Second Helpings - Emilia Clarke

We’re travelling way back to 2019 and to close Series 8 of Table Manners we decided to get an absolute Christmas cracker in, the Mother of ALLLL mothers, the Mother of Dragons! After hearing this lady was a fan of the podcast I swooped in like a baby dragon and coaxed her with the promise of chicken soup (her request!) and she even broke her gluten free policy to sample mum's matzoh balls. We talk to our dream girl about her dear late dad's passion for food, salad in a bag, boarding school meals and setting up her charity, 'Same You' with her mum after having 2 brain aneurysm in her twenties. What a treat to have the nation's sweetheart over for dins! Listen & watch Table Manners here - https://tablemanners.komi.io/ Follow Table Manners on: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tablemannerspodcast/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tablemannerspodcast Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tablemannerspodcast YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TableMannersPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome to Table Manners. We are doing our second helpings and this week we have the gorgeous, brilliant Amelia Clarke, who was one of our like first, well she was a really early guest. I remember it being a big deal when we got Amelia Clarke. It came out in December 2019.

• 0:21Speaker 01

  She was coming on to talk about her Christmas film, Last Christmas, which I still watch, a proper Christmas film.

• 0:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, we were ending series eight with Amelia Clarke and we were so excited to have the mother of dragons on. And it was thanks to Greg James that we had her on.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  Why?

• 0:36Speaker 00

  Because he told me that she was a fan of the podcast. So I slid into her DMs and we made it happen. Mum, you made chicken soup with matzo balls at her request despite being gluten intolerant.

• 0:48Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 0:48Speaker 00

  And we did monkfish skewers and rosemary storks. We also did salt and vinegar potatoes and I made a dairy-free chocolate cake, which no doubt was probably quite crap because I'm still rubbish at cakes. And this is Amelia Clarke coming up on second helpings.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  The stunning Amelia Clarke has just walked through the door with like gifts.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Huge amount of gifts.

• 1:14Speaker 00

  I can't wait for you guys to, they're fun. Like one of them, they're Christmas themed.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:20Speaker 00

  What is it? Is it a bauble? Yeah, but it's filled with Christmas chocolates. So you've got one of them each. That's amazing. Thank you. Because I figured like babies might be well into being like, oh my god, what? No, these are amazing. These are, I just thought they were so cool. They're like, they're like, they're biscuits, kind of like a Burt Bourbon and Jammy Dodgers. But they're not, they're all chocolate. So they're chocolate in the shape of like your like Jammy Dodger. It's so funny. It's like you knew my daughter said just before you came, I want chocolate. These are amazing. Thanks so much. No worries. I loved it. It was like my most joyous thing. I was trying to work out. I was like, what am I going to get you guys? It's got the Christmas theme.

• 1:57Speaker 01

  When do you have time to go shopping?

• 2:00Speaker 00

  Oh, please. That's very close to me. So, and they were like, you're, they literally called me a regular today. I was like, oh no. Are you a chocoholic? I, yeah. Like it's, it's like a need. Someone once told me that if you crave chocolate, like dark chocolate, which is what I like genuinely trained myself to like when I was, do you know what I mean? You're like, yeah, white chocolate all day, obviously. Milky, Milky Bar. But then, yeah, yeah, Milky Bar. But then when I started getting into dark chocolate, someone told me that when you crave it, it's your craving oxygen. Oh, I heard it was magnesium. Or something. There's like some genuine, because you know, you get those cravings, especially for dark, where you're like, it's like a pregnancy.

• 2:39Speaker 01

  I thought it was when you had, when you had your period that.

• 2:42Speaker 00

  Oh, the iron, yeah. There's all that good stuff in it. So yeah, I get well into that and kind of try and enjoy it. So you've like brought over chocolates. You're chocoholic. Are you sick to death of Christmas yet? So we shot it last year, last year at Christmas. So we shot it all before Christmas and we took two weeks off to have our own Christmases and then carried on. And it was kind of, it worked out sort of well because we were filming it at Christmas and we're filming it in London where it's all Christmasy anyway. And you're just like, amazing. All it did is make all of our own Christmases the most exhausting things you've ever like, because we're all like, this isn't the movie. Where are the fairy lights on crack? Like, what's it? Okay.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  He's gorgeous.

• 3:25Speaker 00

  Yes. Yeah, he's cute. Oh, like a Donnis.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  Now, was he in Crazy Ri, yeah, Crazy Rich Asians?

• 3:31Speaker 00

  Good kiss, huh? Yes, genuinely, yes.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  He's so good looking.

• 3:35Speaker 00

  Yeah. No, because there are some where you're like, oh, but no, he was just brilliant. Did you get, did you get lost in the moment for a second? Yeah, especially when it's a really romantic scene. But the thing about me and Hen was that like, I don't, I don't know, there was, we were so, we were so like friends and professional that it like, there was nothing, I kind of mean this with such sincerity, there was nothing, it was just like a lovely kiss. Like there wasn't, do you know what I mean? You're like, it was, it was like a movie. It wasn't sexy. Okay, fine. Yeah. And it wasn't meant to be. So I think all of that kind of played into it. Oh my god, I need to see the fucking film now. I think you'll, I think you'll really like it.

• 4:16Speaker 01

  A rom-com is my favourite type of film, especially a Christmas rom-com.

• 4:20Speaker 00

  Well, and it's a very, very, very British rom-com in that it's like more than a rom-com.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  And it's got George Michael music.

• 4:28Speaker 00

  And it's got George Michael music all over the shop. And then there's an, his unreleased one that he, that he made right before he died and it's rolling on the credits. Oh, wow. So it's kind of amazing that Paul, in all the screenings was like, stay for the credits. And I'm like, stop telling everyone what to do. Like if they want to stay, they can just like. I definitely want to see it. I heard you on Craig, Craig David, on Greg James, sorry, Greg James's breakfast show. Like you were doing a couple of sprints on it, weren't you? Or not? Maybe you were just doing one, but he told me that you liked the podcast. That's the reason, that's the reason you're here. So thanks, Greg. Thanks, Greg. But yeah, you were doing like, I don't know what this game is that he does, but you were like, honestly, you hate the Pogues song? It, oh. Fairy Tale of Christmas. It's really bad. Fairy Tale of New York, is it?

• 5:13Speaker 00

  Yeah. It's just one of those songs that just makes me sad every time. Of all the Christmas songs, you've got so many amazing options. And then there's, and then with that one, I just, I just.

• 5:26Speaker 00

  And you're like, come on, we can like sing a proper Christmas. But I feel like maybe you should go to one of the Pogues Brixton Academy Christmas shows, just to really solidify whether you love it or hate it. Very good. That is so drunk and so Irish and kind of, kind of brilliant, but like. Like I love an Irish, like we shot in Belfast for 10 years. I love an Irish sing song in the pub, get it down your neck, all that. So I love it. I absolutely love it. But there's just so, I don't know.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  So you lived in Belfast when you were doing Game of Thrones?

• 5:55Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, we were there for like, for however long we had to be there. And on the last couple of seasons, we were there for basically like 10 months, 11 months.

• 6:02Speaker 01

  Did you understand the accent?

• 6:03Speaker 00

  Oh, how bochy. Yeah.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  My dad was from there.

• 6:07Speaker 00

  Oh, nice.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  And I thought everyone, everyone said modern and patron.

• 6:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:12Speaker 01

  And film.

• 6:13Speaker 00

  Do they still say film?

• 6:14Speaker 01

  Film, film. Yeah. Yeah. But people don't do that.

• 6:18Speaker 00

  So I've got like a lot of connections to you, which I feel like I need to spell out. Yes. Does the name, this will be slightly embarrassing if it doesn't, does the captain, do you know the captain? The captain. Okay, Dave Morgan, one of the cameramen. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So the captain is my best friend. My brother will be like, yes, the captain. Well, your brother worked on Game of Thrones as well. Yeah, my brother worked on Game of Thrones. He's in the camera department. Yeah. Was he on the last series? He was on the last series and we lived together when we were filming.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  Do you get on well?

• 6:45Speaker 00

  We do, we do. I mean, we, we hadn't lived together for a very long time because we both went to boarding school, like in that amount of time when, by the time we started living together in Belfast. And so there were a few like, Ben, seriously, I need you to like screw that jar back on that jam and I need you to pop it in the cupboard, like do it for, and then, and then like he'd wash up only his stuff and not. Oh, wow. Do you know what I mean? But it was the most magic thing in the world, coming back home and having Ben there. Like every once in a while, I'd be in the bath and the door would be closed and we'd just be having, he'd get in after a night out or whatever and then we'd be having a chat and be like, how was your day? It was just lovely. We get on really well.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Is he older or younger?

• 7:26Speaker 00

  He's older. He's like, I think they, they would, you'd call us Irish twins, isn't that what they? So he's like a year and a half. Yeah. Or not, not quite within a year. Two under two. Two, yeah, two under two. Yeah, exactly. So that's Ben and I. So we were really, we were really close. So, um, growing up. Yes. It was you and Ben? Me and Ben, yeah. And then, and your parents and like who was cooking? My dad. And your dad's passed away? My dad's passed away. Yeah. So food is like, my, when I think about my childhood and I think about my family, it's just food. It's just like, that was how my dad expressed love. Obviously loved us and he'd express that in every way. But my mum does three things and she does them very well. Come on. She hasn't done the chocolate mousse in a very long time, but she makes a mean

• 8:11Speaker 00

  chocolate mousse because she just would inhale like, if you gave her a slab of dairy milk the size of the table, it'd be probably gone in about four bites. Like she's, she's a chocoholic. And then she would do lamb chops and salad in a bag. Mum's kind of woman. It, she just, lamb chops. And salad in a bag, love it. My mum loves a good lamb chop. So she would do, she would do that and we would do that and salad in a bag. And then to the point where it was so infamous that like my dad was the only one who did the cooking in the village that we now live in, where we're all really, really close. Do you all live in the same village? No, no, no, no. As in our village where we live is like a proper community. And when I was in hospital, our neighbours, our amazing neighbours came to the hospital

• 8:56Speaker 00

  with lamb chops and salad in a bag.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Oh, chops and salad.

• 8:59Speaker 00

  Do you know what I mean? Because it was just like, oh, yeah, our families kind of, but my dad would cook as kids, you know, the smell of like dough, he would make us homemade pizzas with like wholemeal dough. And then he'd make us chicken curries and he'd make us, but all of it, now I know, was like with a superior palate. Do you know what I mean? Like none of it was bland. So when I was a kid, I didn't know how to say spicy. So I used to call it minty. So my dad would be like, it's a bit minty. But so I'd, it would be me with a, with a vat of yogurt with pretty much anything he'd cook. Yeah. Because he loved chili. My brother loved chili. Yeah. So we, his spag, his spag bowls always had like kidneys in and like, do you know what I mean? Like he really went

• 9:44Speaker 00

  there.

• 9:45Speaker 01

  Some people put chicken livers in, don't they?

• 9:47Speaker 00

  Chicken livers. I don't mean kidney, I mean chicken livers, which I'd always try and navigate around. Yeah. Which I just. Wow. Like proper food. Proper food foodie. But then he'd also make a club sandwich that was like the greatest thing you'd ever eaten. Like he just would make the most simple food, superior. What, what did he put in his, was it everything just that's in a club sandwich? Everything. But like he'd get like the best bread and then it'd be toasted to perfection. And then he'd have the best mayonnaise and then he'd have like your iceberg lettuce and your smoky thick cut bacon. And then he'd marinate that chicken in like white wine and garlic. No, he wouldn't. And like grill it like that and flat iron it himself, like pound it out. He's there butchering in the kitchen all the time, pound it out and then have the next layer

• 10:32Speaker 00

  of bread. And then there'd be your fresh tomatoes and your, like it's just a, all of the stuff's just regular, but you just like pimped it basically, all of the food that we would eat.

• 10:41Speaker 01

  What, what did he do as a job?

• 10:43Speaker 00

  He was a sound designer for the theatre. But he started life as a, well, he started life as an art student and then as a roadie in a band and like was just tried every drug under the planet and like was a massive hippie. And then found his way into sound and then was a resident at the National for ages, like 14 years, did musicals, toured around the world, like, yeah.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  Did your mum work?

• 11:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. My mum's, my mum is, I'm going to put it really basically because I still don't quite get it. A businesswoman and always has been. So she was, my dad was this like freewheeling, free-loving, creative hippie. And my mum was, so if you imagine like when they met and then my mum was like the seventies glamazon with her red Revlon nails and her red lips and her like perm. So where was he getting all? All his influences from or. So he literally food is such a big part like you could try, I could tell you all my parents' stories from like when they first. Tried garlic when they first, like what their best meal was, that kind of thing. nostalgia then, like, okay. Like my dad was always into food as a kid. He was from Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton.

• 11:45Speaker 00

  And um, and his mum was like, you know, she cooked, but it was never. Full of like massive amounts of flavour, but he got lovely food. And then for his, I can't remember what birthday it must have been, but he was young, I think he was like under ten. They're like, what do you want to do for your birthday? And he was like, I want to go to this restaurant. They're like, right then, we'll go to this restaurant. And that's where he tried. Really, I think that's the first time he went, he tried garlic. And then they were. Well off enough to go to, to go on holidays. And so he went to Spain or to France, and that was when he tried. Different spices, different flavours and just blew his mind. And from then on, no matter how poor he was, no matter how little money he had, because he went through most of his life with like. Not two pennies to put together.

• 12:27Speaker 00

  He would get his tin of sardines and his thing of rice and do whatever he could to like make it into like. Oh, I love him. He sounds amazing. And he'd try food from all over the world. He, he, he passed away. Yeah, three years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. But I'd be speaking about him and his food love with, with just the same amount of vigour as I would if he was still here. Are you a good cook? I can be a good cook. Like if you give me an Ottolenghi cookbook. Yeah. I'll go mad. Like me and my brother did all the Christmas cooking last Christmas. Okay, what was on the menu? So we did a turkey, which hilariously was the only thing that didn't work. And then we did, we had like twenty four people round and we did. Um, I think we did like fifteen different sides. Oh, wow, okay.

• 13:12Speaker 00

  So we just essentially got Ottolenghi and um, Jelena's cookbook. Oh, yeah. Did you do a roasted sprout? Yes, we did a roasted sprout. We did that kale and we did, I can't remember what else we did, but we did loads and loads. And people just basically ignored the turkey. What happened to the, what, what, oh, it was half cooked. With the, it was a new oven and we just didn't quite, and we sort of weren't paying attention to it, but it was this whopping great big turkey. Bloody hell. And then like, and because also my brother's a vegetarian, so we sort of needed to, maybe that's why he didn't really. Oh, yeah, sabotage. Yeah, exactly. Sabotage the turkey. What are you doing this Christmas? I'm taking my mum to India. My mum and my brother to India for two weeks. Yeah. Because it's my mum's seventieth in January. Fantastic. So she didn't want to party, so I was like, oh, I'm gonna surprise her with that.

• 13:55Speaker 00

  That's amazing. And, and you are part Indian. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my granny was half Indian and so we've as a family, I went when I was sixteen and scattered her ashes after she died. In like back pouch around northern India and did that. My mum, my dad have been to India, my mum used to work in India. My brother's never been, but we've never been as a family. So I wanted to plan this like pilgrimage sort of thing. Um, and then we've got really, really good friends who are there. So on actual Christmas day, I think we're spending it with like. Forty people, like in an Indian house with like all and all. And I'm just so excited. It's gonna be really good. Cheers. Happy Christmas. Happy Christmas.

• 14:41Speaker 00

  What a pleasure to meet you. Honestly, I mean, I've been watching you on screen for how many years? How many years was it? Seven, eight? Well, so it was eight seasons, but ten years. I mean, it's been a while. God, that champagne. I love champagne. Me too. Me too. Makes me happy. That's exactly it. I could be in any pub anywhere and be like, don't care what kind it is, babe, just bring it over. Yeah, gives you bad breath though. Does it?

• 15:07Speaker 00

  I always feel, and maybe it's prosecco that gives bad breath. Um, I don't know, but I always feel like champagne breath is not the one. Oh, I think it's all right. Maybe like the better it is, the less. The less bad breath you get. Less halitosis, yeah. New advert, new advertising for fancy champagne. Doesn't give you bad. I think this tastes lovely. So, on your request, you asked for chicken soup. I did. Because I hear about it so much and I love chicken soup. And that is the one, my dad would make chicken stock all the time, which now we call bone broth. Yeah, but like back before it was just chicken stock. Have to have the matzoh ball if you don't want it. But you can have the matzoh ball. Do you know what I mean? I've never actually. You've got to have a matzoh ball. Oh, yeah.

• 15:50Speaker 00

  Is it gonna, is it gonna make you have to go to the loo if you have the matzoh ball? Not today. Fine, perfect.

• 15:58Speaker 00

  Are you actually gluten intolerant? It's one of those things, right? Gluten, this is the fine print, they don't tell you. When you go through all of your varying things of like, oh, this is good for you, I'm gonna do exactly what a paper tells me to do. And I'm not gonna do it. Um, you become less, you become, when you, when you take out gluten for a significant amount of time, popping it back in, pain. The dairy thing is real. Yeah. But for real, if you, because I don't, I'm sure I'm not allergic to gluten. Take out gluten. But yeah, no, I, I mean, my mum is very, uh, when I've, I've attempted it and actually felt much better for it. Yeah, no, you do, and you absolutely do. So maybe it's just that before I took out the gluten, I wasn't aware of the fact that I was bloated all the time. How much gluten did you eat? Not that much. My dad's pizza. Person. Yeah. My dad's pizza. But what do you do about bread now? Because I love bread so much.

• 16:43Speaker 00

  I. Maybe you're not fussed about it. Gluten free. Gluten free bread is shit. Yes, it's, it's bad. If I'm gonna eat bread, I'm gonna eat bread. Go out with a bang. Hells, yeah. If I'm gonna do it, there is no point in like. I found there was one gluten free bread that I found in America that basically just tasted like sugar and I loved it. Yeah. Because it was squidgy and it tasted like banana bread. Jessie. Yeah. She's a super foodie. I'm a super foodie. I really am. I really like care really deeply. No, no, no, no, no, no. Mum, your chicken soup, don't worry. I haven't had a cooked, I haven't had a home cooked meal and I cannot tell you how long. Have you been doing so much? Yeah, I've not been able to go home because my mum, since my dad died, has like made it her mission, God love her, to be good at cooking.

• 17:26Speaker 00

  So she's always like, no, no, no, no, no, I've got to cook for you, got to cook for you. And she gets really like, I must be really good at cooking. And it's genuinely got so much better. But I just don't cook for myself. And I don't know whether it's like I'm grieving my dad or whatever it is. No, I mean, I don't eat really, I eat red meat really, really, really rarely because I'm trying to do my bit. But that's so sad that now it feels slightly bittersweet for you to cook. Yeah, there's something in it, but like if I'm cooking for other people, let me at it. Like, I love it. I absolutely love it. And I get, I turn into my dad in the kitchen. Which is just like a little bit testy. I'm just a little bit, I get a little bit stressed. But I love the preparation of it and all of it. So you've always eaten really well throughout your life? Eaten, yeah. My dad really screwed us in that sense. Because I never craved.

• 18:11Speaker 00

  If my mum listens to this, she'll be like, yes, you did. We, my, we never had. Rubbish food. Yeah, we didn't. Like when I was a kid, kid, we'd have like a packet of crisps after swimming or whatever. And we used to have those, um. Oh my god, the golden syrup bars and the Jamaican ginger. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like after, do you know what I mean? I remember like after swimming and all that. But um, but overall, we would always, I was, I was. Twenty four before I realised that people didn't always sit down to eat a meal together. Like I literally, it was just so much like breathing, like that's what you're gonna do. What did you eat at boarding school? Oh god, boarding school food. Was it terrible? Yeah, but kind of good terrible. Was it, was it like kind of custard and biscuits? Please, yeah, yeah, yeah. And did they do the chocolate custard?

• 18:56Speaker 00

  They did the chocolate custard. It's the best thing in the world. Just custard. Uh, no, yeah, you just get like school dinners, but like they were, they were. To my palate now, there's something so comforting about like salty, bland, thin cut beef with like. A bit of slightly lumpy gravy with your boiled potatoes and your boiled carrots. There's something about it where you're like, do you know what? That's just. Do you like plain food then? I genuinely don't eat plain food. Oh. At all. Do you bring your own lunch? Yeah, I largely. Trust it. Mainly because in recent years, if I'm on a plane, for the amount of time that you'd need to eat a meal on it. I'm, um, someone taught me once that if you want to conquer jet lag, don't eat on the flight, which sometimes really, obviously really hard.

• 19:39Speaker 00

  So like you'd have some nuts or you'd have the like, whatever. And I'm gonna sound like I've got a fucking eating disorder, which I don't, but it's. If you try to not eat a big meal at least on the plane, your jet lag is helped when you land because your stomach. That's where we're going wrong. We're having the wine, the bronchitis. Everything. I get second. But when I'm on the plane, I'm going to work. Yeah, no, tell me about it. Every time I sit down, I'm like. Yes, I will start with the champagne and then I'm just on water. Thank you very much. I guess you need to be like on it as soon as you. As soon as I land, sometimes I go straight into a thing. And if I'm there with like a, with like a big bloated full belly and like feeling a little bit. I mean, did you get recognised wherever you go? Yeah. Is it boring? It's just sometimes it can be frustrating for the people that you're with and you're like.

• 20:23Speaker 00

  Let's say, like this happens to me so many times. If I'm walking with like a girlfriend, let's say, we're having a proper gossip, we're having a catch up. We're like having like a heart to heart of some kind, we're getting into it. Um, and then someone comes up and is like, please, he's gonna have a photo. And you're sort of in the middle of like. Someone's crying or we're getting into it or, and then you're like, oh, I shouldn't be saying things so loud. And then the friend that you're with feels really awkward and then it turns into a weird thing. And then you're like, sorry to you and sorry to you, but I just. Don't quite know how to navigate what this is. So recently, since, and I think it is actually probably since after my dad died. Um, because I went through. Three years of genuinely having seven days off, like in three solid years.

• 21:06Speaker 00

  Cause I was doing, I did Game of Thrones, season seven, which lasted like eleven months when I had about seven days and went into Star Wars, which then.

• 21:18Speaker 00

  So we were only meant to shoot six months and then it turned into a year. That was been been gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The next ones, I did Star Wars, um, the Han Solo story.

• 21:27Jessie Ware?

  Okay, I haven't seen it.

• 21:29Speaker 00

  It's very.

• 21:30Jessie Ware?

  Donald Glover was.

• 21:31Speaker 00

  But yes. Mega, mega, mega rise of Donald. But, um, but yeah, so in that time I was like. Just so I can't begin to describe how tired I was, cause then we went into that and then went into. Star Wars and then went straight into Game of Thrones and we did that for a year and then we finished and then, like, I was just knackered. And that was at a time when people were stopping me quite a lot. So I was genuinely walking through an airport, like. And I just suddenly started having what I can only believe to be a panic attack brought on by like complete exhaustion.

• 22:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's on my own. And I was on the phone to my mum, cause I called her and I was like, I feel like I can't breathe. I feel like I don't know what's going on. She was like, take a sit down. You're all good. You're all good. And then I'm there and then the tears are coming out and I'm crying and I'm crying and I'm crying down to try and not be like. I'm sitting on this seat in the gate and this guy's like, can I get a selfie? Can I get a selfie? And I was like, I can't breathe. I'm really sorry. Just having a minute, can I just, and then like, so it was after a few moments like that where you're just like, I don't, I don't know how to do this. So I started to say. I'm not gonna take a photo, but I will sign something. Cause then as soon as you sign something, you have to have an interaction with that person. As opposed to someone just going, oh, he gives a selfie and then goodbye. It turns into, right, what's your name? Who we're making it out to?

• 22:53Speaker 00

  And then you have a little chat and then, then you're actually having like a truthful. Human to human thing as opposed to it being this other thing, which probably isn't nice for them and it probably isn't nice for you.

• 23:03Jessie Ware?

  But I wonder, because like you've got such a reputation of being like a lovely person too. But it's true, like you're like the hot one, but also the loveliest person. And so, but that thing of. People feeling like they can approach you because you are, you, you appear approachable and therefore you being able to just be like, guys, you know what? I'm, I'm not having a great day. Do you mind? I feel a bit shit.

• 23:28Speaker 00

  There's just a few moments, cause when you're in like a big public space, you're kind of, you've got to get from A to B and normally you're kind of in a bit of a. And when you're, I mean, I don't know if this is bad to say, but when you're like a little girl. And you sort of get physically grabbed, your gut instinct is like, danger. And then it's just someone going, can I have a selfie?

• 23:48Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but it's intrusive though, isn't it?

• 23:50Speaker 00

  But then because I like people and I like interacting with human beings and that's the thing I miss the most about anonymity is like, I just like going into shops and like having a chat. Like, I just like chatting, obviously. And so when that goes, it, you feel a bit. So then when someone's asking me for a selfie, I want to be able to provide for them what it is that they're after. And I feel like. I signed up for it, like I, I knew what was going on. So I've just been trying to navigate how I can do it without. Feeling like my soul is completely empty because they don't really wanna talk to you. I know that sounds really sad.

• 24:24Jessie Ware?

  Be seen with you.

• 24:25Speaker 00

  Yeah. And then you're like, I'm a, nice to meet you. Um, my name is Amelia. Love to get. So when you do like a signing thing, then you get to actually look into their eyes and have like a. Do you know, have like a proper human thing. Cause it's a really weird thing.

• 24:41Jessie Ware?

  But when did it start getting really weird?

• 24:44Speaker 00

  It started to get to like fever pitch around season seven, when I was going through this thing of being so tired all the time. I got woken up on a plane. Do you know what I mean? I was like, part fastest, I was fast asleep against the window, had like drool. I knew I had drool, cause you know, when you wake up and you're like. Um, and I was being woken up by someone shaking me awake and was like, can I get a selfie? And I was like, babe, I'm really sorry, but I've only got like an hour to sleep. And I kind of need it. Um, like, okay. And so there's this like, you can't say fuck off, but fuck off. That's rude.

• 25:13Jessie Ware?

  Should say, that, that, why did they not protect you? You weren't in economy, Amelia.

• 25:18Speaker 00

  On that particular one, no, it was an easy jet, I think. No, that was, I can't remember. Cause when you're flying to Belfast. And you just wanna get home. Cause I would do, we, on the last, we would rap on like, hopefully we would rap at like seven on a Friday night. And I would, exactly. And I would, literally there was an A D on the show. It was like, I've never seen anyone rap quicker than you. Like, because I'm like, what? The hair and makeup girls wanna go home. They don't wanna wait around for me. And I wanna go home.

• 25:47Jessie Ware?

  So you mean home London?

• 25:49Speaker 00

  Home London. Yeah. So I would whip that wig off as quickly as we could do it, so that everyone could go off for a drink. I mean, sometimes I'm literally like ripping skin off as I'm pulling off that ball cap, trying to get in the car to get on the plane. And then I would land in London at like eleven on a Friday night. And then I'd go out with my mates to the pub and stay up and like see them and then have Saturday. And then Sunday morning I'd get back on a plane and go to Belfast.

• 26:12Jessie Ware?

  Jesus Christ.

• 26:14Speaker 00

  So those kind of flights where you're, I was just trying so hard to like still have a life of some kind. When you're shooting those kind of things, but, which is why living with your brother is kind of amazing.

• 26:26Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. And I, but I guess, yeah, it's that juggling act and then you just kind of feel like you're not really doing anything.

• 26:33Jessie Ware?

  Feel apologetic to your friends, maybe like a partner. It's like.

• 26:36Speaker 00

  No, that's it. And then your hours, sometimes we'd be doing like, from like waking up, from, yeah, from getting in the car. To getting back home in to the flat, you'd, you, you sometimes would have done like a fourteen hour day. And when you're doing six day weeks and we do. I'm complaining about a very cushy job.

• 26:53Jessie Ware?

  No, I understand it.

• 26:59Speaker 00

  Mum, it's a ten out of ten.

• 27:00Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, that is. You don't, you need some salt.

• 27:03Speaker 00

  Listeners, you need to, I've heard this being eaten before, because I'm obsessively listening to a podcast and. Always going, what does it taste like? What does it taste like? It tastes like heaven. That is.

• 27:14Jessie Ware?

  Got to try the mat.

• 27:16Speaker 00

  That is absolutely amazing. At this time of year, yeah. I absolutely will with a bit of my. Oh my god. All day, all day long.

• 27:29Speaker 00

  This is genuinely food for your soul. This is like. Oh my god, you'd be ill just to eat this all the time.

• 27:36Jessie Ware?

  I know. Can we talk about, can we talk about? Your double brain hemorrhage, stroke, aneurysm. Post first season of Game of Thrones. I can't even imagine. You were how old?

• 27:51Speaker 00

  I was twenty two. Uh, no, no, no, no, just twenty three. Oh god, what was I? I was twenty two, twenty three, which one, I genuinely keep forgetting. Someone will be like, quick maths, Amelia, well done. Um, yeah, so I was, I was young, but I. I was, um, so great, like literally I'd seen one television camera before doing Game of Thrones. So like the build up to the first brain hemorrhage was massive because it was, the first season of the show. Was genuinely one of the most happiest seasons I've ever, we've ever done. Cause it was everyone just being like, I don't know, that was right.

• 28:28Jessie Ware?

  Did you think it was gonna be a big thing?

• 28:30Speaker 00

  This is the thing that, I mean, with such sincerity, I, I was just so over the moon to have a job. Like everyone keeps me like, but you're doing HBO and, you know, and now I'm like, oh yeah, I get it. I absolutely get why someone would be like, oh, did you, did you feel weird about signing up? For that many seasons or like, did you kind of, were you aware of what it was gonna be? But I, I cannot stress enough. How little I knew about anything. So I was just over the moon to be a part of something. And I think maybe some of the back of my brain was like, oh, this is like a. A very big thing, but I've never, ever, ever wanted to, again, this is instilled from family stuff, but like, I've never wanted to.

• 29:11Speaker 00

  Be relying on success or on my job from being the thing that makes me feel value. Do you know what I mean? So I would, I would always err on the side of caution. I would always be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but we don't know. And we don't know. And we don't, and I could get fired at any point.

• 29:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, my glass is always overspilling for people, but for my own stuff and my own work, I'm always like, well, let's just assume it's gonna be crap.

• 29:36Jessie Ware?

  Well, so we're protecting yourself, isn't it?

• 29:38Speaker 00

  Hundred percent, yeah. Hundred million percent.

• 29:41Jessie Ware?

  Yes, please.

• 29:43Jessie Ware?

  So, so, so you, you, you rap Game of Thrones or had it come out by this point?

• 29:49Speaker 00

  No, we'd wrapped it.

• 29:50Jessie Ware?

  So you, uh, having a bit of time off, first kind of proper acting job and you're like fucking, and then what happened?

• 29:57Speaker 00

  And I got, so yeah, then I went to, so we wrapped that at Christmas and then I went to America and did a bit of press for the show. Where they, Amelia Clarky, what do you have the same as Amelia Clarky, me and Sean Bean on a panel, very funny. And then, um. And then I got American agents and then like just doing all of that kind of stuff. And then came back to my flat in, um, Dulston. Head spinning, not really knowing what I'm meant to be doing, but like reading exciting scripts from America and feeling like, oh my god, this is. This is really exciting. This is really huge. I have a career.

• 30:32Speaker 00

  And then was in the gym one morning and like dragged myself there like fully it was so tired but was on a television show and was being an actress and was like I'm now meant to work out right okay so I'm gonna do what everyone is insisting I did telling me to do it I'm gonna get on a treadmill um and I was with I'd got this personal trainer from the gym so he was working me out and I was doing the plank and no before then I remember I was doing what was on like the cross trainer whatever and just went oh my god I'm so tired no push through it push through it push through it and then I'd do another thing I'd be like oh my god I'm so tired no no no push through push through you can do it um and then doing the plank and I suddenly went oh my god I've got the most excruciating head I don't know what's going on

• 31:13Jessie Ware?

  You were basically having a

• 31:16Speaker 00

  It like it's literally it I remember it really really obviously really vividly um it it's like an elastic band just went like snap around your brain like that's the only way I can describe it like

• 31:29Jessie Ware?

  Feel that sensation

• 31:30Speaker 00

  Oh my god yeah and it was just like boom in a second suddenly you imagine your whole brain is just being shrink wrapped and squeezed and like and then then I started to feel incredibly ill and I like crawled to the loo was being really I'm not gonna do this well we're all too but not well um

• 31:47Jessie Ware?

  This is all at the gym

• 31:48Speaker 00

  This is all at the gym and the loo in the gym and then this woman whose face I've never I can only all I knew was I've always popped me in the recovery position and got the ambulance to come and they didn't know what it was and they were like this is really weird cause

• 32:00Jessie Ware?

  You're young

• 32:01Speaker 00

  You're young and like you're just tired and I kept trying to yeah but I was when I was being ill I knew I was being brain damaged I was in that toilet stall just being like I absolutely know this is brain damage and it's not happening like it's one hundred percent not happening this is not the way my life is gonna go I'm I'm gonna be an actress I this is like and it was just like the as strong as the pain was this like fight that was just like not not happening wiggling my fingers and toes I was like okay what's what's brain damage brain damages you're gonna be paralyzed okay so you're probably slipping into a coma so you probably shouldn't go to sleep so like move your fingers and toes move your fingers and toes move your legs where's your mum from what's your dad's name what lines on the show like

• 32:41Speaker 00

  what's your full name like trying to keep myself awake literally and like moving no I was kinda um and um they didn't know what it was so they couldn't give me any drugs and so cause so I was just there in like

• 32:55Jessie Ware?

  So what do they give you an MRI scan

• 32:57Speaker 00

  It took them a really long time

• 32:59Jessie Ware?

  Cause you couldn't speak

• 33:00Speaker 00

  Yeah and it was the weirdest thing so I've never said this before but it was the it was the strangest thing I remember really vividly being in they'd put me in a room in A and E like just off the main bit and um it was a rowdy Saturday night and some and I'm drifting in and out of consciousness and like still haven't had any pain medication and I got my mum and dad and my brother all in the room with me and I I just can't move my head I can't do anything and I hear what is obviously someone just I'm quite jumpy anyway but I heard what was someone obviously throwing a chair or like it started to get rowdy cause it's a Saturday night and you've got a lot of like there's a lot of stuff going on and I thought it was a gunshot and apparently I bolted upright was like lock the door and then just passed out again

• 33:45Speaker 00

  cause I I there was like some weird bit of my brain that was it was like aware of danger and was like family must be safe and just went anyway that was all very dramatic then the nurse um saw the the nurse whose husband was a brain surgeon was like I think you need a brain scan I think that's what you need and then after that they realised what it was and like I got into the most amazing hospital yeah literally yeah it was

• 34:11Jessie Ware?

  Blood I mean so it took a while for them to work it out

• 34:14Speaker 01

  Well I think probably because she was so young

• 34:17Speaker 00

  They just didn't imagine No one assumed that that's what it would be and they kept you know to be honest they're a bit like are you taking any drugs like what are you doing and

• 34:28Speaker 01

  Drugs with strokes don't they

• 34:29Speaker 00

  Yeah exactly

• 34:30Speaker 01

  And young people

• 34:30Speaker 00

  In young people yeah and um I was just I was just so lucky at like every turn I was just crazy crazy lucky

• 34:36Jessie Ware?

  Had you had the double hemorrhage by that point

• 34:39Speaker 00

  No so that was just one and then they said well yeah so that was it so then they worked they they we did the operation da da da but there was

• 34:46Jessie Ware?

  What is the operation that they would do

• 34:47Speaker 00

  So with this one they did um a non invasive one so they go through your femur artery and they go all the way around your heart and into your brain and they plug it with little wires and so cause if you imagine that when your brain is being formed I was born with a weakness which you can never detect and as your brain goes into the two sides that weakness is reflected on but mirrored on both sides so this is basically like a little bit of your vein is just a bit weaker as the blood pumps around it just turns into a bubble

• 35:17Speaker 01

  So is that an aneurysm

• 35:18Speaker 00

  That's an aneurysm so you can see that on a scan yeah and then it and then if you get enough blood pressure going around so like I've never done thank god I've never done cocaine because that would have killed me on the spot um because the amount of blood pressure that goes around when you're doing that um and so with that bleed like as it's open it's just free blood going around and it'll just kill whatever bit of the brain that the blood isn't going

• 35:41Speaker 01

  Lucky to be alive because had you been in the wrong place at the wrong time on a beach in Thailand

• 35:48Speaker 00

  And my brain was smart what it did was so when you've got um when there's a bit of your brain that doesn't get any blood to it it it dies it's gone but what my brain did then was find another way around and then it just kept running I'm still getting a lot of free blood in the body which like your body is not used to and doesn't really like but so what they did is they filled that

• 36:10Jessie Ware?

  Free blood

• 36:10Speaker 00

  Like loose like just blood not in a vein so just in your brain

• 36:16Jessie Ware?

  Internal bleeding

• 36:17Speaker 00

  Internal bleeding yeah in your brain no no no no as in that's what happens that's what was happening

• 36:21Jessie Ware?

  Okay fine got right

• 36:22Speaker 00

  And then um and so then that little bit they fill with with wires so that the blood can continue going around on its normal course and doesn't just keep escaping so that was the first procedure um and then they were like you've got another one on the side it's too small to operate on just keep an eye on it and then two years later I'm doing a play on Broadway and um I'm on the last day of my SAG medical so I went because I was getting biannual scans at that point or like every six months or something

• 36:49Jessie Ware?

  SAG medical is

• 36:50Speaker 00

  SAG medical is

• 36:51Speaker 01

  Medical insurance

• 36:52Speaker 00

  It's just insurance yeah yeah so I went in and they um uh they were like you need to operate on this now it's actually doubled in size since your last scan so I was like I don't really want to but okay

• 37:05Jessie Ware?

  Got it's Broadway

• 37:05Speaker 00

  Yeah yeah well I just finished the play so I was like what am I gonna do next and was just beginning to feel a little bit stronger from the first one um and they were like we'll just do the same procedure so to prevent it from ever you will we'll put the wires in so that it like strengthens that little vulnerable bubble that could burst

• 37:25Jessie Ware?

  Petrifying um operation

• 37:26Speaker 00

  Yeah so then I was like okay fine but I'll be round in two hours and they made it all cushy and it was all cool and then when I come round uh they've brought me round because the wires got stuck and it was a bigger bleed than the last time and they were like the only way that we're gonna save you is if we cut your head open and do it the old fashioned way which is clamping it so that's when they cut your head open I'm so sorry listeners um cut your head open and um take out a bit of your skull and then they go in and then that little balloon they just get a clamp and just clamp it at there so it's sturdy as anything like the cop is

• 38:03Jessie Ware?

  So you've still got the balloon in there but it's clamped

• 38:06Speaker 00

  Well no because that ruptured

• 38:07Jessie Ware?

  And they're oh then they okay and then they pop up

• 38:09Speaker 00

  Probably all gone now somewhere in my brain um but then they clamp it but then what you're recovering from is you're recovering from open brain surgery as well as the bleed and then I'd like died for a minute and they were they told my parents I was not gonna make it and then they told my parents I was gonna be permanently paralyzed and then this is all happening in like an eight nine ten hour operation

• 38:28Jessie Ware?

  You were supposed to just go in for a procedure

• 38:30Speaker 00

  Yeah and it cause it sometimes goes wrong sometimes and this was obviously just a bit too small

• 38:35Jessie Ware?

  What was the repercussions once you woke up

• 38:37Speaker 00

  Once I woke up it was it was just like both times waking up after that kind of surgery both times I in the beginning you really can't move so like my peripheral my vision was just like what I could see here and you can only it's this mad thing you've got such a sense memory of both times coming around and being like you're aware of the noises first but you've never been in the room before and you have no idea what's happened you've no idea what's going on you're trying to piece everything together and work it all out and then um the main thing that happens when you've had that kind of surgery is the first week and a half you're just sick to your stomach and all you want is water but then you throw it off immediately so it's this like this parched thirst thing that you and it's because you've had all of the

• 39:21Speaker 00

  being the tubes down your throat and all that stuff so the second one it took me a really long time to kind of get myself together was with the first one because it wasn't such an invasive thing I think it was I was in I was aware of how much pain I was in and I was aware of all of that kind of stuff but that happened quicker than the with the second one where I kind of just felt like out of it the entire time

• 39:44Speaker 01

  Was it very I mean did people talk about it at the time because I've only heard about this recently

• 39:50Speaker 00

  Well no so I kept it silent yeah until Eight months ago.

• 39:55Jessie Ware?

  So how does, how did it impact on, did, did, did you have to delay going back to Game of Thrones?

• 40:01Speaker 00

  No, so that was the thing, because I didn't, with the first one, I couldn't let them know what had happened until they, until they knew I wasn't gonna die. So it took them three weeks, it took us three weeks to be like, sorry for not answering the old emails, I've just been a bit, um, I'm fine, by the way. Everything's great, I'm totally fine, I'm gonna be back to work, nothing's wrong with me, it's all good. Cause I just was inconsistently so scared of being fired, for whatever reason. So I was just like, no, I know, but that was just that, I mean, that was me more than, I had no idea how well taken care of I was.

• 40:31Jessie Ware?

  So you set up the charity recently, well, it's, you launched it this year?

• 40:37Speaker 00

  We launched it, yeah, we launched it eight months ago and from the first one, I was like, I have to, I've, I've, like, my life has been saved, I've got to give back. I have to give back and was just gonna get like a sofa for the family room, because the family room, like, my parents would never complain, but like, they looked in pain all the time. Um, and then I was like, I know, what can I do for the nurses? How can I give back that way? And we were trying to figure it out and every time I'd think about it, I was like, no, we can't just get, you know, obviously we sent them nice things, but like, I wanted to actually do something significant. And then when the second one happened, I was just like, I'm meant to be here and so I need to like, do something with this. Like, this is ridiculous that I'm still alive and here, and I'm here because of all these amazing people.

• 41:21Speaker 00

  So then we started brainstorming as to what it could be. And then I wasn't gonna tell my story, because I would go in and out of, like, I'd be doing press and then I'd suddenly go, Amelia, imagine you're telling your story right now. And it freaked me out and I just felt not ready, because I kept it secret from everyone for so long. And I was so scared and I was so ashamed and I said all of those things. And then, um, because it was my, my mum who's kind of created this with me.

• 41:43Jessie Ware?

  Oh, great.

• 41:44Speaker 00

  Amazing businesswoman, amazing having your mum, she also, they always said it was genetic and then January after my dad died, so it was two thousand and seventeen, she woke up with vertigo and, um, they thought she was having a stroke. So they took her into the hospital and then they did a brain scan and saw that she had an aneurysm and it hadn't ruptured. So she had to have the preventative procedure that went amazingly and all good. Um, and then we just slowly but surely worked out what, what it is that we wanted to do. And then we tried to figure out how we could do it without telling my story and then I was like, well, no one would care. So I have to do it, we've got to do it. And then as soon as I did, it was like, oh, wow, that's actually a real weight off.

• 42:25Speaker 00

  Cause I'm, I'd get interviewed all the time and they'd be like, what's happened to you in your life? And I'm like, nothing, nothing. I've just been doing this TV show, like, that's it, there's nothing I can speak to. Um, and so then getting to say it was kind of liberating and frightening.

• 42:37Jessie Ware?

  How did you choose to say it, like?

• 42:39Speaker 00

  So I did a piece in The New Yorker, because I didn't want a big song and dance. I basically was just like, people are gonna be like, oh, celebrity sob story, like we care.

• 42:47Jessie Ware?

  Then they ended up with pictures of you in hospital in the mail online.

• 42:51Speaker 00

  I know, well, that was something that I, I put that picture of myself up, because I was like, this picture's gonna like, just address the problem even more. And they see me standing there looking all capable, done, having done all the stuff that I've done.

• 43:04Jessie Ware?

  And then it becomes clickbaity and, and not, but, but, but then more people read about it.

• 43:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, exactly. So like, that's fine, you wanna read about the, the thing that happened to me and therefore reading about the charity and how they can help, then that'd be really good.

• 43:14Jessie Ware?

  So how does the charity help? Is it just, um, is it?

• 43:18Speaker 00

  So the charity itself is a grant giving charity, same you.

• 43:22Jessie Ware?

  Same you.

• 43:22Speaker 00

  Sameyou.org, there you go, listeners.

• 43:25Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, good.

• 43:26Speaker 00

  Um, so we are essentially a grant giving body, so people will come and say, we, we need money to do this. And we will, the board and everyone get together and decide, yes, that's something, and then we will oversee that project and make sure that it's all.

• 43:39Jessie Ware?

  Who, who'd you think was most significant in your recovery?

• 43:43Speaker 00

  My recovery, I mean.

• 43:45Jessie Ware?

  Besides your parents?

• 43:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, I was, yeah, um, significant in my recovery, this is gonna sound real naff, get ready for it ladies and gentlemen. Genuinely, the most significant person in my recovery was Mother of Dragons. She was the actual thing that got me out of bed every day, yeah, fully. So the show, like, you've got to be on, imagine if it happened to you and you've got to be on stage, guess what, you're probably getting on stage. You've got, like, it's, do you know what I mean? It's your, it, it's your, it's your identity, it's a thing that, that you get to not sit there and go, oh my god, I feel really awful, and you go, yeah, complete escapism, exactly. So it turned into that. I think genuinely that the show was absolutely the thing that just like, saved me, because it distracted me.

• 44:29Speaker 00

  It got me back to work, yes, I was exhausted, yes, I still had this crazy amount of fatigue and like, mad anxiety, thought I was gonna die all the time and couldn't tell anyone, I was feeling a bit kind of, so then, then, because I wasn't saying to anyone, it became this thing of like, well then she's, my character is the thing that's gonna, so then every job that I did, I would kind of just funnel it all into there and not really look at it at all. And just kind of was aware that I was gonna do a charity later on and was gonna try and help and bring, and bring it back and.

• 44:58Jessie Ware?

  Do you think maybe that's why you work so hard as well? Is it like, is it, is it a way of kind of dealing and coping with this fact that you've had these pretty?

• 45:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I've, I've always, because my dad was in the crew, the thing that he like, instilled in me was professionalism. And like, you turn up on time and you're not a dick and you know your lines and you are nice to everyone.

• 45:21Jessie Ware?

  Make your marks?

• 45:22Speaker 00

  Like, it's, do your marks?

• 45:23Jessie Ware?

  Do your marks, yeah.

• 45:24Speaker 00

  Exactly. Like, it's just really simple and that's, like, just, just be a professional, like, at all times, just be a professional, because then you can't go wrong. Like, no matter how well you've done in that scene or whatever, like, you can just, just, just be nice, just be like a good person. And so regardless of the brain damages, I would have always put my everything into it. But I definitely think that I probably did it with much more ferocity, like, I genuinely was more worried about getting fired than I was about, um, dying. You know what I mean? Because you did, because it's, that's like a rational thing you can think about, like, when you're early twenties and you've got to consider your own mortality, I just didn't. My dad died and then I was like, oh, death, right, yeah.

• 46:02Jessie Ware?

  How old was your dad when he died?

• 46:04Speaker 00

  Sixty-nine. He's just too young, yeah, too young.

• 46:08Jessie Ware?

  She said he's sixty-eight.

• 46:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, my mum's seventy, like, it's, yeah, it's, it's, it was too, it was just way too young. But that made me think about death more than being close to it and having, you know, but yeah, been very close to it. Thank you. It was, it isn't cats vomit, it's actually anchovy, emulsion.

• 46:31Jessie Ware?

  My favourite.

• 46:32Speaker 00

  Okay, great.

• 46:33Jessie Ware?

  I love anchovy.

• 46:34Speaker 00

  But it does look a bit like cats.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  What's it to do with your potatoes?

• 46:37Speaker 00

  I don't know, put them in a bowl. Do you want me to do them? Sorry.

• 46:40Speaker 01

  Only because I want to serve up the monk.

• 46:41Speaker 00

  Alright.

• 46:42Speaker 01

  Do you like, do you like monk?

• 46:43Speaker 00

  Yes, the king of the fishes.

• 46:52Speaker 00

  That monk fish is so good.

• 46:54Jessie Ware?

  Is it?

• 46:55Speaker 00

  That is so good.

• 46:56Jessie Ware?

  You're so sweet.

• 46:57Speaker 00

  No, no, no, no, I'm not being sweet, I'm being completely honest. Mm-hmm. That is delicious.

• 47:02Jessie Ware?

  Yum. Okay, so you, you listen to this podcast, you know what the questions are, Last Supper, let's go.

• 47:09Speaker 00

  This is, so this is a question that I ask myself, people around me, I, like, all the time.

• 47:16Jessie Ware?

  Fine.

• 47:16Speaker 00

  And so it changes all the time.

• 47:17Jessie Ware?

  And that's fine.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  Right, it would begin definitely with oysters, I've decided.

• 47:25Jessie Ware?

  From anywhere in particular?

• 47:26Speaker 00

  Um, I don't know, just really good juicy yummy oysters, that doesn't have so much of a memory attached to it, but, um, with some like epic bread and butter. And the oysters need to have the red wine, shallot, vinaigrette and loads of lemon. Um, so it'd be that, and then the rest of my whole meal is basically just dad's stuff. Because I was like, if I could have a meal from anywhere, I just want my dad's cooking back. And then there's so many to choose from, that I was really trying to figure out what it was. But if I were to be doing this last meal in like Christmas time, then I think it wouldn't be his club sandwich, it wouldn't be his amazing macaroni cheese that he used to have, mature cheddar and like thick cut smoky bacon and Parmesan and like, it was next level.

• 48:10Speaker 00

  It wouldn't be that, it would be, um, he used to make this beef stew with orange that was like mental. It was so good with his, um, sweet potato mash alongside it. And then he would always just grill veggies, just like char-grilled kind of veggies. Um, and then he made this, it would be a, the dessert would be a toss-up between a crumble with thick custard, I would probably need apple and I'd need that crumble to be barely cooked. Do you know what I mean? Some chewy bits on the top and then basically like raw, as you get closer to the fruit.

• 48:50Jessie Ware?

  But would you do a mixture, apple and plum, or is it just apple?

• 48:53Speaker 00

  I think maybe, or maybe apple and blackberry, because he used to have that as a kid quite a lot. But then my dad, it would either be that or it would be, my dad used to make poached red wine pears with his homemade amaretto ice cream.

• 49:04Jessie Ware?

  Oh, wow.

• 49:05Speaker 00

  Oh my god, and little amaretto biscuits. It is the yummiest thing, so he'd always make it look really pretty on the plate and then you've just got syrup, red wine syrup, and then the poached pear and then loads of, um, homemade amaretto ice cream.

• 49:19Jessie Ware?

  Amaretto, just the broken up amaretto biscuits in the ice cream? Oh, the booze.

• 49:23Speaker 00

  And it makes it really soft, so it's really, really, really good. Um, and then to drink.

• 49:29Jessie Ware?

  Do you have his recipes?

• 49:31Speaker 00

  I've got them in my head. Yeah, because he used to, no, no, he used to, his famous thing he used to do all the time that I definitely can't do myself, um, is just his white wine, um, ginger, garlic, lemon chicken, marinated chicken, but you marinate it for like a day. And then you'd just grill it and then we would, and then the next morning, that sauce that was in it would turn into jelly and you'd have that on bread, it was so good.

• 49:56Jessie Ware?

  You'd have the jelly, the chicken jelly on bread?

• 49:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, like, you could just have like a spoonful of the jelly and it would just go with all of this amazing stuff. So that is, but I mean, there's a million other meals that I'm not saying, that like, it would.

• 50:08Jessie Ware?

  And would it be bubbles with it?

• 50:10Speaker 00

  Well, so that's the thing, it would definitely, the oysters need the champagne, but then I think, I think with that meal, oh, no, where am I kidding? It'd be champagne the whole way through, but then finishing off with a dessert wine. And then some like chocolates, like, you know how you do in posh restaurants and you've got the kind of? Petty fours, exactly, so you can like round it off.

• 50:32Jessie Ware?

  So do you host a lot? When you have time.

• 50:35Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 50:36Jessie Ware?

  So like, what was the last dinner party that you did? And what did you cook?

• 50:40Speaker 00

  I can't remember what was the last thing I cooked.

• 50:41Jessie Ware?

  What did you have on the menu?

• 50:42Speaker 00

  The last hosting I've done a lot is just like parties. Like parties, parties.

• 50:46Jessie Ware?

  And what are the drinks?

• 50:47Speaker 00

  Fat, dirty house parties.

• 50:48Jessie Ware?

  Okay, so what, oh my god, does that still happen?

• 50:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:51Jessie Ware?

  Oh wow.

• 50:52Speaker 00

  Because I really love my house and it's really easy and like the last one that we did.

• 50:57Jessie Ware?

  But don't people wreck it? Isn't that a point not to have a house party? They've always been all right.

• 51:02Speaker 00

  Okay, fine. I do also have a little kind of bar area in my house.

• 51:07Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 51:08Speaker 00

  So you can make things really easily. There's a.

• 51:10Jessie Ware?

  There's a beer thing?

• 51:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 51:12Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, you have like a pub in your.

• 51:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, in my house.

• 51:15Jessie Ware?

  Is that, but you're not, you can only drink one drink, so you just like to entertain for other people?

• 51:20Speaker 00

  Really like to entertain for other people, but one of them is beer and the other one is prosecco.

• 51:25Jessie Ware?

  Oh wow, yes.

• 51:27Speaker 00

  But then it was taking me, it really, it didn't take me long for me to realise that the prosecco had run out. And then everyone was like, oh, I want to get that prosecco on tap. And I was like, oh shit, I should probably refill that one because I was being more concerned about like. And then I had an IPA on that was sixteen percent.

• 51:42Speaker 00

  And I didn't realise because I don't really drink beer. I always, whenever I'm in the pub and people are drinking beer, because for a million different reasons, I don't really drink it. I'll always have sips of theirs. So I end up drinking other people's, I'm a nightmare, I end up drinking other people's drinks. Because like as soon as someone's got a glass of beer in their hand, I'm like, I've got to have it.

• 51:58Jessie Ware?

  Do you like the taste of it?

• 51:59Speaker 00

  I love it. I absolutely love it.

• 52:01Jessie Ware?

  It's full of bloody gluten.

• 52:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. So that's why I'm like, one glug and then I'm done and then I'll carry on with my champagne.

• 52:06Jessie Ware?

  You know what, you've just given me like a proper movie star thing and I really appreciate that because I like that you've got a pub in your house.

• 52:13Speaker 00

  It's, so I.

• 52:14Jessie Ware?

  I'd like to say it's cocktail bar, sorry. What is it? What did you call it?

• 52:17Speaker 00

  It was my shed and then I turned it into a bar.

• 52:21Jessie Ware?

  So it's in the back of your garden?

• 52:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:22Jessie Ware?

  At the end of your garden?

• 52:23Speaker 00

  It's because I was like, I don't need a shed. I mean, I've barely, I've got a courtyard garden, it's got like trees in it and but there's, but that's it.

• 52:28Jessie Ware?

  So how many, how many people can this shed fit?

• 52:31Speaker 00

  Not very many.

• 52:32Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 52:32Speaker 00

  But we ram it and then I made it glass everywhere. So I wanted it to look like a Great Gatsby bar. Basically everywhere in my house is, everything's always a bit, it's a bit weird. Like you sort of don't know what you're going to get round the corner. Because I had, I didn't buy my own house for ages and ages. Like I've only been living in this house for about a year and a half. Um, because I kind of just, you know, sorted other, made sure everyone was good before I. Uh, and so I'd had all of this time to dream up what I wanted to look like and I love interior design, like I love it.

• 53:00Jessie Ware?

  Oh, do you want to do mine, Amelia?

• 53:01Speaker 00

  So much. But I like doing all of the, like, everything's a little bit weird and a bit magical. So there's, um, yeah, so in the bar, it's like, it's bright pink and there's these like mirrored tiles everywhere. And this kind of like a speakeasy sort of vibe. And so there's prosecco on tap and beer on tap. And, um, and then all these bonkers glasses and it turns into a piece. Everyone comes round and you like, and you're all crumbling in there and there's like no room because it's really, really tiny and it just gets a vibe going.

• 53:30Jessie Ware?

  And what's on the playlist?

• 53:32Speaker 00

  What's on the playlist? Um.

• 53:34Jessie Ware?

  Do you play music?

• 53:34Speaker 00

  There's a lot of grime. When it's, when it's, when it's my like hardcore friends from, because you know what I mean, you're in a circle mates. Um, and this last party that I had, we basically waited for everyone to leave and then we just got on their decks and like put on just, just grime. Just like dirty grime and like raved like mad.

• 53:51Jessie Ware?

  If I had a bar in the house, I'd be in there every night.

• 53:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, we wouldn't get you out.

• 53:55Jessie Ware?

  But I'd live there.

• 53:58Speaker 00

  Mum, we've got a shed in the garden, do you want to convert it?

• 54:00Jessie Ware?

  Makes it a bar now. That is amazing. Okay, so mum may have fluffed the pudding a bit. No, actually I think she has fluffed it, so we may have to get your chocolates out. We basically made a chocolate cake that was dairy free.

• 54:14Speaker 00

  Oh my god.

• 54:15Jessie Ware?

  You were dairy free.

• 54:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, I am.

• 54:17Jessie Ware?

  Forgot about the gluten part. So basically it's got gluten in it, so you do not have to have it. So.

• 54:22Speaker 00

  I love you.

• 54:23Jessie Ware?

  We fucked up, basically.

• 54:24Speaker 00

  Sorry.

• 54:24Jessie Ware?

  So it's there, you can look at it, you can smell it, we can chuck into one of your chocolates and we've got some raspberries and.

• 54:30Speaker 00

  Perfect.

• 54:31Jessie Ware?

  I'm so sorry.

• 54:32Speaker 00

  And we've got, we've got dairy free ice cream, your Swedish glass.

• 54:35Jessie Ware?

  We do have dairy free ice cream, if you'd like some, but you do not have to.

• 54:38Speaker 00

  Thank you so much.

• 54:39Jessie Ware?

  If you've like, you know, this is like.

• 54:40Speaker 00

  Was it my fault?

• 54:42Jessie Ware?

  It's my fault.

• 54:43Speaker 00

  So long to.

• 54:44Jessie Ware?

  It's our fault.

• 54:45Speaker 00

  I don't normally take this long to eat.

• 54:46Jessie Ware?

  That's because I've been asking you a lot of questions, like absolutely don't worry. I just, yeah, I'm also the fastest eater in the world. Amelia Clark?

• 54:55Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 54:55Jessie Ware?

  I can't quite believe that you're in my, um, house, but you've come, well, my mum's house. You've come over for the chicken soup.

• 55:02Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 55:02Jessie Ware?

  You've chatted, you've been so lovely.

• 55:06Speaker 00

  Oh, thanks.

• 55:07Jessie Ware?

  Eating matzo balls.

• 55:09Speaker 00

  Never forget.

• 55:09Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. And now you get a tea towel.

• 55:12Speaker 00

  Yes, the tea towel.

• 55:14Jessie Ware?

  Thank you, it's been such a pleasure.

• 55:16Speaker 00

  Thank you so much.

• 55:17Jessie Ware?

  Gorgeous.

• 55:17Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 55:18Jessie Ware?

  I'm going to slide into your DMs more often now.

• 55:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, girl.

• 55:37Jessie Ware?

  Dermot O'Leary reminded me of this moment in the podcast, which makes me so proud to do this podcast. But it was so touching to hear Amelia talk about her late dad and his love of food. And the salad in a bag and talking about surviving two aneurysms, which she kept so private. And she's been so brave, she's, she's fascinating. Also, I'd quite like a bar in my house.

• 56:05Speaker 00

  Oh, he has.

• 56:07Jessie Ware?

  Prosecco and beer on tap, sure. Also, I have to say, I was invited to one of her birthday parties and it was one of the best parties I've ever been to.

• 56:14Speaker 00

  Why?

• 56:15Jessie Ware?

  In my life. It was just so fun. It was brilliant. Amelia Clark, you host A Mean Party Lady. Um, she also bought the best presents, champagne and delicious chocolate. We loved having you, Amelia. In fact, I feel like, again, that was two thousand and nineteen.

• 56:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:31Jessie Ware?

  We could have Amelia back on. When do we start saying it's okay to have guests on again? Also, anyway, that was Amelia Clark on Second Helpings. We'll see you next week for some more Second Helpings.