Emilia Clarke called out Game of Thrones linguist David J. Peterson during a recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers to promote her new Peacock spy series Ponies. The Emmy nominee recalled feeling “hurt” and “really angry” when she read an article criticizing Peterson’s way of speaking Dothraki, one of Game of Thrones’ fictional languages.
“I put a lot of energy into learning the Dothraki language,” Clark said. “But I read in an article that the creator of the language said he hated Dothraki. I was like, ‘What, brother?'” It’s not real! That’s not real language! I can’t forgive you for saying it on TV…Honestly, it hurt me a lot. And I was really angry. ”
Although not very fast. Peterson told Entertainment Weekly after Clark’s “Late Night” interview that he was wrong about whether he had read the criticism about Clark’s Dothraki accent. He did believe that Clarke’s Dothraki character was a little unstable on the show, but clarified that that’s exactly what was needed for her character, Daenerys Targaryen, since she wasn’t a Dothraki.
“I think Emilia may have misunderstood what I said, because I have never criticized her for being Dothraki,” Peterson said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “Why would I do that? Her character wasn’t supposed to speak English as her first language, so there was no need for her to speak English well.”
“Criticizing the imperfections in her Dothraki performance would be like criticizing Colin Firth for his stutter in The King’s Speech. That would be completely off base,” he continued. “In fact, many of her Dothraki lines incorporate grammatical and punctuation errors, which are included in the MP3s I recorded for her. Emilia Clarke did a great job with Dothraki, playing a character who, through incredible hardships, is forced to learn a language she has never heard before, and who eventually learns to speak it as fluently and functionally as a non-native speaker.”
It is unclear which interview Clark read, or in which Peterson allegedly criticized her Dothraki accent. he told Rolling Stone in 2017. “It’s always interesting to hear Emilia Clarke speak Dothraki. Of course, her character isn’t supposed to be fluent, but she really doesn’t sound fluent. That’s great for her character. She understands and she can speak. She doesn’t sound right at all.”
Peterson also praised Clark’s work in a 2019 Vanity Fair interview, saying, “Thank you, Emilia, for everything you’ve done. Your non-native but fluent Dothraki has always been so wonderful, so well done.”
Clarke appeared on all eight seasons of Game of Thrones and received four Emmy nominations for her role as Daenerys. She recently told the New York Times that she has no intention of returning to the fantasy genre, explaining, “You’ll never see me riding a dragon or standing in the same frame as a dragon again.”
