Emilia Clarke on the Importance of Female Mentors in the Film Industry: âLord Knows I Would Have Loved Oneâ
You mentioned you wished you had more of a mentor. Could you expand on that?
I picked people up as I went along because, from the beginning, I didnât really have a mentor. Iâve sort of gone through every job like, âOkay, theyâre my mentor on this one.â And as Iâve had more experiences, Iâve met more people, and a few of those people, in the most beautiful way, have become people that I now lean on in a way that I never thought I would. And they come from different places as well. Youâd think an actor needs an actor, a director needs a director, a writer needs a writerânot at all. One of my work gurus, [whom] I tend to ask, âWhat do you think?â on almost everything, is a writer. You never know where the help is going to come from. You never know whatâs going to resonate with you or with someone else. Having as many experiences as you can with as many people as you can is only going to put you in an even better place to really understand what your voice is.
Could you identify anyone youâve reached out to?
I had a lovely lunch with Daisy Edgar-Jones the other day, through a friend, another wonderful friend, who was like, âThis kidâs new in the game! Letâs bring her in!â Iâm also a fan of her work. She was absolutely remarkable in Normal People. We had the loveliest chat; it was a very mutually beneficial conversation because I got to say what my experiences had been and she got to say what her experiences had been.
How else have you been spending your time these days?
A lot of work for the charity that I started, Same You. Thatâs been really amazing and fulfilling. We created an online rehabilitation center and itâs going to be something thatâs going to help so many people forever. We needed the restrictions that we were given because of COVID to create that and to fast-track it.
Iâm producing a lot, so thereâs been a lot of development work. Iâve kind of had, for the first time in my life, an office job; except the office is my house and the lunch break consists of my kitchen.
Thereâs been a lot of playing with my dog and reading all the books and watching all the movies, because thatâs the other thingâthatâs one other bit of advice that I give to anyone starting out in the industry. You want to be in film and TV? Watch everythingâthe good, the bad, and the ugly. See it all because the only way that you can describe work is by referencing other work, really. When youâre in the room with people and theyâre telling you about this idea that theyâve got, you have to start referencing thingsâdirectors and writers and actors and movies and scenes and all of these things. If you donât have that language, if you donât have that dictionary at your fingertips, I think it can become quite frustrating. But more than that, you get to know what you like if you have a full arsenal of your craft at your fingertips. And so, every year, I watch a hundred new movies. Iâm making my way through my list now.
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