Emma D’Arcy is happy to be your nonbinary representation, even if the conversation can get "quite dull"

As if being catapulted to fame isn’t startling enough, House Of The Dragon’s Emma D’Arcy also found themselves on the forefront of nonbinary representation in Hollywood. It does become “quite dull” to have to talk about their gender identity with strangers all the time, “But simultaneously, I take the responsibility for trying to carve out a little bit more space for people to live in really seriously,” they say in a new GQ profile. “I broadly have quite complex feelings about having a public profile, it’s not something I ever expected. But carving out a bit more space, a bit more wriggle room, for people to exist in, sounds like a job I’d like to do.”

You know what they say: with great power (becoming the rightful queen of Westeros, Rhaenyra Targaryen) comes great responsibility. D’Arcy speaks quite beautifully about exploring gender through the arts and their admiration for nonbinary HBO colleague Bella Ramsey. But one of those “dull” parts, which will inevitably rear its head with the upcoming Emmy nominations, is the classic gendered categories at awards conversation. D’Arcy gets “tired of being asked to be an expert” on the subject, but does consider it “as part of the job.” However, they observe, “It’s quite funny to sort of state in some way that you forgo the categorisation, and then be endlessly asked about how one might navigate categories.”

The conversation remains current—the Brit Awards have gone gender-neutral, and last month the CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said that the Oscars are also “exploring” the option. There are only a few highly visible nonbinary actors in the awards conversation at the moment, and they don’t all necessarily share the same views on the subject. Not to mention the cisgender actors who have pushed back against the idea.

In any case, this doesn’t sound like “awards” is D’Arcy’s biggest priority when it comes to being a “spokesperson” for nonbinary people and performers. They recognize that being on the top of the call sheet “means I can probably shout a little bit louder than one can in a less featured part,” and D’Arcy says they’re “up for” that responsibility. Having had time to work through their own feelings on gender presentation, “It doesn’t feel very complicated any more,” they say. “And yet, inevitably, I’ve met a lot of genderfluid, non-binary and trans actors, and there are several in House Of The Dragon. It’s nice, because while I’m at work, I take really seriously the attempt to expand and improve the working structures to support genderfluid people.”