Me Before You is a good old-fashioned tearjerker, fully equipped with personal tragedy, blossoming romance, and ill-fated love. Based on the best-selling novel by JoJo Mayes and directed by theater veteran Thea Sharrock, Me Before You stars Emilia Clarke as Lou, an infectiously good-natured young woman from humble means in need of a steady gig. When her job search leads her to an unexpected position as a caregiver, Lou meets Will Trainer (Sam Claflin), wealthy banker and former playboy who became quadripalegic in an accident two years earlier. Bitter, cynical and devestated by his new circumstances, the young man who once had it all has lost his will to live and Lou makes it her mission to change his mind. There are sparks, there is romance, and there are "good luck stiffling your sobs" amounts of tears.

With Me Before You arriving in theaters this week, I recently joined a group of reporters to chat with Clarke and Claflin about the film. An energetic and playful pair, the duo talked about their awkward first audition encounter (Emilia had cleanse breath), keeping things light on the set, how they researched the reality behind the story, the powere of getting in a good cry, Lou's insane wardrobe, and more. Plus, Clarke talked about finally getting to share the screen with her former Game of Thrones co-star Charles Dance and framing Claflin as a Khaleesi bobblehead theif.

Could you both introduce your characters?

SAM CLAFLIN: Hello, I'm Will.

Actually, I have a better idea. Could you introduce each other's characters?

CLAFLIN: Oh, no. This is ... Well, I'll let you go first.

EMILIA CLARKE: Yeah? Okay. Will Trainer is, when you first meet and he literally is a man who has everything. He is charming and incredibly ugly [laughs]. Yes, obviously. This gorgeous, charming, affluent, top of his career man, you meet him and within the first couple of minutes, he as in a road accident, and becomes quadriplegic. From then on, you see quite a different Will Trainer. You someone who becomes incredibly bitter and angry and frustrated with his circumstances. He comes from a very, very well-off English family. They have a family castle which is where he goes back to, so you see him before and then when you see him when he meets Lou, he is quite a different man, quite a different person. Is that good? Yes? Paying attention?

CLAFLIN: I didn't just read my part.

CLARKE: My line, my line, my line, my line.

CLAFLIN: This is Lou Clark. Lou Clark is a small town girl living in a small town world. She is sort of a breath of fresh air almost. She's very enthusiastic. She's very positive. She's a positive person. She doesn't have much. She's basically the polar opposite of Will Trainer. Should I stand with that?

CLARKE: Yeah.

CLAFLIN: She doesn't have anything really apart from potential. Will sees that in her, of course later on, but she needs a job in order to kind of, support her family. She's sort of a backbone of the Clark's. She basically needs a job, she finds a job working for the trainers and goes there and meets Will.

CLARKE: Yes.

CLAFLIN: The two of them teach each other how to live boldly.

CLARKE: Yes. On message.

So with your hectic schedules, what came first, the book for your guys or the film?

CLARKE: Well my agent sent me the book first because he knew that the writer was writing the screenplay so he was like, "Ah! Read the book." So I did and I cried, and I was three pages in before I was screaming yes!

CLAFLIN: Was this when he got hit by the motorbike?

CLARKE: Pretty much! Yes, yes!

Did you cry, Sam?

CLAFLIN: I read the script first and yeah I think I cried three times. I think it's one of those things -- once the flood gates open -- I sort of held it back and bit my lip and went again. But no, it is an incredibly moving story as you all are aware and I think I really just sort of connected with will and really loved following Lou's story and I think after reading it I did a lot of research and I think the more research I did, the more my eyes were open to a world that I wasn't familiar with. And I think Jojo does the balance incredibly well of introducing people to disability and the obstacles that comes with but without kind of force feeding it. You know what I mean? It's love story, the heart of the story, but there is of course some very difficult issues I wasn't aware of basically.

Can you expand on that research a little bit? What did you do to prepare for being quadriplegic?

CLAFLIN: So, we were fortunate enough that we had people that were willing and wanting to share their stories. People ... Some stories were very uplifting and inspiring and some not so much. You know? And we had medical advisers basically on set everyday kind of talking us through the house set and people get around set and circumstances and it was just a really incredibly informative kind of few months prior to filming. I watched so many documentaries. I had links to YouTube, following people's blogs and I think you went on a website didn't you?

CLARKE: Yeah, forums for kind of carers which was an eye opener. That was pretty intense.

CLAFLIN: We had this one chap came to come talk to us and his wife was there as well and she was not his carer, she was his wife and they had carers as well but it was really interesting hearing it from his perspective, from her perspective and even his brother came and his perspective you know so it was kind of really interesting hearing it from every different level.

CLARKE: Yeah, it was a real eye opener in general just for how you see disabilities I think. And how you think people want to be treated and how they really want to be treated and what they really talk about, and what they really care about which is very ... There's a lot more comedy, there's a lot more lightness to be found in people then I think you would assume.

CLAFLIN: Yeah it's the one thing I think Will in the story really appreciates about Lou, is that she doesn't see the wheelchair she sees the person and I think so often people look at a wheelchair and they see the wheelchair, and they don't see there's actually a person sitting in the wheelchair. It's a very simple but common mistake that we make I think.

I have an acting question. American audiences know you mostly from Hunger Games and know you for this little TV show.

CLAFLIN: What TV show?

You were so different, both of you. So different in this movie, is acting ... Is it just acting, different muscles that you have to use? Different acting muscles?

CLARKE: Well I was really lucky 'cause Lou is kind of like me. So that's one of the biggest things when I first read the book and the script. So I was like, "That's just ... She's got my surname as well! That's just so much ... Yeah!" So that was not very much acting really for this one. The other stuff's acting really.

Is there a challenge for both of you. Is different kind of acting a different challenge or is it all one big thing, acting?

CLAFLIN: It depends on the job, really.

CLARKE: It depends on the people you're around. It depends on the script, the director, the cast. It depends on me. If you're working with a high caliber of people then your jobs easy. But if you're working on stuff that isn't, then it's really hard.

CLAFLIN: So this was really hard for me [laughs].

CLARKE: This is so hard. Yeah no, this was an absolutely awesome part.

CLAFLIN: Yeah so unfortunately this little fella, she's incredibly infectious. When she laughs you can't help but laugh. When she has infection, you will absolutely get it. No, but when she cries, you cry. It's not hard to fall in love with her which is why I think audiences have warmed to this story so much. There's a good person in there somewhere.

CLARKE: Thanks.

CLAFLIN: Occasionally she pops out to say hello.

CLARKE: Yeah exactly.

Speaking of crying, what's your technique to cry on screen, how do you go about doing it?

CLARKE: I realize I look hideous when I cry on screen, I was like, "What?! That's not what I'm doing! What are you doing? And you're doing it again." So no I don't have any technique. I just cried and now I've learnt I won't do it in future.

CLAFLIN: I will never cry again.

CLARKE: I'm going to pout and you know, just ask for some drugs or something like everyone else does.

CLAFLIN: Yeah. The beautiful thing about crying is, you don't really think about anything else. It's a release, isn't it, so I have never really been that conscious. I have to kind of admit that this is the first time I've done film and I kind of didn't need assistance. There's a thing called tear stick which I don't know many actors. I'm not ashamed to say that I've used this and used it still. It's like a menthol type thing and you pop it under your eye and it makes your eyes go, "Oh my god!" But you still have to act the crying because your eyes scream and if you're just doing "I don't really know what's going on." But for this job I didn't use any. I didn't need too. I think I was just emotionally ... I was looking at her face and she starts crying.

CLARKE: "She's crying again and it's so ugly. Oh god!"

CLAFLIN: "Oh my god! Get her off me." I felt like the story was enough and I put myself in certain situations and circumstances and try to put my active brain away and just kind of imagine what it is actually like being in that situation at any given time and I think it was tough.

What was the audition process like for both of you. Did you pursue the role?

CLARKE: Yeah. Hells yeah! I was like "Are we going to the audition yet? What day is it?" When I read it I was doing Terminator so I was crying into my grenade launcher. And I got on a Skype with Thea that night, the director. Not that night, when I was like, "Yes, yes yes!" So when I got onto Skype and as soon as I as back in England it was just in time for the audition process to be starting.

CLAFLIN: I was the first person, yeah.

CLARKE: Yeah. 'Cause I came in and did an audition by myself and they were like, "Cool." And then.

Did you bring tights? Bumblebee tights?

CLARKE: I didn't bring tights no. I didn't bring tights. I brought a cup of tea ...

CLAFLIN: She brought her onion breath.

CLARKE: Yeah. Oh my god yeah. I just finished Terminator, which was they just filmed me loads of ... anyway that was the thing. So I wanted to clean my body out of guns and protein powder and so I done this to cleanse thing and made my breath smell of garlic, eating raw bulbs of garlic. So the day of our chemistry read [laughs].

CLAFLIN: Don't do that again, another whiff of ...

CLARKE: On the day of the chemistry read I was like, "I'm really sorry."

CLAFLIN: That's the first thing she said, the first thing you said.

CLARKE: Pretty much. Yeah. So that was that.

CLAFLIN: "Sorry, I can't say hello properly I've just had some garlic."

CLARKE: Yeah I just had some raw garlic.

CLAFLIN: I think that was the moment me and Thea looked at each other 'cause I was ... Basically there is quite a lot of chemistry reads with us and other actors.

CLARKE: Yeah it was five boys and five girls and we all kind of ...

CLAFLIN: We all acted with each other to find out who was the worst.

CLARKE: Pretty much.

CLAFLIN: But basically yeah. The first thing ... So I've done all the other girls.

CLARKE: You've done all the other girls, the pretty ones.

CLAFLIN: I've been through all the other girls. And then last but not least this one turned up and I think there was ... Yeah and it was the first thing you said and me and Thea cocked eyes and just went, "Yeah that's classic Clarke, isn't it?"

CLARKE: 'Cause yeah, I saw my mum and she said, "You stink, you need to make it known you're doing these weird things." I was like "Okay." I

know that often part of actors is so much bigger on how much a character walks and holds themselves and all of that. How did you approach creating a character without gesture and all that?

CLAFLIN: Well I know how he was going to walk. The beginning of the movie he's kind of got the swagger, he's got that walk. For me I was literally fortunate enough to have quite a lot of time in a wheelchair and they literally molded it to my body.

CLARKE: We met the wheelchair quite early on.

CLAFLIN: We were both fortunate enough to have four months of preparation time before, neither of us has any other filming commitments so me, Emilia, Thea and Jojo can constantly everyday all day just went to plan with studios and practice and the chair and rehearse through scenes and talk through lines and yeah, for me it was really getting used to maneuvering a chair and working out the quickest way to get from A to B. Basically the prop guys on set they ended up getting my to move the chair all the time. Because I was obviously so good at it.

CLARKE: It's really hard.

CLAFLIN: It's not as easy as you think it is.

CLARKE: It's not easy.

CLAFLIN: You nearly hit the camera. My life was in your hands.

Did you have your choice of shoes you wanted to wear or how did that work out?

CLARKE: Oh yeah, yeah.

CLAFLIN: Your costumes, it deserves an Oscar.

CLARKE: I realize there was some that never even made it to the [film] ... 'cause I had a costume for every set up. I had seventy two costumes in total. I know, proudly know.

CLAFLIN: That she kept to the wall.

Did you get to keep anything?

CLARKE: The tights. And the things of my own. No my favorite AD was called Poodle. I've got a Victorian poodle broach so that's my own.

CLAFLIN: Yeah, poodle.

CLARKE: Yeah the costumes, but then Remy, our DOP, was so obsessed with the shoes, that's why there is like two close ups of just the shoes. "Everyone really noticed the shoes." "I know they had their own close up." That's why.

We talked about this but it is a very heavy movie at points so how did you guys lighten up in between takes, are you a Game of Thrones fan, are you asking for spoilers?

CLARKE: Have you heard of the small things?

CLAFLIN: I hate Thrones, I hate it. I'm a big Game of Thrones ...

CLARKE: You stole --

CLAFLIN: I didn't steal your Game of Thrones doll! It was like day one of filming and she got this little Daenerys Targaryen doll.

CLARKE: With the big head.

CLAFLIN: This little bobble head thing, and basically you lost it and she came on the set an said, "Sam stole my doll!" I was like, "What the hell is this?" All the crew thought I was a thief but basically you went back to your room and then found it and then hid it in my bags when I got home I went, "I did steal the doll without touching it, I don't understand how this has happened."

CLARKE: I only just remember that I did that in the last in our last interview, by the way. Someone was like, "But apparently you like, planted it". And i was like "No ... Yes."

CLAFLIN: Just as I was getting into my car you went "Check your bag."

CLARKE: Oh yeah!

I have to throw this in there, how was working with Charles Dance?

CLARKE: Oh, it was amazing.

You were finally in a scene with him!

CLARKE: Genuinely the pinnacle of my career was being able to make Charley Dance laugh so hard he had to stop. Yes! In your face, Tyrion!