Emilia Clarke Admits She Regrets 'Stupid Action Movies' She's Filmed

Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor in Terminator: Genisys
(Image credit: (Paramount))

As the eight-season journey on Game of Thrones soon comes to an end, fans are certainly curious about where we will see our favorite stars next on the big screen. Jason Momoa certainly made waves as Aquaman after portraying Khal Drogo, and Sophie Turner is playing the titular role in the next installment of the X-Men franchise, Dark Phoenix. What about fan-favorites Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, a.k.a. Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington?

Emilia Clarke recently spoke with Variety about her time as a big screen actress thus far, and part of the discussion was about how her and co-star Kit Harington have bonded over their common career accomplishments… and mistakes. Said the actress,

Kit and I are counterparts in terms of experience. We are pretty much the same age, and our characters have had parallel journeys, and we as actors have had parallel journeys. We’ve both done stupid action movies we regret and fabulous things we’re proud of, and we’ve always come back to Thrones. And he’s the person I’d ask, ‘How are you handling this? Are you alright?’ We were in sync, even if we were filming on opposite sides of the world.

Their characters are connected in more way than one! The two actors have notably had some bad luck with their big budget action movie endeavors, and here Emilia Clarke admits to regretting them. Of course, Clarke notably played Sarah Connor in the 2015 failed reboot Terminator: Genisys, which in the past she has said she was “relieved” to see fail at the box office so she wouldn’t have to return for a sequel because “no one had a good time” making it.

Clarke also recently played Qi’ra in Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was deemed the biggest disappointment for the franchise – though obviously nobody is placing any blame on the actress. The movie dealt with some problems during production, such as the replacement of Phil Lord and Chris Miller with Ron Howard in the midst of filming.

On Kit Harington’s end, the actor starred in 2014’s period volcano thriller Pompeii, which only made $117 million worldwide with a $100 million budget, and Seventh Son, which has comparative disappointing numbers with a $114 million worldwide take against a $95 million budget. These are reasons enough for the Game of Thrones stars to be apprehensive about starring in action movies, but luckily they had each other to talk out shared experiences, even though they were on completely different projects.

Looking ahead, Emilia Clarke is starring in a rom-com with Crazy Rich Asians Henry Golding called Last Christmas, and in a crime-thriller titled Above Suspicion - neither of which are being made as tent-pole blockbusters. Kit Harington will next be seen on the big screen starring in the drama The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, which premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival and isn't currently set up with a domestic release date or distributor.

The actors will be the talk of the world when the premiere of Game of Thrones' six-episode final season premieres on April 14th, leading to an ending for their characters that Clarke said “fucked [her] up” and got Harington crying at a table read.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.