Emilia Clarke Says She’s Always Received Equal Pay as Male ‘Game of Thrones’ Co-Stars
The conversation for equal pay has taken over Hollywood in the last few months in the midst of the Time’s Up movement, and Emilia Clarke is joining in on the discussion.
In an interview for Kering Women in Motion at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, where her film “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is screening, Clarke said that her starring role on “Game of Thrones” comes with a gender-neutral paycheck.
“On ‘Game of Thrones,’ I have always been paid the same amount as my male co-stars,” the actress said. “It was my first job and I was not discriminated against because I was a woman, in my paycheck.”
She said that recent revelations of pay inequality, like the discovery that Claire Foy was paid less than Matt Smith on “The Crown,” were “shocking, actually shocking.”
“You start to dig deep and see where it is, rife in the industry. So I think it’s mainly in the beginning, just be aware of that and going, ‘Can you just check?,'” she said of handling negotiations. “You just start to fight harder for that stuff.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Clarke discussed changing directors mid-way through the “Solo” shoot and the final season of “Thrones,” which she is in the middle of filming as the steel-willed Daenerys Targaryen. She confessed that she’s not certain how all the palace intrigue and clashes for the Iron Throne will end.
“It will be what none of us think it will be,” Clarke predicted.
After seven seasons of playing the mother of dragons, Clarke sounded emotional about saying goodbye to the role that made her famous. “It really feels like preparing to leave home…that’s exciting, but it’s sad and scary all at the same time,” she said.
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