After it appeared in the July 23 episode of Game of Thrones, Missandei and Grey Worm’s sex scene was at the center of the conversation around the show. It was well-received by critics and was considered “a big deal.” Emmanuel thinks a lot of people reacted so positively to Missandei and Grey Worm’s sex scene because viewers have watched their relationship build for a long time. “Often, a lot of the sex scenes are about gratification, stealing moments with each other, and with certain people it happens in the brothels or it’s been rape,” Emmanuel explained. “That’s been very brutal.” The only exception Emmanuel could think of is Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) and Ygritte’s (Rose Leslie) cave moment in Season 3, which, like Missandei and Grey Worm, involved trust and consent.
As a member of the Unsullied, Grey Worm was castrated, leaving him especially vulnerable with Missandei. That factor alone made this moment incredibly important to him. “She wasn’t concerned with what was there or what wasn’t there, essentially. She was like, ‘I love this man, I want to see him in his entirety, and love him just as he is,’” Emmanuel explained.
“She knows where he comes from, she knows what happened to him,” she said.
There aren’t many actors of color who appear on Game of Thrones in significant roles, and the HBO show has received backlash for its predominantly white cast and lack of diversity. Daenerys has even been at the center of this criticism, with people calling her a “white savior” for emancipating slaves and “helping” people of color. In Season 3, Episode 10, there was an especially controversial image of Khaleesi being lifted up in a large crowd of Yunkai people who were worshipping the woman who liberated them. The shot shows Daenerys (white, blonde, and wearing a light blue dress) lying on top of a sea of nonwhite people, repeating the word mysah (mother) over and over again in gratitude.
Emmanuel thinks her role as a woman of color on GoT is crucial and she’s grateful that the writers on the show gave Missandei an interesting and important storyline. When it comes to diversity on television overall, however, the actor believes there are still many strides to be made in the name of progress. “Hopefully in the future when we have shows on this kind of level, we can see more and more characters of diversity and actors from different backgrounds being included,” she said. “I’m hopeful for that, and am willing to work and push toward that.”
While she personally will always want to discuss representation on television and film, Emmanuel believes it’s a conversation everyone needs to have.
“I feel like it’s a question that’s often posed to people of color and actually the conversation is for everybody — the people who are making shows, writing, and casting on every level,” she said. “Maybe one day I’ll be in those rooms and making my own things and I can influence that more myself. It’s a conversation that I enjoy having and will always have, but I do think that it’s a conversation that needs to be had with everybody at every level.”
As far as Missandei’s experience as a person of color with power in Westeros, Emmanuel thinks “you can relate that back to real life.”
“Missandei is very aware that she’s in new territory with new people and probably people that are racially different from her,” she said. “That can often be a huge shock to your system when you’ve been growing up in one place with people who look like you, and then all of a sudden you’re thrown into this world where you’re one of a few. And then especially also being a woman, there’s no doubt she’s felt a little trepidation about that.”
Despite the fact that she’s an outsider in the predominantly white and fictional land of Westeros, Emmanuel thinks her character still holds her her own agency and power.
In Season 7, Episode 4, when Jon Snow and Ser Davos (Liam Cunningham) were visiting Dragonstone at Daenerys’s invitation, the men asked Missandei why she still serves Daenerys even though she’s freed from slavery and servitude. Missandei replied that she’s free to serve who she wants, and that she genuinely believes in Khaleesi. Jon Snow then asked what would theoretically happen if Missandei wanted to return to her home, to which she said, “Then she would give me a ship and wish me good fortune.” Missandei’s power lies in her own choice to stay loyal to Daenerys, and whatever role she is given if Daenerys does become queen of the Seven Kingdoms.