Game of Thrones! The show, with its unprecedented killings and unforgettable ceremonies, has put its audience through a complete roller-coaster of emotions several times; however, there were only a few events that could come close to the extremely high drama of Daenerys Targaryen's heart-eating ritual.Was Emilia Clarke actually acting during that infamous scene? Back in 2017, during an interview with The Mirror, the actress opened up about the infamous stallion heart sequence from Game of Thrones.The fake heart she was biting on was such a disgusting thing that her reaction had to be sincere. In the first season of the series, the scene where Daenerys eats a stallion's heart was created by freezing jam, but the final product was also flavored with bleach and raw pasta.During the shoot, Emilia Clarke consumed about 28 of these hearts in total.According to Buzzfeed, Clarke said,"It was very helpful to be given something so truly disgusting to eat, so there wasn’t much acting required... Fortunately, they gave me a spit bucket because I was vomiting in it quite often."Clarke described how she endured and experienced the discomfort of her conditions and the prop itself when doing the ritual scene in Game of Thrones. The scene was meant to be where Daenerys managed to win the Dothraki over, but for Clarke, it was a lot of discomfort just to taste or feel what the prop heart was made of.The context of the stallion heart ritual in Game of ThronesThis scene is displayed in Season 1 of Game of Thrones when there is a Dothraki ceremony linked to Daenerys’ pregnancy. According to the Dothraki customs, the raw heart that is eaten by the mother is a sign of her endurance and a promise that the child will be strong. Completing the ritual without showing any signs of fear or doubt is a signal both of physical and mental strength.From a narrative point of view, the moment reinforces Daenerys’ growing determination and readiness to adopt a foreign culture; thus, the character becomes one who is capable of extreme commitment and perseverance. It is a scene that is intentionally intense and mirrors the tough reality of the world artistically represented in Game of Thrones.What Emilia Clarke really ingestedIn a twist of events, Clarke in real life did not consume a horse heart but only a prop that was made to look realistic by the production team, which was composed of an edible but strange combination of jam, gelatin, and pasta, among others. The main purpose was to have a raw organ look, weigh, and feel so the scene would pass as real under close-up shots.Though the prop was edible, it did not taste good.Clarke's truthful responseEmilia Clarke remarked that "there wasn’t much acting required" in the horse heart scene. Her award-winning acting, i.e., the gagging, hesitation, and grimaces, was merely a response to the prop’s taste and was not a performance. This is the main reason why the scene is so impactful and remains one of the most talked-about moments in Game of Thrones.Clarke went through with the eating of the prop several times. She had about 28 hearts, all because of the repeated takes at different angles and for the purpose of continuity; thus, she was physically uncomfortable all the more real since each time she was eating it.Multiple takes and production challengesCertainly, every single scene in Game of Thrones took a lot of time and effort, and many, many takes to properly catch all the different angles. The same applied to the stallion heart sequence. Even though the prop was so important that it couldn't be swapped out after every take, it was still kept up all the way through the shoot.Moreover, Clarke had to perform the same ordeal, biting into that disgusting power mix that at one point got to be so bad that the actress herself could hardly take it. The repetition of the whole process, coupled with the awful-tasting and sticky prop, eventually resulted in a performance that was believable because it mirrored the actual struggle of the actress.Practical effects and realismPractical effects were used extensively on Game of Thrones, especially for the intimate and close-up scenes. The heart of the stallion serves as an excellent example; the production team was mainly concerned with visual realism. The scene done with the help of props instead of CGI has gained a sense of honesty that viewers still connect with today.Clarke's case is an indicator that the use of practical effects in the series often meant that the actors had to endure a lot and face physical challenges in order to perform convincingly.Why this scene remains memorableEven when Game of Thrones had ended long ago, the stallion heart scene is still cited as the most iconic moment among all. It displays the way the series maintained narrative intensity along with actors' endurance, thus creating moments where the performance and real-life reaction overlap. The scene is scary because it really shows the physical discomfort, which is genuine, against the background of a fictional ritual.Emilia Clarke has always referred to the scene in a pure, fact-based manner. She pointed out the discomfort of the prop and the many takes; however, she did not narrate the ordeal as traumatic. Her remark implies that the physical realism, not mouthing or sensationalism, was the source of the scene's power.The stallion heart scene in Game of Thrones is strikingly authentic and thus very memorable. Emilia Clarke did not consume a real horse heart, but the edible prop was created to be very lifelike and to have a strong, disgusting taste. The actress's discomfort was real, which resulted in long shoots with very little acting effort.This genuine reaction played a great role in making the scene one of the most repulsive and controversial moments in Game of Thrones, showing the production's commitment to realism even when narrating an interesting story through such discomfort.Also Read: Game of Thrones cast and character guide: Here's who brought the GRRM fantasy drama to life