Emilia Clarke not ready to turn 40 this year

Emilia Clarke has some big plans for the year, but thinking about turning 40 isn’t one of them just yet. The Game of Thrones star, who will hit the milestone birthday in October, admitted to PEOPLE that she’s not quite ready to tackle the big 4-0 just yet. In fact, she joked, “Would you just not acknowledge that? I’m not ready. I am not ready.”

Instead, Clarke is content to stay in the moment and savor being 39 for a few more years. She mentioned, “I’ve got a good decade left in me [of being] 39.” Age 40, she remarked, is just something she’s not quite prepared for yet. “I don’t want to acknowledge that that is a number,” she admitted. However, she reassured fans by saying, “I’m sure I’ll be fine — it’ll be fine. I’m going to be great.”

While she’s avoiding thoughts of her upcoming birthday, Emilia Clarke is reveling in the release of her latest show, PONIES, currently streaming on Peacock. In the series, she stars alongside Haley Lu Richardson as two widows who venture into the world of espionage in Soviet Union-era Moscow. This marks Clarke’s return to lead TV roles since Game of Thrones wrapped up in 2019.

At the show’s premiere event in New York City on Jan. 14, Clarke shared that while pondering returning to television with PONIES was a big decision, the script convinced her that it was the right move. She expressed her excitement by saying, “And then getting to build the cast out and having Haley be my sister and my partner in crime, yeah, this was meant to be.”

An interesting tidbit about Clarke’s previous milestone birthdays is that she celebrated turning 30 on the set of Game of Thrones back in 2016. She posted a humorous photo on Instagram of herself dressed as Daenerys Targaryen with SpongeBob and Dora the Explorer as companions. The photo was captioned with inside jokes and hashtags related to the hit HBO show.

Reflecting on her years since leaving Game of Thrones, Clarke has openly shared the challenges of moving on from the massive success of the show. She described the experience as “lightning in a bottle” and expressed gratitude for having been part of something so special. She emphasized the uniqueness of the opportunity while acknowledging her luck in being a part of it.

For fans looking to catch her latest project, PONIES is now available for streaming on Peacock. Make sure to tune in to see Emilia Clarke back in action in this thrilling new series.