Harry Potter Star Felt Extremely Nervous Working with GoT Icon Emilia Clarke
Matthew Lewis was absolutely petrified before playing Clarke's on-screen lover — but after the movie was done, he had nothing but words of praise for the actress.
Matthew Lewis is a Schrödinger's actor: on the one hand, most fans know him from the Harry Potter movies; on the other hand, most people don't recognize good old Neville Longbottom in this handsome young man.
Despite the general attitude, the actor actually gained quite a lot of acting experience after leaving the iconic franchise.
Having starred in numerous movies since Harry Potter, Matthew Lewis was more than confident about his acting abilities and enthusiastically jumped into new projects.
That was until he learned that in one of his new movies — 2016's Me Before You — he would play the boyfriend of none other than Emilia Clarke.
Obviously, Lewis had watched Game of Thrones, and he was lowkey scared of working with the show's star. After seasons of watching Clarke lead her dragons and armies into battles, the thought of portraying her lover terrified the young actor.
But in the end, he had nothing but praise for both Emilia Clarke's personality and performance.
"She's so friendly and so lovely to be around and obviously because of her playing Khaleesi in Game of Thrones, I was very nervous about working with her. But she's so talented and so disarming that it's a pleasure working with her! I think she did the most beautiful job in this film," Lewis shared with Lorraine.
Despite his initial fear of acting opposite the Game of Thrones star, Matthew Lewis quickly realized that working with Clarke was going to be really easy and fun.
"The whole environment of the set was set by her. It was just a really fun environment — we got to come in and play around and try things and do things, and it just felt really comfortable," the actor explained.
What started as the most nerve-wracking experience in Matthew Lewis's career turned into the most pleasant and relaxing job of his life, and he was genuinely happy to build such a friendly and chill rapport with Emilia Clarke — the superstar he'd only recently stopped finding terrifying to stand next to.
Source: Lorraine via YouTube