Emilia Clarke has revealed that filming her provocative new spy thriller Ponies left her with a broken rib after an intense day shooting intimate scenes.
The Game of Thrones star, now 39, opened up about the painful and awkward incident during a new interview discussing the Cold War-era drama. Ponies is set in the 1970s at the height of Cold War tensions and follows Bea, played by Emilia, and Twila, played by Haley Lu Richardson, as they investigate the mysterious deaths of their husbands while secretly working together as CIA operatives.
Speaking to TheWrap, Emilia explained that the injury happened while she was filming a prolonged sequence involving intimate scenes with three different male actors. She described how the day escalated into a physically demanding shoot that ended badly for her body.
She said: "Just keep bringing it - I'm going to sit on this thing, you're going to bring them in, we're going to pretend to have sex. I broke a rib that day."
Her co-star Haley Lu Richardson, 30, confirmed the incident during the joint interview and emphasized how real the injury was. She added: "She really did. She's such a tiny little sensitive body, [it] meant she broke a rib."
The mishap reportedly led to an uncomfortable conversation with Emilia’s doctor, as she had to explain exactly how she sustained the injury.
The revelation comes shortly after Emilia spoke candidly about the emotional toll she experienced when Game of Thrones came to an end. She previously admitted that finishing the long-running fantasy series triggered what she described as a complete psychological collapse, and she has since decided to step away from the fantasy genre altogether.
Emilia, who famously portrayed Daenerys Targaryen on the HBO series, reflected on how deeply the show shaped her life, having been a central part of it for nearly ten years.
She said: "It was the first time in my professional life that I stopped. I had a full mental breakdown. It was almost as if the timing of the pandemic was bang on."
Game of Thrones aired from 2011 to 2019 and also starred Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and Kit Harington. Emilia was just 22 years old when she began playing Daenerys, and the role was only her third acting job. Looking back, she said she never had the opportunity to pause and process what the experience truly meant.
While speaking to The New York Times, she explained that only after the series ended did she finally feel able to reassess her career direction and regain control over her choices. She said it allowed her "to realise that I could try and get some autonomy over my choices, my work".
She added: "So much of my career didn't reflect my taste, I just sort of shot out of a cannon."
Emilia also made it clear that her time in fantasy worlds is over, saying: "You're highly unlikely to see me get on a dragon, or even in the same frame as a dragon, ever again."
Last June, Emilia revealed to The Big Issue that she feared losing her job on Game of Thrones after suffering two brain haemorrhages. The first occurred in 2011, shortly after the show’s debut season finished filming, leaving her unable to speak and close to slipping into a coma. A second haemorrhage in 2013 required surgery after scans showed it had doubled in size.
She has previously explained that she belongs to a very small group of people who survive such injuries without lasting physical consequences, though she said the experience fundamentally changed her sense of self.
She told the magazine: "When you have a brain injury, it alters your sense of self on such a dramatic level. All of the insecurities you have going into the workplace quadruple overnight."
She also recalled her constant fear at the time, saying: "The first fear we all had was, "Oh my God, am I going to get fired? Am I going to get fired because they think I'm not capable of completing the job?""
Emilia ultimately underwent surgery to restore blood flow to her brain and relied on medication to manage the pain, continuing to work through one of the most challenging periods of her life.