VARIETY – Emilia Clarke revealed that she’s been pressured to do nude scenes on projects following her role as the occasionally nude Daenerys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones.” Now a seasoned actor, Clarke is quick to shut down producers who won’t respect her boundaries.
“I’m a lot savvier with what I’m comfortable with, and what I am okay with doing,” Clarke said in a recent episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast. “I’ve had fights on set before where I’m like, ‘No, the sheet stays up,’ and they’re like, ‘You don’t wanna disappoint your ‘Game of Thrones’ fans.’ And I’m like, ‘F–you.’ I feel like I’ve seen enough now to know what is actually needed.”
Clarke recalled filming intimate scenes on the “Game of Thrones” set, revealing that she found nude scenes “terrifying.” She explained how former co-star Jason Momoa acted as her mentor during the filming of Season 1.
“It’s only now that I realize how fortunate I was with that, because that could have gone many, many, many different ways. Because Jason had experience, he had done a bunch of stuff before coming on to this, he was like, ‘Sweetie, this is how it’s meant to be and this is how it’s not meant to be, and I’m going to make sure that’s the way it goes,’” Clarke said, adding that Momoa would always be sure she received a robe during the filming of nude scenes. “He was so kind and considerate and cared about me as a human being. He took care of me, he really did. In an environment where I didn’t know I needed to be taken care of.”
Clarke, who was on “Game of Thrones” for 10 years, explained how she felt first receiving the role and learning how much nudity was expected of her.
“I’d come fresh from drama school, and I was like, ‘Approach this as a job.’ If it’s in the script then it’s clearly needed, this is what this is and I’m gonna make sense of it,” Clarke said. “I’m floating through this first season and I have no idea what I’m doing, I have no idea what any of this is. I’ve never been on a film set like this before, I’d 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.”
With Momoa’s guidance, Clarke felt comfortable pushing back, even requesting less nudity after Season 1.
Outside of the Emmy-winning series, Clarke has appeared in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” “Me Before You” and “Last Christmas,” which is currently in theaters.
