Clarke is opening up about the pressure she felt to bare it all on HBO's fantasy blockbuster series.
During her eight seasons on HBO’s fantasy blockbuster “Game of Thrones,” Emilia Clarke defended the show’s graphic sex and nudity and called for the men and women on the show to appear equally nude onscreen. Now that the series is over, Clarke is getting a bit more critical of her time baring all on television. During an appearance on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast (via The Independent), Clarke said she felt pressured to appear nude on “Game of Thrones” early on, which led to other projects assuming she would be comfortable with going nude.
“I’m a lot more savvy [now] with what I’m comfortable with, and what I am okay with doing,” Clarke said. “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, ‘Fuck you.’”
Clarke said there was a “fuck ton of nudity” in the first season of “Game of Thrones” and part of the reason she went through with it was because she was a brand new actress with no prior experience on film or TV sets. As Clarke explained, “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 gonna make sense of it…Everything’s gonna be cool.”
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As Clarke continued to appear in nude scenes, she came to question the rationale behind each moment. “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,” she said. “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, and I don’t know what you want, and I don’t know what I want.”
Clarke credits working opposite Jason Momoa as being instrumental in teaching her to stand up for herself when she felt uncomfortable. Momoa would tell Clarke directly, “No, sweetie, this isn’t okay,” giving Clarke more encouragement to create boundaries for how and when she would appear nude on the series.
IndieWire has reached out to HBO for comment.
Listen to Clarke’s full appearance on the “Armchair Expert” podcast here.
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Joessandwich on November 20th, 2019 at 00:57 UTC »
In the last couple of years, HBO started utilizing an "Intimacy Expert" for any sex or nudity scene. I believe they started with The Deuce and it was so successful it's now standard practice at HBO and moving to other networks. It's a great idea - that person is hired to know what the scene is, what is needed, to discuss it with the actors and learn their limits, and to ensure that they're being taken care of. If production needs to pause to change a light, at least now there's someone to make sure they are covered and not just sitting there naked. So hopefully in situations like this, an actor would feel empowered from the beginning.
itsjayrr on November 19th, 2019 at 20:21 UTC »
It's probably important to note that it seems Emilia is referring to a specific instance in this particular case, and she's not saying she regrets doing nudity or that was pressured into doing it each time.
Emilia has also not said she's against nudity, in fact in this same interview she says, "People wouldn’t care if you hadn’t had seen her be abused. You wouldn’t f–king care." (in regards to her Season 1 nudity). She also says this about her scene in Season 6 when Daenerys steps out of the fire, "I was like, I'm owning this. This is mine, they've asked me to do it, and do you know what, I'm f****** game".
I think Emilia's stance on nudity is probably best explained by her own Instagram post in 2015
But yes, trying to guilt someone into doing nudity by essentially telling them "you're going to disappoint your game of thrones fans if you don't do this" is gross and Emilia is right to stand up for herself in that case.
Edit: Here's a YouTube link to the podcast if anyone would like to listen and get the full context. The talk about nudity begins at 59:33
https://youtu.be/mG-aBWTsLAg?t=3573
Schnorby on November 19th, 2019 at 18:45 UTC »
"No sweetie, this isn't ok" Jason Momoa is stellar.