Game of Thrones is known for its epic battles, fantasy elements, and nudity. Lots of nudity. Unfortunately, one of the show’s biggest stars was not comfortable with the latter, but when she was cast she didn’t feel like it was her place to say no.
During a recent episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast Emilia Clarke (aka Daenerys Targaryen) opened up about feeling coerced into filming a “f–k ton” of nude scenes for the series, and how the experience has made her more assertive than her early days on the show.
“I’m a lot more savvy now with what I’m comfortable with, and what I am okay with doing,” the 33-year-old admitted. “I’ve had fights onset before where I’m like, ‘No, the sheet stays up,’ and they’re like, ‘You don’t want to disappoint your Game of Thrones fans.’ And I’m like, ‘F–k you.'”
Though she never felt comfortable baring it all, Clarke didn’t want to speak her concerns at first because she was a new actress with no prior experience. “I took the job and then they sent me the scripts and I was reading them, and I was like, ‘Oh, there’s the catch!'” she revealed. “But I’d come fresh from drama school and I approached it as a job, if it’s in the script then it’s clearly needed, this is what this is and I’m going to make sense of it. Everything’s going to be cool.”
She was 23 at the time and felt so uncomfortable that she’d excuse herself after shoots to go cry in the bathroom, but blamed herself for those feelings. “Whatever I’m feeling is wrong, I’m going to cry in the bathroom and then I’m going to come back and we’re going to do the scene and it’s going to be completely fine,” she recalled telling herself at the time.
Thankfully, she had someone on her side. Clarke’s co-star Jason Momoa was always there to validate her reactions to certain scenes. “It was definitely hard, which is why the scenes when I got to do them with Jason, were wonderful, because he was like, ‘No sweet, this isn’t okay.'”
“He took care of me, too,” she added. “In an environment where I didn’t know I needed to be taken care of.”
Clarke and Momoa have gone on to become the best of friends, and she’s since made it clear that nudity is not something she’s comfortable doing. In fact, she turned down the role of Anastasia Steele in 50 Shades of Grey because of it.
What’s Next for the ‘Game of Thrones’ Cast Members
Fans won’t have to wait too long to see Emilia Clarke in her next big-screen role. The Mother of Dragons will star alongside Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding in the rom-com Last Christmas, set to debut in November 2019. She’ll also appear in Above Suspicion, a crime thriller based on the real-life story of the first FBI agent convicted of murder.
Kit Harington (Jon Snow)
As of right now, it’s unclear what’s next for Kit Harington since his IMDb page does not have any new projects listed, but he did tell Entertainment Weekly he wants to step away from the spotlight for a little while to transition away from his iconic role as Jon Snow. “I’d like to step away and enjoy the obscurity, cut my hair, make myself less recognizable as the character, and go do and some other things with a completely new look and tone,” he said in June 2018.
Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister)
After portraying super villain Cersei Lannister, Lena Headey’s next role will see her star opposite her GoT co-star Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) in the drama The Flood. Then, next year she joins the female-led cast of Gunpowder Milkshake alongside Karen Gillan, Michelle Yeoh and Angela Bassett. Though the plot is being kept under wraps, the film is expected to be an action-packed assassin story that’s “rich in mythology and spans several generations,” according to Deadline.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister)
Fans will only have to wait days before seeing Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on the big screen. The actor will star in the upcoming crime thriller Domino, which comes out on May 30. He’s also got a number of other projects lined up, including Suicide Tourist, set to be released on November 21, and The Silencing, which is currently still filming.
Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister)
Peter Dinklage will trade in his new Hand of the King pin to voice two different characters in the animated movies, The Angry Birds Movie 2 (in theatres on August 16) and 2020’s The Croods 2. He also has a ton of other projects in the works, including the crime drama The Thicket and The Dwarf, in which he stars as a “Machiavellian dwarf in a medieval Italian court, [who] brings the kingdom to the brink of ruin by manipulating the prince he serves.”
Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark)
Aside from marrying a Jonas Brother this summer, Sophie Turner will reprise her role as Jean Grey in the X-Men movie Dark Phoenix, which hits theatres on June 7. According to her IMDb page, she also has two other films in the works—a starring role in both Heavy and Broken Soldier, in which she plays a teenager who befriends a war veteran suffering from PTSD.
