Emilia Clarke Almost Killed Samuel L. Jackson Filming Secret Invasion

Emilia Clarke says she almost ran over Samuel L. Jackson while filming Secret Invasion.

By Chris Snellgrove | Updated

emilia clarke

In the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction, the character played by Samuel L. Jackson considers it a “miracle” when all of the potentially-deadly bullets fired in his direction miss. It’s entirely possible that the veteran actor was having a flashback to that famous film when he narrowly survived getting killed while filming Secret Invasion. Speaking to Yahoo!, Emilia Clarke revealed that “I nearly ran [Samuel L. Jackson] over” during filming.

At this point, we’d forgive you if you were loudly questioning just how Emilia Clarke almost ran over beloved actor Samuel L. Jackson. After all, she’s been driving most of her life and has presumably made it this far without running anyone over. But to hear Clarke tell the story, it had nothing to do with her abilities as a driver and everything to do with the car she had to drive.

In keeping with all the international travel in Secret Invasion, she wasn’t just driving any old American car. Emilia Clarke claims that she nearly ran down Samuel L. Jackson because she had to drive an old Russian car that had many confusing features, including six shifting knobs and 10 pedals.

Even though she knows how to drive a stick shift on a modern automobile, she likened this vehicle to being more like a “tractor” than a conventional car.

Ideally, she would have had time to learn her way around this ancient and exotic automobile before driving it, but time wasn’t on her side due to frantic shooting demands. Figuring that all she had to do for the scene was drive briefly and then apply the brakes, Emilia Clarke got behind the wheel, and nearly ran Samuel L. Jackson over when she put her foot on the gas pedal rather than the brake pedal.

Honestly, we’re happy that the actor is willing to admit to her mistake rather than joining the legions of drivers who insist their car magically accelerated when they hit the brakes.

Speaking of the brakes, Emilia Clarke quickly realized she hit the wrong pedal and slammed her foot on the brake pedal, narrowly avoiding impact with Samuel L. Jackson. Rather than doing one of his trademark cinematic rants, Clarke says that Jackson “was very gentlemanly and lovely and nice.”

secret invasion premiere
Samuel L. Jackson in the Secret Invasion premiere

As for Clarke, nearly running over the biggest name in Secret Invasion was enough to get her out of the ancient Russian car, and she described how she “cried a little bit and someone else drove it for me.”

Obviously, this tale of Emilia Clarke almost killing Samuel L. Jackson on set is being shared as a funny set anecdote…a way of getting audiences to laugh at the behind-the-scenes hijinks and feel like they are that much closer to the actors they love.

But we can’t help but feel like stories of Clarke having no time for driving lessons and AI being used to make the intro highlight the fact that Marvel is rushing through production rather than taking their time.

Considering Disney’s previous pledge to produce less Marvel content, fans could be facing a threat scarier than the Skrulls: fewer shows, fewer movies, but less care for the overall quality of the MCU.