Some things in life go with out saying: the sky is blue, puppies are adorable and Emma D’Arcy enjoys a Negroni Sbagliato with Prosecco in it. Except, since that viral 2022 video in which they banter with House of the Dragon co-star Olivia Cooke about their drink of choice, that’s no longer the case. ‘Is that bad?’ they grimace with a quiet laugh, bringing warmth to the grey office above the studio where they just posed for the photographs you see here. ‘It’s tricky because if I order a Negroni, I’m literally doing the meme again and one doesn’t always have the resources to do a meme on a Thursday evening.’
Calm, considered and humble, D’Arcy is both elegant and self-deprecating all at once, with the sort of nervous energy you would expect from a person being pulled in all directions. And it’s no surprise that the 31-year-old is attempting to conserve their energy, considering that this week sees them embark on a six-week run of Bluets at the Royal Court theatre alongside press for the hotly anticipated second season of Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon. The former, adapted by Margaret Perry from Maggie Nelson’s book by the same name, will see the actor perform alongside longtime friend Ben Whishaw (‘he’s a magic person’) and rising star Kayla Meikle.
Leaning forward in their chair, it’s clear the actor is thrilled about the project. ‘I first read Bluets years ago and this has been such a lovely invitation to return to the work.’ Though doing so is a risk. ‘I subscribe to the “don’t meet your heroes” rule, so this is completely tearing up my personal rule book.’
The story, D’Arcy says, is ‘a meditation on heartbreak, considering emotion, perception and sex, and it’s also about a lifelong obsession with the colour blue’. Though they’re ‘wary of colouring the viewer’s experience’, they say that the three performers ‘offer facets of one character that form a broader investigation into identity and the relative stability or instability of the self’. For the actor, Bluets is more than just a story about heartbreak, though; it illustrates how easy it is to feel isolated in a city like London. ‘Alongside it being this meditation on pleasure, pain, desire and the perils of human sentience, [Nelson] also creates a really astute illustration of urban loneliness without ever necessarily stating it.’
A quick google claims that D’Arcy should be an expert in city life, considering they were born and raised in London. Though not all is what it seems. ‘I don’t know who made that up; I grew up in Gloucestershire,’ they laugh, bewildered. In fact, moving to the capital at a later age is an experience D’Arcy says they’ll always cherish. ‘I feel lucky because London’s a mad place to move to if you didn’t grow up here. I feel privileged to have had that experience. A lot of the UK is made up of spaces where one loiters on bits of green or whatever, and you come to the city and there’s a lot happening.’
Nevertheless, back in Gloucestershire, the actor’s childhood home was always bustling with activity. ‘My mum was an illustrator, and long before I came into the world my dad was a creative director. He was an obsessive maker, painter, photographer; sometimes a sculptor, a gardener and a cook.’ Did they inherit their father’s drive to create? ‘We like the idea of an obsessive, but I don’t know if I’d call myself one. I really enjoy my work, it has always been quite important to my sense of self. I would say I’m a good worker, but I think that’s different. I don’t know if I would be churning out images if I were just left to my own devices.’
Still, ‘creating’ is something D’Arcy has done for some time. After catching the bug in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in their tweens, acting ‘ticked along in the background’, they say. Though, in a time when the nonbinary actor was figuring out their identity, immersing themselves in all kinds of art was a necessity. ‘Through the miserable teenage section of one’s life, for me, it was a really important place where I felt quite comfortable when I did not feel comfortable [in myself].’
Today, D’Arcy seems reluctant to dwell on their young, queer experience, moving on to explain that following a degree in fine art at Oxford University, it was the collaborative aspect of working on screen and stage that encouraged them to pursue a career in acting. ‘I think I’m quite an introverted person, but I don’t do brilliantly well when completely alone. I feared life as one person in a small studio alone. I think because I lack the obsessive gene, I would go into existential crisis within, like, a week.’ Theatre and performance, D’Arcy feels, is different. ‘I felt like there was an opportunity to do similar stuff, but you’re never alone because it always requires lots of parties and different disciplines to make the work. I really love the collaborative nature of it, that’s my thing.’
Needless to say, D’Arcy’s ‘thing’ quickly got them noticed, resulting in parts in productions such as Against at the Almeida and Mrs. Dalloway at the Arcola, as well starring roles in Nick Payne’s Wanderlust on Netflix and Truth Seekers with Nick Frost on Amazon Prime. And then came the monster that is House of the Dragon. Gobbling up an incredible £16m in production costs per episode, the show calls on D’Arcy to take on one of two leading female roles, Rhaenyra Targaryen — a strong matriarch destined for the Iron Throne, a character which, coincidentally, has seen the actor call on Nelson’s seminal memoir and work of queer, feminist theory, The Argonauts, for inspiration.
Airing on 17 June, the second instalment will give D’Arcy double the air time, and twice the nail-biting deception and excitement the gargantuan Game of Thrones fanbase craves. ‘Those who’ve watched the first series will know that we left Rhaenyra having just received the news of her son’s murder. We pick up in series two about two weeks later, so that loss remains very raw. The person that we meet is a woman who is devastated, she’s lost an unbelievable amount — her son and her father. She suddenly finds her self usurped, robbed of her inheritance.’
Their character ‘strikes me as a person rigid with grief’, D’Arcy continues. ‘I think she’s very hateful. Grief can completely dislocate you from your family, friends, colleagues, peers. It’s almost as though the bereft person remains with the dead, somehow.’ The journey through the series will see Rhaenyra ‘travel back to the land of the living. She has to find a way to deepen her relationship with her family, her allies and her colleagues — not only so that she can heal this great wound, but also so that she can then fight for her throne.’
Does the actor relate to their female character at all? ‘Yeah, I think she has an acute perception of how power operates. On the one hand, that’s a great strength, but it’s also a handicap, because to perceive how power is, is to see how power is being denied. This can be painful. She doesn’t get the bliss of ignorance. She perceives injustice as it happens to her and I think that’s like a really resonant facet of her character.’
In terms of the fame that comes attached to such a role, ‘It’s hard to interact with the scale of the show,’ D’Arcy says. Nevertheless, their appearance in the series allows them to lead a relatively conventional existence. ‘I’m very lucky, I lookvery different in the show. The blonde wig is a piece of armour that protects me. I have a very normal, ordinary day-to-day life and it suits me.’
They haven’t gone unnoticed among their peers, however, with their performance in just five episodes of the first season earning them a 2023 Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. ‘I didn’t know, and it was Matt [Smith] who texted me congratulations. It was a really beautiful way to find out. He’s the perfect person to deliver news like that.’ Smith, who plays D’Arcy’s uncle and lover (yes, really) in the series, is an inspiration, they say. ‘He’s just someone that I love, he’s like a dear friend so it’s difficult to recontextualise him as a famous person. He has an admirable work ethic and is never content to rest on his laurels. He’s constantly seeking something new, an interpretation of the text, something spontaneous, something alive.’
But as a non-binary person at the forefront of a new wave of talented, nonconforming actors and performers including Emma Corrin and Bella Ramsey, how do they feel about the gendered nature of the current awards system? ‘My broad take would be that it’s not for gender nonconforming people to solve the problems of category. There’s a lot of self-advocacy that has to happen, I suppose, as part of muscling for space. Broadly, I’m loath to have to be an expert on categories.’ Nevertheless, they are pleased to see change. ‘There are multiple awards that are already finding new ways of categorising, and what feels beautifully evident about that very exciting, very talented [up and coming] generation that you speak of, is that those people are constantly revealing that the current structure is somewhat redundant, it isn’t functioning as we need it to.’
Plus, despite their desire to live an ‘ordinary life’, D’Arcy is pleased to be a role model for aspiring queer actors. ‘I feel it to be a role of privilege because I suppose I wouldn’t have known when I was younger that I would necessarily be out and visible. That alone feels like… I feel deeply fortunate to be in this position. I have a complicated relationship with the idea of a public profile, however surely the value is in creating more space for people to live, and getting to do that job sounds really exciting. So I’m really happy to do that job.’
Moreover, they’re confident that we’ll continue to see an improvement in the industry. ‘It may take time, and sometimes you get a regressive wave, but ultimately, we are on a progressive journey.’ They pause for a beat. ‘Trans people and gender non conforming people will not go away.’
‘Bluets’ opens at the Royal Court on 17 May (royalcourttheatre.com). ‘House of the Dragon’ premieres 17 June on Sky Atlantic.
Photographed by Sarah Piantadosi.
Styled by Jessica Skeete-Cross.
Production by Nicole Holcroft-Emmess.
Hair by Jody Taylor at Leftside Creative using Babyliss Pro.
Make-up by Phoebe Walters at The Wall Group using Dior Forever Foundation and Capture Totale Le Sérum.
Photographer’s assistants: Andy Broadhurst and Federico Covarelli.
Stylist’s assistant: Anastasie Tshichimbi.
