Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke debunks reports of $300,000-per-episode salary

For years, reports claiming that the stars of HBO’s blockbuster fantasy series Game of Thrones earned as much as $300,000 per episode have circulated widely online. Now, more than a decade after the speculation first emerged, actress Emilia Clarke has set the record straight.

In a recent interview with Variety, Clarke dismissed the oft-repeated figure, saying the reported salaries of the show’s lead cast were significantly overstated.

“We didn’t earn that much. Can you imagine? I’d have been driving a couple of Porsches,” she joked, responding to claims that she and her co-stars were paid $300,000 per episode during the show’s peak years.

Clarke, who portrayed the iconic Daenerys Targaryen — also known as the Mother of Dragons — did not reveal the exact amount she earned during the series’ eight-season run. However, she acknowledged that her earnings from the global phenomenon provided her with enough financial security to pay off her parents’ mortgage.

Reflecting on Daenerys Targaryen

The actress also spoke about her approach to playing one of television’s most recognisable characters.

“I was given the seasons, and I, to the best of my ability, empathised and understood and tracked every choice she made so it felt like mine. I felt like that was what my job was,” Clarke said.

Premiering in 2011, Game of Thrones became one of the most successful television dramas in history before concluding in 2019. Alongside Clarke, the ensemble cast featured actors including Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

Equal pay with male co-stars

Before the series ended, Clarke had also addressed questions about gender pay disparity in Hollywood, revealing that she was paid the same as her male co-stars on the show.

“It was my first job, and I was not discriminated against because I was a woman, in my paycheck,” she said during a 2018 appearance at the Cannes Film Festival.

That same year, court filings connected to Coster-Waldau’s legal dispute with his former manager revealed that the actor earned approximately $1.07 million per episode for at least six episodes of the show’s final season, offering a glimpse into the substantial salaries negotiated by the cast in later years.

Life after Westeros

Since her breakthrough performance in Game of Thrones, Clarke has built a diverse acting career across multiple genres and major franchises.

She starred as Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys, joining the long-running Terminator franchise, and later appeared as Qi’ra in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The actress also showcased her range in romantic comedy with Last Christmas, in which she played an aspiring singer navigating life and love in London.

Other notable projects in her post-Westeros career include Above Suspicion, Secret Invasion, Criminal and The Pod Generation.

While the exact figures behind the Game of Thrones paychecks may remain a mystery, Clarke’s latest comments have put one of the show’s most persistent salary rumours to rest.