Snapping a selfie with Emilia Clarke — who portrayed Daenerys “The Mother of Dragons” Targaryen on Game of Thrones for nearly 10 years — would be a pretty fire Instagram post.
But as she revealed in the most recent episode of the Table Manners with Jessie Ware podcast, Emilia no longer takes photos with random fans when they spot her in public.
The 33-year-old told Jessie Ware that instead of selfies, she asks fans if she can sign something of theirs.
“As soon as you sign something, you have to have an interaction with that person,” she explained. “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.”
Emilia went on to explain that she loves mingling with people and that no longer being able to just pop into a local shop and chat with somebody is one of the things she misses “most about anonymity”.
“So then when someone’s asking me for a selfie, I want to be able to provide for them what it is they’re after.
“When you do a signing thing, you can actually look into their eyes and have a proper real human thing,” she said.
Emilia noted that she decided to use this tactic after a few weird experiences, including a fan asking her to take a selfie with him while she was in the middle of having a panic attack in an airport “brought on by complete exhaustion”.
“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 also noted that taking the time to sign something, rather than just posing for a fleeting selfie, has contributed to her own mental well-being.
“I signed up for [fame],” she said. “I’ve just been trying to navigate how I can [interact with fans] without feeling like my soul is completely empty. Because they don’t really want to talk to you.”
But, of course, it appears that Emilia will make exceptions to this rule. Like, say, you’re Stevie Nicks and you decide to walk over to her and bow to her mid-concert, just to show her how much of a fan you are. Then, sure, it seems like she will gladly pose for a photo.