Emilia Clarke Talks Pressure of Doing Nude Scenes to Appease Fans
Emilia Clarke, who starred as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, talked to Dax Shepard about what filming nude scenes for the show was actually like.
She recalled a time while filming a naked scene when she wanted to be covered up but was reportedly told, "You don't want to disappoint you Game of Thrones fans!"
Clarke said costar Jason Momoa was "so kind and considerate," and taught her how people should treat her on set.
Speaking to Dax Shepard for his Armchair Expert podcast this week, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke pulled the curtain back on what filming nude scenes as Daenerys Targaryen for the show was actually like—especially in the first season, when nudity was a main attraction.
"They sent me the scripts and I was reading them, and it was like, 'Oh, there's the catch,'" she said of first learning of her intimate scenes in Season 1. But she "came to terms with that" before arriving on the set. As a newcomer in the industry and recent drama school graduate, Clarke said she didn't feel she was in the place to make complaints or demands. ("I'm gonna go cry in the bathroom, and then I'm gonna come back, and we're gonna do the scene, and it's gonna be completely fine," she later added.)
Clarke found comfort in filming with costar and on-screen husband Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo), who had more experience on film sets and taught her how she should or shouldn't be treated. "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,'" she recalled. "He was so kind and considerate and cared about me as a human being."
Years after GoT's first season in 2011, Clarke said the way nudity is approached on sets now is "very, very, very, different" and that she's "a lot more savvy" about expressing what she's comfortable with doing on camera. "Like, I've had fights on set before where I'm like, 'No, sheet stays up,' and they're like, 'You don't want to disappoint your Game of Thrones fans!' And I'm like, 'Fuck you!'" she said.
The actress felt much more empowered filming her final nude scene in Season 6. "When I did the last nudity that I did for the show, which was walking through the fire the second time around, I was like, I am owning this," she said. "This is mine. They've asked me to do it, and you know what, I'm fucking game."
She and Shepard also discussed the difference between male and female actors being naked on-screen, and that women face a bigger challenge of being objectified or judged, especially online. The reason why she doesn't Google herself, she explained, was because of what she found in searches following GoT Season 1. "I just saw articles of, like, how fat my ass was, 'Why would a girl do this?' And I'm like, 'You know what? I'm a kid, man. Cut me some goddamn slack,'" she said.
Clarke added that of all the things people have told her about Khaleesi's nudity, it surprised her that "people wouldn't care if you had seen her be abused." (Daenerys forced to have sex with Drogo on their wedding night, for example.)
The Last Christmas star also delved into "what it is like being under the gaze of people you'll never meet." She brought up the comparison that in theater, an actor can see the audience members watching him or her do a nude scene. But for film, she's just in front of a camera and crew, and doesn't know who else will be watching the final product. "There are, however, many people's gazes looking at me that you'll never be able to get what that is," she said. "And that's fucking confusing when you're a young girl."
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