Game Of Thrones star Nathalie Emmanuel has addressed criticism of the show’s lack of diversity.

The HBO show was previously called out for its lack of representation in its main cast.

Speaking at the British Film Institute BFI Luminous event on Tuesday (October 1), Emmanuel called the criticism “fair”.


“It was something that they could have done better on,” she explained. “Hopefully that criticism will be heeded for future shows of that magnitude.”

However, the actor, who played Missandei on the show, praised the writers for making her role bigger in the series than it was in George R.R. Martin’s books. “They really gave the characters of colour they did have some great stories and scenes to play [because] in the books, my character isn’t really prominent,” she said.

Commenting specifically about her on-screen work with Jacob Anderson, who played Grey Worm, she added: “They really gave me some beautiful things to do and portray with my amazing friend and colleague Jacob. I felt really supported and looked after in that respect.”

Meanwhile, Kit Harington recently revealed he has yet to watch the final season of GoT. The actor played Jon Snow in the series but told reporters at last month’s Emmys that he had “dealt with the controversy” surrounding the show’s conclusion by not watching it.

“I know what it took to shoot it and it was hard and everyone put their love and effort into it,” he said in defence of the show. “I think for us, we knew what we were doing was right, story-wise. And we knew that it was right for the characters because we lived with them for 10 years. So the controversy, for us, didn’t really affect us.”