London, July 22nd
Emma D’Arcy in conversation with Ilana Kaplan
How did you first become interested in acting?
ED I think initially, around the age of 7 or 8, acting was something I did for fun in my living room. My sibling would get roped in, a couple of close friends too. Apparently, I was an “actor- director” in those days. My first experience of being “on stage” was in the year six play at my primary school. I remember being completely thrilled by it — coming out after the show and sprinting around the school field. I felt powerful somehow. I think there’s something very radical about giving children a stage and asking adults to sit down and listen.
What was your life like growing up? Who did you admire in the acting world?
ED I was born in London but grew up in Gloucestershire. I love London, but I’m grateful to have grown up out of the city. There was a lot of boredom available. Being a teenager outside of a major city in the UK involves long periods of loitering — standing around on patches of grass or waiting outside supermarkets — they’re great conditions for dreaming, I think. I wasn’t at all keyed into the world of acting as a kid — I couldn’t name many actors at all. But I was passionate about our VHS collection. Certain films I watched on repeat — 2001: A Space Odyssey, Chicago, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Fantasia.
What has it been like for you to enter the Game of Thrones universe?
ED I’m very grateful to have been entrusted with such a treasured and important character. But for a long time, I felt like a visitor in the Game of Thrones universe. It’s only now, after Season 2, that I feel I’ve received my Westeros passport.
I would like to know how you prepared to play Rhaenyra. Did you read any books or watch any movies/TV shows?
ED There’s a lot of preparation involved. It’s less about consuming existing media and more about engaging with the text: understanding it, interpreting it, metabolising the story from the perspective of the character. I also like to think about the work critically, from outside that perspective: developing a unifying theory that will carry and underpin the character throughout a scene, episode or season.
You have a lot of theatre experience. I’m thinking about The Crucible in particular. Arthur Miller’s work is often seen as a commentary on society. Did you find any contemporary parallels while performing in it?
ED There are certainly some parallels, though the context in which Miller wrote was very specific. I find it interesting how the left-wing position in 20th century modernism tends to champion the plight of the individual against an uncaring and oppressive world (i.e. the small everyman John Proctor vs the powers-that-be). But, these days, neoliberalism has claimed individualism for itself.
Read the full interview on Muse September Issue 64.
