House of the Dragon is shaping up to be one of the biggest shows of the summer, and it has a nonbinary star to thank for one of its most compelling central performances: Emma D’Arcy, who plays Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen. During a recent interview with GAY TIMES, the actor shared the response they have received from nonbinary viewers, calling it “very beautiful.”
“I suppose being a gender nonconforming person on screen feels like a real privilege,” D’Arcy said. “Because when I was younger, I kind of thought that if I were able to act as my job, it would probably be quite separate from my identity, and maybe they would remain separate. I didn’t know it would be possible for those to sort of overlap and be in conversation with each other.”
The actor added that seeing more gender nonconforming trans and nonbinary people across media has been “very hopeful,” concluding, “Turns out there is, in fact, space.”
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Since the Game of Thrones prequel series debuted in 2022, D���Arcy has been open about how their own nonbinary identity intersects with their performance as Rhaenyra, a woman whose claim to the universe’s coveted Iron Throne is often undermined by the men around her.
“If [Rhaenyra is] gender questioning in any way, it’s because she sees men occupy a space that isn’t afforded to her,” D’Arcy told Vanity Fair in a previous interview. “And she craves the space, which makes her reflect on why she is not afforded the same things as, say, her uncle Daemon, to whom she feels incredibly similar… And yet the rules are applied completely differently to two of them.”
It’s an experience that D’Arcy said is somewhat related to their own life, adding, “I think, probably, I started in a very similar place when I was younger in terms of craving the right to occupy space in a way that I saw boys and men do.”
Meanwhile, during a red carpet interview with E! News at the 2023 Golden Globes, the actor shared that being recognized for their role as Rhaenyra is “surreal,” since early on in their career, they “really felt that [they] had to present as a woman in order to find success in this industry.”
“It wasn’t sustainable, and I stopped pretending,” D’Arcy said. “And weirdly at that point I got nominated for best Actress for the Golden Globes, which is, like, beautifully ironic.”
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