Here's What Emilia Clarke Really Ate During That Infamous Game Of Thrones Scene
Whether or not you're a "Game of Thrones" fanatic, you might have at least heard of the infamous horse heart scene. It's the one where Daenerys Targaryen must eat an entire horse heart as part of a pregnancy ritual to determine if her unborn child will become the "stallion who mounts the world" (via Nerdist). Though the ritual is difficult to stomach, Daenerys succeeds in finishing off the horse heart.
Emilia Clarke, the actress who portrayed Daenerys, apparently didn't have to do much acting in the scene, as she revealed to The Mirror that the horse heart tasted just as repulsive as it looked, especially since she ended up having to eat 28 of them. "It was very helpful to be given something so truly disgusting to eat, so there wasn't much acting required," she told the news outlet. "They made the heart out of solidified jam but it tasted like bleach and raw pasta." Daenerys may have managed to hold the horse heart down, but off-camera, Clarke became so nauseous that the crew had to provide her with a bucket to vomit in between takes.
Emilia Clarke was misinformed about how the horse heart would taste
In the episode's behind-the-scenes audio commentary (via YouTube), Emilia Clarke revealed that she was completely taken aback by how the horse heart tasted when she took her first bite. "They assured me it would taste of gummy bears, and I, having the biggest sweet tooth on the planet ever ... was overjoyed at this," Clarke explained. But much to the actress' dismay, the horse heart tasted nothing like gummy bears, and the texture apparently made it even worse.
Not only was it filled with some sort of juice to mimic the blood; it also had arteries. "The things that were kind of like arteries were little bits of dried pasta, uncooked pasta, that you had to chew down on," Clarke recalled with disgust. It may have not been an actual horse heart she ate, but based on all the vomiting that happened during filming, it's safe to say it was still a pretty gross experience.