Was It Harder for Emilia Clarke to Learn Dothraki or Russian? The PONIES Star's Surprising Answer
The former Mother of Dragons transforms into a spy in Peacock's new espionage thriller. Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson talk learning languages.
Emilia Clarke is no stranger to learning new languages for a role.
The Game of Thrones star famously spoke the fictional languages of Dothraki and High Valyrian for her role as Daenerys Targaryen on that epic fantasy show. For her latest role, a widow turned CIA operative named Bea in Peacock’s PONIES, the actress had to learn Russian.
In the spy thriller series, Clarke stars alongside Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus), who plays a fellow widow named Twila that she teams up with to try to get some answers about their husbands’ mysterious deaths. They use their unassuming and underestimated personas to infiltrate KGB intelligence in 1977 Moscow.
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Peacock Blog spoke with the pair about their new espionage show, and Clarke gave us the scoop on which language was tougher for her to master — Dothraki or Russian.
Keep reading to find out what her answer was and more about PONIES, now streaming on Peacock in full.
Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson talk PONIES
The United States intelligence employees at the CIA's Moscow station who are working with Bea and Twila explain to them that they’re deemed “Persons of No Interest,” a.k.a. PONIES, so they should be able to slip under the KGB’s radar as long as they're careful not to reveal themselves.
Bea has somewhat of an advantage in her new CIA role: she speaks fluent Russian as the child of Soviet immigrants and she also studied Russian at Wellesley College.
But the English actress did not speak the language at all before signing on for the role.
“I love that people might assume that I just casually speak Russian,” Clarke told Peacock Blog.
“That’s cool,” Richardson noted.
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“Maybe I’m giving that vibe like... I just happen to be fluent in 10 languages,” Clarke joked.
She worked with teachers to learn Russian in order to nail her character’s fluency, Clarke said on a January 12, 2026 Late Night with Seth Meyers appearance.
The actress struggled a bit with the language at first, but was it harder to learn than Dothraki?
What was harder for Emilia Clarke to learn, Dothraki for Game of Thrones or Russian for PONIES?
“100% Russian,” Clarke revealed to Peacock Blog. “Russian is a real language, so therefore... you have like an entire population of people —"
" — That are judging you,” Richardson interjected with a giggle.
Clarke continued, "In Russia and the rest of the world who speak Russian, they can understand if you are messing up their language. Yeah, no pressure.”
Richardson offered, "It sounded great to me."
“I mean, that was it, every time I’d do it, Haley would be like, ‘Sounded great to me,’ and I’m like, ‘You don’t know,’” Clarke said.
Richardson joked that Clarke could’ve spoken gibberish and she would’ve still given a supportive “Perfect!” after the take.
To decide for yourself how well Clarke pulls off Russian in PONIES, start watching the spy series on Peacock now, where all eight episodes are available to stream!
