--- title: Emilia Clarke Snuggles Her Dragon In Behind the Scenes Pic description: The actress shared a behind-the-scenes peek of what it's like to be the Mother of Dragons. canonical: https://time.com/5570527/emilia-clarke-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-instagram/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-15T14:08:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:37.899Z og:title: Emilia Clarke's Snuggly Behind the Scenes Pic Is Emotional og:description: The actress shared a behind-the-scenes peek as the Mother of Dragons. og:url: https://time.com/5570527/emilia-clarke-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-instagram/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltadd076f1c211cb73/6989484ce76ad244476347c5/emiliaclarkeongameofthronesinstagram.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "Game Of Thrones" Season 8 NY Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Emilia Clarke's Snuggly Behind the Scenes Pic Is Emotional twitter:description: The actress shared a behind-the-scenes peek as the Mother of Dragons. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltadd076f1c211cb73/6989484ce76ad244476347c5/emiliaclarkeongameofthronesinstagram.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Emilia Clarke's Snuggly Behind the Scenes Photo Will Give You All the Feelings by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 15, 2019 2:08 PM UTC  Emilia Clarke attends the "Game Of Thrones" Season 8 NY Premiere on April 3, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO) Emilia Clarke attends the "Game Of Thrones" Season 8 NY Premiere on April 3, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO)Jeff Kravitz;FilmMagic for HBO by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 15, 2019 2:08 PM UTC As the final season of [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/4913247/game-of-thrones-season-8-premiere-date/) kicks off, one the show’s cast members is taking fans behind the scenes—and behind the magic—as the [beloved HBO series](http://time.com/5570434/game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-review/) winds down. In a photo shared on Instagram ahead of the show’s [Season 8 premiere](http://time.com/5569876/stark-family-crypts-history/) on Sunday night, Emilia Clarke posted a photo of herself on set and it is both adorable and fascinating. In the photo, Clarke is in character as Daenerys Targaryen a.k.a. one of the current claimants to the Iron Throne of Westeros and Mother of Dragons. In the photo, Clarke is cuddling up to a green and white machine that, through the magic of computerized special effects, will eventually be rendered as her beloved dragon, Drogon, named after [her former husband](http://time.com/5537042/emilia-clarke-jason-momoa-oscars-2019/), Khal Drogo. “Me and my baby (dragon) (Drogon) just very excited for you all to see #season8gameofthrones which if I’m not mistaken begins….now,” she captioned the post. While Clarke posted the image to share her excitement for the final season, the photo also reveals that Clarke is an even better actress than we may have thought. It clearly takes a great deal of talent and imagination to pretend you’re flying on a fearsome, fire-breathing dragon when you’re actually on what looks like an astroturf-covered mechanical bull. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5570527/emilia-clarke-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-instagram/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5570527/emilia-clarke-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-instagram/"},"headline":"Emilia Clarke's Snuggly Behind the Scenes Photo Will Give You All the Feelings","datePublished":"2019-04-15T14:08:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:37.899Z","description":"The actress shared a behind-the-scenes peek of what it's like to be the Mother of Dragons.","url":"https://time.com/5570527/emilia-clarke-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-instagram/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","game of thrones","emilia clarke","onetime","game of thrones 2019"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltadd076f1c211cb73/6989484ce76ad244476347c5/emiliaclarkeongameofthronesinstagram.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltadd076f1c211cb73/6989484ce76ad244476347c5/emiliaclarkeongameofthronesinstagram.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Game Of Thrones\" Season 8 NY Premiere","caption":"Emilia Clarke BTS Game of Thrones INstagram","creditText":"Jeff Kravitz;FilmMagic for HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5570527/emilia-clarke-game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1-instagram/","name":"Emilia Clarke's Snuggly Behind the Scenes Photo Will Give You All the Feelings"}}]}] ```