Nathalie Emmanuel on the ‘Game Of Thrones’ backlash

Nathalie Emmanuel has insisted that she was “blown away” by the conclusion to Game Of Thrones, while also responding to the intense backlash that greeted its final few episodes.

“Listen, I think it’s totally fine if you don’t like something. That’s perfectly acceptable. What I didn’t like was that people were signing a petition,” Emmanuel told TVLine. “You can’t ask for receipts on art. You just can’t. The art has been created for you, and you can either choose to like it or not.”

Earlier this month a petition was started on Change.org that pleaded for HBO to remake Season 8 with “competent writers.” Much to the dismay of the cast and crew involved in the hit show, around 1.7 million people have now signed it, too.

The petition even provoked HBO’s head Casey Bloys to release a statement insisting that reshooting the final season was something they never “seriously considered.”

But while fans were dismayed by Game Of Thrones’ farewell, Emmanuel insists she was really grateful for the way the show handled the death of Missandei at the end of The Last Of The Starks, which saw Cersei order The Mountain to bead her.

Read More: Thrones actor blames the media for poor response to final season

“I was very grateful for the strength that she had when she left. That was a performance choice for me. I was like, ‘She’s not going to be crying. She’s not going to be stereotypically scared. She’s scared, but she owns it.”

“This woman survived slavery. She knew that she might go to war and die. And she’s owning it like a badass bitch. And I felt like that’s what I did. I was very proud of it.”