‘Game of Thrones’ Actress Nathalie Emmanuel On The Shocking Missandei Scene

Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones took a dramatic turn when Missandei was executed after a standoff between Daenerys Targaryen and Cersei Lannister. 

Missandei, who is played by British actress Nathalie Emmanuel, entered the Game of Thrones plot in season 3 as a translator who caught the attention of Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) while she negotiated for her Unsullied army. As the seasons have gone on, Missandei has become the Mother of Dragon’s trusted advisor and fell in love with the Unsullied commander Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson).

At the beginning of season 8, Missandei and Grey Worm made plans to leave Westeros after the war and go to the beaches of her home country of Naath. But in the latest episode, the possible happy ending between the two was snatched away when Missandei was shockingly executed and went out with a cry of “Dracarys!”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Emmanuel said that she “thought it was a fantastic scene.”

“I’ve said in so many interviews that I don’t mind if I die I’m just happy to be here and be a part of the show,” the actress said. “But I just wanted it to be really cool and a moment that people remember and I feel like they really give me that moment and I’m excited to shoot it.”

Emmanuel, who has also appeared in films including Furious 7 and The Maze Runner, also said that she was happy with the way the Game of Thrones writers chose to send Missandei off. 

“It’s emotional. She said she was willing to lay down her life but we hoped she wouldn’t have to,” she said. “You can watch the end of a show and think the character is living on to do whatever. But there’s a real sadness to the fact that the character won’t.”

Emmanuel also revealed that ”It seems likely to push Daenerys to a scary level.”

During the interview, Anderson, who plays Grey Worm, also opened up about what it was like to lose his character’s love interest, calling it heartbreaking but noted that “there’s like a cruel inevitability in this show where anybody who finds that happiness is going to have to watch that taken away from them.”

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“So I thought either Grey Worm or Missandei, that one would be taken from another. I honestly thought Grey Worm was gone in that episode,” Anderson said. “And I even had that thought: ‘Take me!’ She’s come through so much s**t that she’s had to deal with her life. As soon as it looks like they’re about to enjoy it, it all gets snatched away. So I didn’t expect it and I had to lay down the script for a bit.”