Here’s Why Emilia Clarke Likened Finishing ‘Game of Thrones’ to Taking Off a Bra

For some (us), accepting that Game of Thrones is ending was a tough pill to swallow. For Emilia Clarke, however, saying goodbye to Daenerys Targaryen was basically the best feeling in the world.

The 32-year-old actress opened up about wrapping GoT’s eighth and final season during an interview with Bazaar.com and found the most unexpected but accurate way to describe the experience. (Hint: Most females can relate on a cellular level.)

How? Well, as Clarke explains it, “Game of Thrones is probably the hardest shooting I’ll do, because it is so physical and you’re in a corset! You’ve got the physical places of where you are, the weather is so extreme, and the hours are really long and there’s so much tension in each character towards the end…You’re concentrating so hard. It’s strenuous.” That sounds unpleasant. 

So, when the hit HBO series drew to a close, Clarke was, well, a little relieved. “I think ending it was just the mother of all releases,” she explained. “It was just the metaphorical undoing of the bra, except it’s like a ten-year experience.”

We can all agree that wearing a bra for ten straight years sounds torturous, so we guess we can understand where Clarke is coming from. But even though the IRL Khaleesi relished in shedding the role she portrayed for a decade, it was still a little bittersweet. On her final day of shooting, Clarke got caught up in the gravity of it all and decided to give a toast.  

“I started to do a little speech, not because I’m a pretentious actor, but because every time we said goodbye to a character, David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], the showrunners, would give us a gift and the crew would be around and everyone would stop and you’d sort of say a few words,” she explained. “It was really beautiful. I mean, I got three words in before I just completely broke down…I just burst into tears like a complete idiot.”

Hey, we’d react the same way if we had to say goodbye to a bevy of dragons and a title like Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons.