Emilia Clarke revealed that the pressure to play nude scenes caused fights on the Game of Thrones set. Fans of the TV show, which ran for eight seasons and was broadcast on HBO, might have loved the racy and nude scenes that HBO was able to get away with, but few think about the actors involved.
Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen, said she felt immense pressure from HBO producers and directors to strip down to nothing.
If you remember the first season of Game of Thrones, you probably remember intense violence, obscene amounts of nudity, and very graphic scenes in general. Apparently, poor Clarke, who had only been on a set twice before that, was wildly overwhelmed at first.
Emilia was doing an interview on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast when she shared how uncomfortable it made her. Armchair Expert has over 130 episodes, and it hosted by Dax himself, as well as Monica Padman, an Emmy-nominated actress and producer.
Clarke said in her interview that she was overwhelmed by the “f*** ton of nudity” in the pilot season, and she felt a lot of pressure to go along with the directors and do what they said.
She explained how she handled it – by basically convincing herself that such a large amount of nudity and explicit content was “completely fine”, and normal.
“I’ve been on a film set twice before then, and I’m now on a film set completely naked with all of these people, and I don’t know what I’m meant to do, and I don’t know what’s expected of me,” She explained.
According to Clarke, she was rescued in a very unusual way – by her costar and on-screen hubby Jason Momoa, who played Daenerys’ husband, Khal Drogo. Momoa took the time to make Clarke feel comfortable, and understand that as the actor, she had the power and could set and enforce boundaries with the crew.
“It was definitely hard. Which is why the scenes, when I got to do them with Jason, were wonderful, because he was like, ‘No, sweetie, this isn’t okay’ and I was like, ‘Ohhh’.”
Clarke says that even after setting boundaries, she got into fights with the crew and director on set, but was much more comfortable standing up for herself. Apparently, several high ranking crew members tried to guilt her into baring all.
“I had fights on set 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’,” She shared. “And I’m like, **** you.”
This is probably the reason there is a lot less nude or mostly nude Daenerys in later GoT seasons.
Good for her!
The interview is part of a press tour for this English actress, who is promoting her new movie “Last Christmas”, which is now in theaters.
