On the surface, Last Christmas doesn’t seem like the kind of movie that would generate an enormous amount of social media buzz. But after word got out that Paul Feig’s latest film features a huge twist, fans online gathered together with the singular goal of figuring it out. It’s not the first time fans have gone wild over spoilers, but for star Emilia Clarke, the obsession is a huge pain.
The actress spoke with IndieWire ahead of the movie’s release. And she was particularly blunt when asked about the hubbub over the twist, telling the magazine:
It’s bloody annoying. Frustrating...It’s more complicated than people are guessing.
Okay, message received. And her irritation is somewhat understandable, since the fervor over Last Christmas’ twist has more or less dominated conversation about the movie ever since the trailer was released. Emilia Clarke said that she wishes fans wouldn’t focus so much on spoilers, explaining:
Emma [Thompson] and Greg [Wise] wrote this script together, but they sent the script to all of their friends and it was only ready when their friends didn’t see the twist coming and couldn’t guess until it happens, so that’s where it comes from… it’s just frustrating.
This isn’t the actress’ first encounter with obsessive social media trends. Following the Game of Thrones final season, in which her character Daenerys Targaryen’s storyline experienced some, well, controversial developments, the cast and crew were at the center of a Twitter maelstrom. Emilia Clarke weighed in on the fandom backlash, and saw a common thread between the two events:
I’m careful with what, the way that I’m wording this, but it’s no surprise, it’s common knowledge that the state of our world at the moment is scared and confused and there’s a lot of stuff going on that’s completely out of our control… So when it comes to signing petitions to reshoot the last season of a very popular TV show, or whether it’s spoiling a goddamn Christmas rom-com, people are able to do something about that.
Despite her frustration, Emilia Clarke does have some sympathy for spoiler hounds, given what she views as the current state of affairs. She told IndieWire:
Our world’s literally on fire, so I think that there’s a lot of things outside of people’s control, so when it comes to this kind of stuff, they can do something with it and want to. It’s done with so much fervor, it’s done with a huge amount of energy and all that is, is misdirected energy.
Last Christmas, which also stars Emma Thompson and Henry Golding, premiered this weekend. So we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out whether the spoiler-hunting energy translated into actual box office interest.
