‘Game Of Thrones’ Actress Details Harrowing Experience As Original Daenerys: “I Found Myself Naked and Afraid” Riding An Aroused Horse

Tamzin Merchant is finally opening up about playing Daenerys in the unaired Game of Thrones pilot. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Merchant revealed that she attempted to back out of the pilot due to concerns about Daenerys’ infamous wedding night scene, but was persuaded to move forward despite her anxieties. “Then I found myself naked and afraid in Morocco and riding a horse that was clearly much more excited to be there than I was,” recalled the actress.

In 2009, Merchant, who had recently appeared in Showtime’s The Tudors, signed on to film a pilot based off George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. “Shooting that pilot was a really great lesson,” the actress told Entertainment Weekly in her first-ever interview about the unaired pilot. “It was an affirmation about listening to my instincts and following them, because I tried to back out of that situation and, during the contract process, I did back out. I was talked back into it by some persuasive people.”

As has been previously detailed in James Hibberd’s Game of Thrones oral history, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, the pilot included a sex scene between Merchant’s Daenerys and Khal Drogo, played by Jason Momoa. While unaired pilot version was filmed as “a seduction,” as Martin put it, the scene filmed for series premiere very clearly depicted Emilia Clarke, the eventual Mother of Dragons, being raped by Khal Drogo. The original pilot also contained a shot of Drogo’s horse getting an erection, but the moment wasn’t included in reshoots, for obvious reasons.

“It was a lesson that if my guts are telling me a story isn’t something I’m excited to tell, then I shouldn’t try to be excited just because other people are telling me that I should be excited,” explained Merchant. “I didn’t have any training as an actor, I only have my instincts. And what excites me and what drives me is a compelling story and a compelling character. So for me, Game of Thrones was never that. I think it’s a testament to Emilia Clarke for making that role iconic — she was obviously excited to tell that story, and she was epic and excellent. But for me, it wasn’t in my heart to tell it.”

Merchant may have been recast before Game of Thrones made its way to HBO, but the actress doesn’t harbor any ill will towards the show or towards Clarke. “It’s been a thing I felt like I watched unfold and it’s been fantastic for the film industry in Northern Ireland and Croatia, and that has been really great,” she said. “I think if I had to get in that golden carriage — if I hadn’t been released from my contract — I think it would have taken me to a place far from the creative person that I am today.”

“I think Emilia Clarke is amazing. I just wouldn’t be the creator that I am today,” continued Merchant. “I’m profoundly grateful to have claimed my own path to be carving it for myself.”

Read Tamzin Merchant’s entire interview with James Hibbert at Entertainment Weekly.

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