Emilia Clarke absolutely has not watched House Of The Dragon

Move over, deer in headlights: We’ve got a new expression to convey “an almost paralyzed level of shock at some overpowering oncoming horror,” and it turns out that it’s “Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke being asked if she’s watched House Of The Dragon yet.”

Clarke was (very gently!) interrogated on her viewing habits by Variety this week, doing what appears to be a genuine double-take, followed by a quavering “No…?” and a nervous laugh in the immediate aftermath. It is, genuinely, one of the funnier celebrity interview moments we’ve seen in a second, as Clarke seems to be well-and-truly mortified by her own inability to watch the sequel series.

To be fair, Clarke (who was being interviewed in connection with her new movie The Pod Generation, with Chiwetel Ejiofor) was effusively positive about the show’s success, saying, “I’m so happy it’s happening, I’m so over the moon with all the awards, everyone who’s made it.” (She, not surprisingly, namechecks first-season co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, who she worked with extensively on the mothership series.) But, also, no: She hasn’t seen it.

“I just can’t do it! It’s so weird!” she pronounces, before drawing out a metaphor to explain her discomfort. “It’s kind of like someone saying, ‘You want to go to this school reunion that’s not your year? Want to go to that school reunion?’ That’s how it feels. I’m avoiding it.”

Luckily, House Of The Dragon doesn’t necessarily need that one extra viewer; although not posting the wildly high numbers that Game Of Thrones itself was pulling in its final seasons on the air, the show has been a ratings success, even as it split its attentions between HBO and HBO Max.