Nathalie Emmanuel On 'Fast & Furious 9' Meeting Oprah Winfrey And Dealing With Fan Intrusion

*Warning: This article contains spoilers*

Nathalie Emmanuel is on the up and up. If you thought that after eight seasons of Game of Thrones, she'd be ready to put her feet up with a cuppa for a while, you'd be wrong. The 32-year-old actress has been hard at work on another venture, and this one's sure to be a hit too. After playing Ramsey in Furious 7, and The Fate of the Furious, she's back reprising her role on the big screen for Fast & Furious 9.

Ahead of the film's release, we caught up with the Essex-born star to discuss everything from befriending Charlize Theron, through to that GoT ending.

The Game of Thrones ending might have divided opinion among fans and stars alike, but for Emmanuel, it ticked all the boxes.

‘I did like the Game of Thrones ending,’ she reveals, during our game of Ask Me Anything.

‘I thought what they were able to do after such a huge monster of a show was really impressive. I know that as a fan of the show myself that we all individually have our idea of how we would’ve liked our favourite characters to end...'

‘When you think of how many people had been following that show, had loved and invested [in it] there really was no way to make every single person happy.’

After eight seasons playing Missandei, a polyglottic slave from Naath who becomes Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) right hand woman, Emmanuel admits she was surprised her character made it to the series' finale given its reputation for killing off roles unexpectedly.

‘Pretty much every season I opened the scripts expecting to be killed,’ she admits. ‘The fact that I made it to season eight was a shock. So when it finally happened I wasn’t like “oh no!” I was like “there you go". It was going to happen eventually. I didn’t necessarily have a fear [of being killed off] because it was Game of Thrones - it was known for that!’

Months after speaking openly on Twitter about her experiences fan intrusion, recalling a moment as a teen when she broke down in tears in a shop following an encounter, Emmanuel says that while most interactions have been ‘positive’, others have crossed the line.

‘When you’re sitting in a restaurant with your family and they come over and interrupt or are taking pictures sneakily… it makes you feel like you’re in a goldfish bowl,' she says. 'It’s a strange thing – you can’t relax or be fully engaged with the people you’re with, [and there are] people who follow you or find out where you live or where you are…’

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Recalling a moment when a fan went as far as to be threatening, Emmanuel notes that it’s important ‘to create boundaries so I get to feel comfortable and safe and have the choice in any situation’.

Despite boasting an acting career spanning over two decades and having roles in some of the most successful television shows in history, the 32-year-old admits she isn’t immune to fangirling over A-listers once in a while.

‘I’ve had some pretty big fan girl moments. I think the biggest was when I met Mel B from the Spice Girls because I’m a huge Spice Girls fan and I couldn’t speak much. I can get a little shy anyway but I got incredibly shy,’ she says.

On meeting Oprah Winfrey she recalls: ‘I lost all words. It was pretty exciting. She’d been watching Game of Thrones and was complimenting me and it was weird. I didn’t know how to deal with that because I was like “but you’re Oprah!”’

Six years after she first took to the screen in the action film Furious 7 as computer hacker Ramsey, Emmanuel is reprising her role yet again for F9 and starring opposite the likes of Vin Diesel, Ludacris, Helen Mirren and her childhood heroine Charlize Theron.

‘She was really sweet and cool,’ she says of meeting Theron on the set of Fast & Furious. ‘I just remember being really giddy when I got back to my trailer thinking “I just met Charlize Theron!”.’

Watch Nathalie Emmanuel's Ask Me Anything in full above.

Fast & Furious 9 is out now in UK cinemas.

Katie O'Malley

Site Director

Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.