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Emilia Clarke shuts down 'Game of Thrones' salary rumours
The actress says reports claiming she earned hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode were "wildly exaggerated".
- PUBLISHED: Sun 31 May 2026, 11:19 AM
- By:
- ANI
Emilia Clarke has dismissed long-standing rumours about how much the cast of Game of Thrones earned during the show's run, calling the widely reported figures "wildly exaggerated."
In a recent interview with Variety, Clarke refuted claims that she and several of her co-stars were paid as much as $300,000 per episode.
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"We didn't earn that much," Clarke said, according to Page Six.
Reacting to the figure, the actress joked, "Can you imagine? I'd have been driving a couple of Porsches!"
Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen throughout the HBO fantasy drama's eight-season run, did not disclose her actual salary but insisted that reports over the years significantly overstated what the cast was paid.
The actress also declined to comment on separate reports suggesting some of the show's leading stars earned up to $500,000 per episode.
Game of Thrones premiered in 2011 and concluded in 2019 after eight seasons. Alongside Clarke, the series starred Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Sophie Turner.
The debate over cast salaries gained momentum in 2018 after court documents linked to a legal dispute involving Coster-Waldau reportedly revealed the actor was earning $1.07 million per episode for at least six episodes of the show's final season.
Clarke has previously spoken about pay parity on the series. During an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, she said she had been compensated equally to her male co-stars.
"It was my first job, and I was not discriminated against because I was a woman, in my paycheck," she said at the time.
Turner also addressed salary reports in a 2019 interview after claims surfaced that she earned $175,000 per episode. The actress defended Harington's higher pay, saying it reflected the demands of his role.
"Kit got more money than me, but he had a bigger storyline," Turner said. "And for the last series, he had something crazy like 70 night shoots, and I didn't have that many. I was like, 'You know what, you keep that money.'"
Elsewhere in the interview, Clarke reflected on the intense fame that accompanied one of television's biggest global successes.
"You realise it's just a formula: The less you're on TV, the less famous you are," she said. "It comes, and it goes."
The actress also spoke about the lasting impact of surviving two brain aneurysms while filming Game of Thrones.
During a recent appearance on the How to Fail podcast, Clarke recalled how the medical emergencies affected her emotionally.
"It became this thing where I just couldn't look anyone in the eye," she said. "It just cuts you off from the outside world because you're walking around knowing that your body has failed you."
Clarke suffered the near-fatal brain aneurysms in 2011 and 2013 during the early years of filming the fantasy drama. Despite the health challenges, she went on to complete all eight seasons and became one of the show's most celebrated stars.