Dothraki Creator Defends Emilia Clarke After Language Controversy
David J. Peterson responds to Emilia Clarke's hurt feelings over misunderstood comments about her Dothraki pronunciation skills during Game of Thrones filming.
Learning any language takes serious dedication. Ask anyone grinding through language apps daily. Now imagine mastering a made-up tongue while millions watch your every syllable. That pressure hit Emilia Clarke hard when she thought the Dothraki language creator trashed her skills.
"I put so much energy into learning Dothraki," Clarke told Seth Meyers during a recent late-night appearance. She recalled her shock at reading criticism. "I read in an article, the creator of the language said that I sucked at Dothraki. I was like, 'Bro, it's not a real language!' I can't suck at it because me saying it on a TV show – that's the language, that's how it goes."
The actress felt genuinely wounded. "I was so hurt and really pissed," she admitted.
Setting the Record Straight
David J. Peterson, the linguist who crafted Dothraki, quickly jumped in to clear things up. He told Entertainment Weekly that Clarke misunderstood his previous statements completely. "I think Emilia may have misunderstood what I said, because I've never criticized her Dothraki. Why would I? Her character was never supposed to speak it like a first language, so she never had to be good at it."
Peterson's past interviews actually praised Clarke's work. Back in 2017, he told Rolling Stone: "It's always funny to me to hear Emilia Clarke speak Dothraki. Of course, her character is not supposed to be fluent, and it really sounds…not fluent." But he meant that as a compliment to her acting choices.
Character-Driven Performance
The language expert explained Clarke nailed exactly what Daenerys needed to sound like. "It's great. For her character, she understands and she can speak. She just doesn't sound quite right." That imperfection was the whole point.
Peterson doubled down on his support in later interviews. A Vanity Fair video captured him saying Clarke's Dothraki always "sounded very nice." The supposed criticism never existed.
Game of Thrones continues expanding its universe. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms drops January 18, adapting George R.R. Martin's Dunk and Egg stories. The franchise keeps growing, fictional languages and all.