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Emilia Clarke Said Someone Asking Her For A Selfie While She Was Having A Panic Attack Changed How She Thinks About Fan Interactions

"I’m crying and crying, and this guy’s like, 'Can I get a selfie?'"

Ellie Bate
by Ellie Bate

BuzzFeed Staff

It's safe to say Emilia Clarke is pretty damn recognisable after spending almost a decade playing Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones.

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So it's only natural that fans would want to interact with her — and maybe ask for a selfie — when they see her in public.

But during a recent episode of Jessie Ware's Table Manners podcast, Emilia revealed that she's changed her way of thinking about these interactions after a recent incident with a fan in an airport.

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Emilia said she was in the airport and started having a panic attack "brought on by complete exhaustion", and was on the phone to her mum when a man approached her.

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"I was on the phone to my mum saying, 'I feel like I can’t breathe, I don’t know what’s going on,'" she explained. "I’m crying and crying, and this guy’s like, 'Can I get a selfie?' I was like, “I can’t breathe, I’m really sorry.'"

She revealed that the interaction changed her opinion of taking selfies with fans, and she now offers to sign something for them instead.

And she went on to explain that asking for someone's name when she signs something turns the experience into a "truthful human-to-human thing".

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"When you do that you have to have an interaction with that person..." she said. "Then you have a chat and you’re actually having a truthful human-to-human thing, as opposed to it being this other thing that probably isn’t nice for them and isn’t that nice for you."

"I signed up for [fame]," Emilia concluded. "I’m just trying to navigate how I can do it without feeling like my soul is completely empty, because they don’t really want to talk to you."

You can listen to the full episode of Table Manners here.