Emilia Clarke’s Worst Fear Was Beyonce Hating Her

Game of Thrones is over and as we know, Daenerys Targaryen went all the way crazy. She burned King’s Landing to the ground and killed a million men, women and children, then had her men execute the prisoners. Once it became clear her plan was to keep doing this all over the world again and again, Jon Snow killed her and set the ending of the show in motion.

I thought it was a pretty brilliant move. People wonder how fascism can take hold in a country, and Game of Thrones absolutely encouraged us all to root for Daenerys Targaryen even as she proved to be completely inept as an actual leader and a ruthless, bloodthirsty tyrant in the making. When you stop to think about it, her army of the Unsullied even looked evil, dressed all in black leather and marching in lockstep. How many hints did we need?

Still, almost everyone was rooting for her. More people named their daughter Khaleesi than Stacy in recent years. Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard and current US Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren publicly expressed their support for Dany and even Beyonce loved her.

That last one was a bit awkward for Emilia Clarke who played the hero-turned-villain before the world found out about her heel turn on Sunday. Clarke told The New Yorker that when she met Beyonce she was terrified that the singer would end up hating her for betraying the sisterhood or whatever.

And Beyoncé says to me, ‘Oh, my goodness, it’s so wonderful to meet you. I think you’re brilliant.’ I just couldn’t handle it! I was on the verge of tears. I could see myself reflected in her eyes. I could see her go, ‘Oh, no. I misjudged this. This girl is crazy and I’m not going to have a real conversation with another celebrity. I’m having a conversation with a crazed fan who’s looking at me like a rabbit in the headlights.’ Which is exactly what I was. I said, ‘I’ve seen you live in concert and I think you’re amazing and wonderful! Wonderful!’ And all I wanted to scream was ‘Please, please still like me even though my character turns into a mass-killing dictator! Please still think that I’m representing women in a really fabulous way.’ ”

You don’t have to be the hero or a role model. No one should be looking to prestige TV stars to be “representing womanhood.” But hey, Daenerys proved that even women can be war criminals, and she’s letting all the female war criminals out there finally see themselves on the small screen.