Entertainment

Kit Harington & Emilia Clarke Had A Great Reaction To Filming Their First ‘GOT’ Scene Together

by Kristie Rohwedder

Once more, with retching. In Variety’s new profile of her co-star Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke got into what it was like filming that first Jon and Daenerys Game of Thrones scene that left fans shaking in their boots. Apparently, when it was time for Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen to finally chat for the very first time in Season 7, the real-life humans who play Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen could not maintain their composure. That tense meeting between Dany and Jon about bent knees, White Walkers, and dragonglass? A laugh-a-minute behind the scenes.

Clarke told Variety,

“The first scene we had together we both just started laughing. Why are you looking at me this strange way and saying these strange lines? You’re my friend!”

Clarke said Harington would also pretend to throw up while they were in scenes together, because what else are friends for? She recalled to Variety, “Oh, my God, mate. You’re not making this any easier!” Hey, what better way to shake off the awkwardness of filming a love scene with your longtime buddy/colleague than to act like you have to puke all over your longtime buddy/colleague? Atta boy, Harington.

They've been pals and co-stars since the beginning of time (aka Season 1 of Game of Thrones), but Harington and Clarke are relatively new scene partners: Dany and Jon do not meet until GoT Season 7. And when the two characters finally do interact, their first conversation goes about as smoothly as a rowboat ride through Old Valryia. (OK fine, fine. It is not as bad as a trip to Old Valryia. Not even close. If anything, it is probably more along the lines of when Tywin Lannister’s horse poops all over the floor at King’s Landing and then goes about his merry way.) She wants him to bend the knee, he wants her to take his stories about the White Walkers seriously, and neither seems particularly eager to give the other what they want. As Clarke told told Entertainment Weekly back when the episode aired in 2017, “It was fun to play — she doesn’t like him and she doesn’t believe him.”

Daenerys and Jon’s first impressions of each other may not be the most positive, but as the season trucks along, their dynamic takes a sharp turn toward Love Interest Town. And in the season finale, the Mother of Dragons and the 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch consummate their relationship. Harington and Clarke managed to get through this love scene without cracking up, a feat that is apparently much easier said than done. "If you’ve known someone for six years, and they’re best friends with your girlfriend, and you’re best friends with them, there is something unnatural and strange about doing a love scene," Harington told Vanity Fair in 2018. "We’ll end up kissing and then we’re just pissing ourselves with laughter because it’s so ridiculous.”

It's as the old saying goes: When you play the game of thrones, you win or you laugh until you pee.