Emma D’Arcy, a powerhouse of an actor who joined House of the Dragon as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen when the characters aged up on House of the Dragon, was among the nominees at this year’s Golden Globes. D'Arcy has been revered for their performance in the Game of Thrones prequel, and just received their first major award nomination for their work. Now, they are opening up about how “beautifully ironic” it is that they got nominated right as they started to truly embrace their non-binary identity.
While chatting with E! News on the red carpet, D’Arcy reflected on how much their nomination means to the trans and non-binary community. The actor was nominated for their performance in House of the Dragon for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama, and as they were speaking about being recognized, they said:
When I was starting out, I really felt that I had to present as a woman in order to find success in this industry. It wasn't sustainable, and I stopped pretending. And weirdly at that point I got nominated for Best Actress for the Golden Globes, which is like beautifully ironic.
It’s wonderful to see non-binary and trans actors getting recognized for their work, especially D’Arcy because they are truly phenomenal in House of the Dragon. In my opinion, they are a standout among HOTD’s truly phenomenal cast – they’re great in the whole series, but if you saw the shocking finale for the Game of Thrones prequel, you know exactly what I’m talking about. They continued to speak about how much the nomination meant to them, explaining:
I think the most important thing for me is that it implies that the space for trans people and gender nonconforming people is getting bigger all the time. So, I feel very privileged.
I’d imagine once the Emmy nominations come around they will be seeing their name again on the nomination list, and I’m positive D'Arcy and many other gender non-conforming actors will continue to make the space for trans and non-binary folks even bigger and better.
Along with D’Arcy, Emma Corrin, who also identifies as non-binary, has been recognized for their work on The Crown and other critically acclaimed projects. While both D’Arcy and Corrin have talked about how honored they are to be recognized, Corrin has also been open about being nominated in the actress category, while using they/them pronouns. They have also talked quite a bit about working to make award categories more inclusive. However, they told BBC that the best way to create more representation is to tell more stories about non-binary people. They explained:
You can discuss awards and the representation there, but really the conversation needs to be about having more representation in the material itself, in the content that we are seeing for non-binary people, for queer people, for trans people, because then I think that will change a lot.
Hopefully, we’ll see this conversation around representation continue, and more brilliant actors, like D’Arcy and Corrin, will receive more jobs and be recognized for their fantastic work.
While House of the Dragon won’t return on the 2023 TV schedule, I’m sure we’ll see the cast again at the Emmys, and then it’s just a short wait to 2024 and Season 2. In the meantime, you can watch D’Arcy in Season 1 of the Game of Thrones prequel with an HBO Max subscription.
