Nathalie Emmanuel: We need to keep fighting for inclusion in TV
Nathalie Emmanuel says there has been a noticeable improvement in diversity on the small screen since her 'Game of Thrones' character's death sparked an important debate.
The 33-year-old actress portrayed Missandei, the sole major black female character in 'Game of Thrones' between 2013 and 2019, and previously admitted she and co-star Jacob Anderson, who played Grey Worm, felt very "conscious" of how important they were to people of colour, so called for other programmes to have more diverse casts so there isn't one person given the focus of so many other people's attention.
And as the 'GoT' spinoff 'House of the Dragon' just kicked off, Nathalie is pleased to see more shows being inclusive.
Speaking to Harper's Bazaar magazine, she said of her character: "I will always think of her fondly. I loved her so much and her death sparked a really important conversation about inclusion and diversity in shows like that."
She went on: "You can see the change since then, because I just watched the first episode of 'House of the Dragon' and just straight away I thought, oh, wow – it is so great to see so many different kinds of faces, different kinds of people. It made me really happy because ultimately I’m just a huge fan!”
While shows are getting more inclusive casts, the 'Invitation' star admits there is still work to be done behind the camera.
Nathalie added: "Someone once told me: when you're treading water in the ocean, if you stop pedalling, you get pulled out to sea. And so, I feel like that's what this conversation is always going to be like, we have to keep treading water.
"I love seeing inclusion on screen, but we need to still keep fighting for inclusion behind the camera, especially in those decision-making rooms. We need to keep momentum going."
