Competent

Missandei was the only sane person in Game of Thrones. Everyone else was poisoning each other and scheming for power, and she was just competent and calm and smart. Nathalie Emmanuel played her that way - not theatrical, just present. There’s a scene where she’s naked on a beach and it doesn’t feel exploitative like so much of GoT’s nudity did; it feels like her character exists outside all that pageantry. You realize watching it that you’re seeing real acting.

I’d seen Emmanuel before in Misfits, the British show where she played Charlie, sharp and funny before getting killed off halfway through. Even in something that campy, she brought groundedness to the character. So there was always something there beyond the surface - a real actor underneath, not just a pretty face filling a slot.

What’s stuck with me since then is that she doesn’t let one role consume her whole existence. She acts, she’s got other projects going, she’s just a person with multiple things happening. She doesn’t seem interested in becoming a brand or squeezing every last drop from one performance. In that sense, she’s got more sense than most of the characters she’s played, characters desperately trying to be one thing and hold onto it forever.

You’ll probably always think that’s the Missandei actress when you hear her name, and that’s fine. That role is remarkable enough. But there’s clearly more than that, and the fact that she seems to know it about herself is worth noting.