Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen are basically BFFs now, in case you didn’t know, and Entertainment Weekly celebrated their new allegiance by conducting a charming joint interview with Emilia Clarke and Peter Dinklage. Turns out the pair are just as chummy in real life as they are getting to be onscreen, praising each other’s acting talents and discussing how much fun it has been to work together.
As Dinklage put it, “You have these grand battle scenes with 1,000 extras, but always my favorite scenes on this show are the one-to-ones, especially working with a person that I’ve known for five years but never got a chance to get in the ring with.”
Adds Clarke, "We’ve been award-ceremony buddies. We’re press-day buddies. But this is it. It’s just so wonderful. I’m not killing someone. I’m not shouting. I’m not speaking Valyrian. We’re having a discussion. It’s a healthy intellectual debate, which is a joy.” And while Tyrion has had many buddies over the years, Clarke joked that their meeting is "obviously his favorite meeting. That’s what he’s trying to say. I can hear it in his voice. He just hasn’t said it out loud yet."
After agreeing that what their characters have in common is that they are ultimately both “good people," each offers an opinion on what they think their characters can learn from one another. Clarke says she thinks "Dany could learn how to get what she wants from Tyrion. Also I think Dany could learn how to crack a joke, maybe. She could learn to stop taking things so seriously and stop just gazing into the distance at some point."
Dinklage, on the other hand, thinks that "Tyrion could learn how to be a leader. I don’t think he’s good at that. He’s smart, but it’s always in someone else’s ear. I don’t know if he’s well suited for leadership. He wants the same experience he had [advising] Joffrey, but with a qualified person—and that’s what she is. He’s slowly realizing that she’s a perfect combination for him.”
And naturally there’s some excellent banter on display, like here, when they describe how they envision their characters’ eventual deaths (Valar Morghulis!):
DINKLAGE: I think it’s going to be like [quickly] you-go-I-go.
CLARKE: Like lemmings. We’d just jump off a cliff like Thelma and Louise. Or we just kill each other. That’d be amazing.
DINKLAGE: I’m kind of serious. I think we’ll go out in a blaze of glory—boom, boom, Bonnie and Clyde.
CLARKE: Or he just doesn’t die—that’s the other logic.
DINKLAGE: If we do die, I just hope it’s it’s dramatic and crazy.
CLARKE: Hells yeah.
Aw. These two! Get a room! (A small council room in which discuss official throne matters, naturally).
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