The way Emilia Clarke got her role on Game of Thrones is utterly brilliant

Daenerys Targaryen. Khaleesi. Dany.

No matter what she's known as in Game of Thrones, there's no denying Emilia Clarke is fast becoming a household name in her own right. Still one of the breakout stars of the HBO show who hasn’t yet snuffed it on screen, she’s even found time to make appearances in major films of late - though the less said about Terminator Genisys the better.

Back in 2010 when she auditioned for Game of Thrones, however, Clarke’s CV featured just a single TV credit, for the BBC’s Doctors. As a relative unknown, making the jump from a BBC daytime drama to starring role in HBO’s televisual blockbuster wasn’t going to be easy, she was going to have to show some serious aptitude.

Now appearing on Variety Studio: Actors on Actors, Clarke has just confirmed it, revealing exactly what lengths she had to go to snag the coveted role: she danced the funky chicken.

Yes, it turns out becoming an iconc to geeks the world over all started in a small room making moves like a drunk uncle at a wedding, as she puts it herself:

"David Benioff and Dan Weiss and Frank Doelger and Carolyn Strauss – all producers on the show, showrunners – they had seen me in England and they had brought me over.

"And they were kind of, ‘Oh so this chick we found somewhere in London who’s done nothing but one episode of a daytime TV show, we’d like her to be this main character on this new show we’re doing.’ So, I needed to go in and be like, they weren’t crazy.

"So then I went in and I did the scenes and then I was like, ‘Can I do anything else? Is there anything else you want me to do?’ And, David Benioff was like ‘You can do a dance LOL’ as a joke and I took him so seriously… I’d might as well have brought in, like, a little apple or something. Teacher’s pet. Just wanted it so bad."

Though before you get too excited about seeing her break out the funky chicken in Westeros, Clarke added that her moves are unlikely to feature in the show anytime soon:

"I don’t think you’re going to see it. I tried to make her funny, and it doesn’t work. Khaleesi isn’t funny."

Spoilsport.