Momoa on The Graham Norton Show to talk about her new movie, Last Christmas. Clips of the interview aren’t available online yet, but Momoa shared some snaps from their segment on his Instagram. “I love u my Khalessi. Happy birthday love,” he wrote to Clarke in the caption.

The months since Game of Thrones ended have offered ample opportunity for the cast to get back together. In August, Clarke jetted to India on a vacation with Rose Leslie, who played Jon Snow’s first love interest Ygritte. Then in September, cast members, including Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and Lena Headey, reunited onstage and in the audience at the 2019 Emmys.

Long live the seven kingdoms—and the actors who brought it to life.



Source link

Categories
Health

The 'Game of Thrones' Cast Got Super-Candid About the Final Season's Backlash


This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones. Consider yourself warned.

Can you believe it’s actually only been two months since HBO aired the final episode of Game of Thrones?

It might feel like a lifetime since the finale wrapped up, deciding the fate of the show’s (remaining) characters: Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) took over ruling Westeros while Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) became Queen in the North, and the youngest Stark, Arya (Maisie Williams), took off on a ship for parts unknown. But not everyone was pleased with the series finale—or the entirety of the eighth season—and the cast of the hit show hasn’t forgotten the backlash. Fans were upset with everything from Cersei and Jamie’s final moments and Dany’s turn as the Mad Queen to the choice of who took the Iron Throne and Jon’s banishment to the Wall.

There was even a fan petition requesting that showrunners reshoot the final season, which Turner (and Riverdale actress, Lili Reinhart) spoke out against earlier this year. “All of these petitions and things like that—I think it’s disrespectful to the crew, and the writers, and the filmmakers who have worked tirelessly over 10 years, and for 11 months shooting the last season,” Turner told the New York Times in May. “Like, 50-something night shoots. So many people worked so, so hard on it, and for people to just rubbish it because it’s not what they want to see is just disrespectful.”

Now some of her other cast members are sounding off, as well. “It was surprising the level of absurdity of the the online petition,” Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who played Jamie Lannister) said at Comic-Con on Friday, per Vulture. “Of course HBO’s going to change the whole thing. Because that’s the power of the internet! Every season, we had huge controversies. From Ned Stark being killed—‘I’m never going to watch that piece of shit show again!’ And then there was the Red Wedding. And obviously, the end. “

Members of the Game of Thrones cast at Comic-Con on Friday.Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

“I feel so lucky to have met so may fans of the show, and to realize this show has brought so many people together. Watching it, loving it,” he continued. “So obviously, It comes to an end, it’s going to piss you off no matter what. It’s the end! But at the end of the day, it’s absolutely fine. If you hated the ending, if you loved it, that’s great. Just don’t call people names.”



Source link

Categories
Health

Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie Put Herself Up for an Emmy Nomination—and Got It


Game of Thrones received a whopping 32 Emmy nominations for its final season—and the Internet can’t stop buzzing about one of them. Gwendoline Christie, who you know best as Brienne of Tarth, scored a nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, which isn’t much of a surprise. (I mean, her performance this season was brilliant.) What might surprise you, though, is learning that Christie submitted herself for the recognition—and got it.

Here’s why this is a big deal: Networks are generally the entities that submit actors for Emmy Awards. According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO entered Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, and Maisie Williams for this year’s race—but it did not put forth Christie, Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), or Carice van Houten (Melisandre), even though all three of those performers received nominations. They secured their spots by footing the $225 entry fee and submitting themselves into the race. THR says that it’s not uncommon for actors (or their teams) to do this, but it is atypical for those entries to result in actual nominations.

Christie celebrated her Emmy nomination by posting to Instagram, “CANT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!????!?!!?!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #EmmyAwards #CANITTRULYBEREAL??????????”

Fans on Twitter are, naturally, living for this and using it as a prime example of advocating for yourself. “HBO didn’t submit Gwendoline Christie for an Emmy so she submitted herself and got a nomination. Be your own biggest cheerleader,” one person tweeted.

Check out some more reactions for yourself, below:

For those who think HBO not submitting Gwendoline Christie was some kind of slight, THR says there is no beef between the parties and that the network plans on fully backing all the nominated actors.

The 2019 Emmys will air on Sunday, September 22 at 8 P.M. ET on Fox.



Source link

Categories
Health

Even Lena Headey Didn't Love Cersei's Ending on 'Game of Thrones'


It turns out even Lena Headey wasn’t thrilled with how the Game of Thrones showrunners wrapped Cersei Lannister’s storyline in the final season of Game of Thrones. For the past eight seasons, we wondered if Cersei would meet her end on the show—but what ultimately happened wasn’t quite what viewers thought would transpire for the once-powerful queen. (After all, the show has dispatched characters major and minor in pretty much every way imaginable.) As viewers know, Cersei dies in her lover/brother Jamie’s arms as King’s Landing crumbles on top of them, which some argue wasn’t befitting of her character. As it turns out, they’re not alone: Headey always wanted Cersei to have a more epic death, too.

“I invested as a viewer, and I have my favorite characters. And I’ve got a few of my own gripes. But I haven’t sat down drunkenly with [showrunners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] yet,” she told The Guardian in an interview published Sunday (July 16). (Those two are the showrunners who adapted Game of Thrones from the books.)

As far as what she’ll say in her tipsy critique, Headey told the Guardian that she already has it planned: “I will say I wanted a better death,” Headey said. “Obviously you dream of your death. You could go in any way on that show. So I was kind of gutted. But I just think they couldn’t have pleased everyone. No matter what they did, I think there was going to be some big comedown from the climb.”

This isn’t the first time Headey has voiced her dissatisfaction with Cersei’s death. Last month, following the series finale, she told Entertainment Weekly, she wanted her character to “have some big piece or fight with somebody.”

Even if Cersei didn’t get the ending she quite deserved, Headey is already considering her next role: The Guardian reports that the massive success of the show—and the acclaim her acting received—has been a huge boost to her career, and that she’s now being “sent scripts in which she is actively interested.” Hopefully, that means we won’t have to wait too long until we see Headey and her talent back in action.



Source link

Categories
Health

'Game of Thrones' Star Emilia Clarke's Emotional Goodbye to Daenerys Will Break You


Just one week after HBO aired its final episode of Game of Thrones, fans were treated to a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the show’s eighth and final season in the documentary The Last Watch. If you tuned in, you definitely saw how Kit Harington reacted to that shocking Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen scene in the finale—but there’s also there’s a good chance you’re still sobbing over Emilia Clarke‘s emotional goodbye to Dany. Truly nothing could have prepared viewers for the footage that shows the actress getting her hair done and the moment hitting her hard.

“There’s definitely an exhale of breath,” she tells her hairdresser, Candice Banks, as she gets her blonde wig put on for the last time ever. “It’s kind of exciting to sort of think: ‘Oh, who am I without this, then?’ I wonder.”

“That was Emilia’s last shot on Game of Thrones,” a crew member announces in the next clip after Clarke finishes up her final scene. She later hugs showrunner Dan Weiss and co-star Maisie Williams before heading back to her trailer to discover that someone had written “Goodbye Dany, Hello Emilia” on her mirror.

It’s safe that no matter how fans really felt about the series finale, it’s hard not to get emotional over Clarke’s goodbye.

If that wasn’t enough, she also bid farewell to Dany last week on Instagram, thanking her for shaping her “as a woman, as an actor, and as a human being.”

“Finding the words to write this post has left me overwhelmed with how much I want to say but how small words feel in comparison to what this show and Dany have meant to me. The mother of dragons chapter has taken up the whole of my adult life. This woman has taken up the whole of my heart,” she wrote. “But to you, dear kind magical fans, I owe you so much thanks, for your steady gaze at what we’ve made and what I’ve done with a character that was already in the hearts of many before I slipped on the platinum wig of dreams.

“Without you there is no us. And now our watch has ended,” she concluded.

Although there’s no more Khaleesi (or is there?), at least fans can hold out for the forthcoming Game of Thrones prequel that’s reportedly in the works at HBO.





Source link

Categories
Health

Twitter Thinks This Chart Helps Explain Why You Didn't Love 'Game of Thrones' Last Season


It’s officially been one week since HBO aired its final episode of Game of Thrones, and if you’re like other disappointed fans out there, you’re probably still trying to make sense of that unexpected ending. Though some aren’t pleased with showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (and even started a petition begging HBO to remake the last season), there’s some interesting data that might hold some explanation for why viewers were far more interested in the earlier seasons of the hit series.

Vanity Fair writer Joanna Robinson shared a chart on Twitter that tracks the average number of words the characters spoke per minute in each Game of Thrones episode, starting from Season 1. Based on the data, measured by OpenSubtitles.org and charted by Github user mrquart, the number of words in each episode declined throughout the show’s seasons.

You can see the graph fall from approximately 60 in the first season to less than 40 in the last. Meanwhile, season eight’s “The Long Night” episode, which contained the longest and most expensive battle scene in TV history, had the least dialogue with an average of just 15 words per spoken per minute.

As Robinson clarified in a reply to her original tweet with the chart, the data itself isn’t a reflection of quality. “… This isn’t INHERENTLY bad, obviously. I just like the earlier dialogue-heavy stuff so much personally,” she wrote. “… You don’t really need to see this lovely graph if you’ve looked at the scripts themselves—the difference is stunning.”

So if you think that the chattier scenes of earlier seasons were a little better, this might help support that. One user pointed out that the writers ran out of material after season five from author George R. R. Martin’s original books, so things shifted from “being conveyed via words” to, on its own, a more visual approach. Also, as some fans brought up, the show’s average word count could have also decreased in part because of all the battle scenes in later seasons, where there’s not a ton of talking going on.

Of course, fans were quick to chime in about it:

Despite the Game of Thrones‘ lack of dialogue, fans clearly still kept tuning in: In fact, more than 13.8 million viewers watched the final episode live, making season eight’s finale the most-watched of any of the show’s seasons.





Source link