Emilia Clarke says the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ is "more intense".
The 32-year-old actress has starred in the HBO fantasy series as Daenerys Targaryen since it began in 2011, and after filming recently wrapped on the show’s eighth and final season – which will air next year – she has revealed "everything" from the costumes to the camera checks have been more intense than ever before.
She said: "[Camera] checks take longer, costumes are a bit better, hair and makeup a bit sharper – every choice, every conversation, every attitude, has this air of ‘this is it.’ Everything feels more intense."
And co-star Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, agrees as he says shoots that used to take one day ended up taking almost a week, as cast and crew were determined to "get it right".
He added: "It’s relentless; scenes that would have been a one-day shoot five years ago are now a five-day shoot. They want to get it right, they want to shoot everything every single way so they have options."
The final season is set to be "emotionally haunting" as the characters bring their epic story to a close, and producers hope the final episodes can "honour" the vision of writer George R.R. Martin, who penned the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series which the show is based on.
Co-executive producer Bryan Cogman told Entertainment Weekly magazine: "It’s about all of these disparate characters coming together to face a common enemy, dealing with their own past, and defining the person they want to be in the face of certain death. It’s an incredibly emotional haunting bittersweet final season and I think it honours very much what [author George R.R. Martin] set out to do – which is flipping this kind of story on its head."
Emilia Clarke: Game of Thrones has gotten more intense
