Sometimes, a little ad libbing is all it takes to make a good script great. The past decade and change has seen improvisation become more and more commonplace behind the scenes of movies and TV shows; though the practice is far more common in comedy, it’s certainly not unheard of on the dramatic side. Game of Thrones, for instance, has apparently fostered the kind of environment that welcomes creative input from its actors. Even if said input is really nothing more than the bastardized lyrics to ’90s pop songs.
Emilia Clarke—leaps and bounds more cheerful in mortal form than as her Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen, for what it’s worth—confessed to Seth Meyers on Late Night that she’s adopted the habit of defaulting to the scripture of one especially formidable boy band when the Queen of Meereen’s lines are too hard to remember, or just not quite gripping her. In her defense, Clarke is referring specifically in the video above (which we discovered over at Rolling Stone) to dialogue that she’s meant to deliver in the made-up-but-still-totally-elaborate language of Dothraki.
Yammering on in the tongue of Essos’ brutal warriors can get a little tiresome after a number of takes, so Clarke will occasionally spice things up by tossing in a Hanson lyric or two. But she keeps it in character! If Dany’s gonna sing “Mmmbop,” she’s gonna sing “Mmmbop” in Dothraki. If you’re curious as to how that might go, a dutiful demonstration awaits in the video above.
Personally, I’d have taken Dany to be more of a 98 Degrees person.
Image: HBO
Michael Arbeiter is the East Coast Editor for Nerdist. Find him on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter.
