'Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke Met Prince William and She Did Not Play It Cool

Picture the scene. You’re in line to meet Prince William, and it’s kind of a big deal. Sure, you might feel a little nervous and would almost definitely screw up your curtsy, but you’d still tell him how much you admire him and the work of his family. That’s unless you’re Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke (opens in new tab), who royally (pun intended) failed at playing it cool when she came face to face with the Duke of Cambridge recently.

She might be Westeros royalty, but even Daenerys Stormborn (opens in new tab) goes a little bit weak at the knees in front of an English prince. During her recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Emilia admitted that she became completely star-struck when faced with Wills, and made the ultimate, awkward faux-pas (opens in new tab) during her introduction.

The 36-year-old actress explained her quick protocol lesson beforehand. “It is a frightening thing going to the palace,” she admitted. “There’s a whole… there’s a thing. When you’re there, I was just relaxing and they [said], ‘Prince William is coming,’ so I was like, ‘Oh cool, great’. I’m really relaxed and everything is going to be fine. They were like, ‘You can’t turn your back,’ so I was like, ‘No worries,’ and they said: “You have to address him as your Royal Highness’. Then after that you can call him Prince William and there’s lots of formalities that you need to kind of adhere to.”

So far, so good—but things got a little out of hand when the future King of England actually appeared in front of her. Emilia revealed: “For whatever reason, maybe because I was so scared, I couldn’t manage to get out ‘Your Royal Highness’. So it was kind of like “ra… ra…”, it was pretty much all I managed.”

Um, didn’t William know that she’s of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons? The royal family could never.