- Emilia Clarke stars as Daenerys Targaryen on "Game of Thrones."
- The role has required Clarke to be nude on screen for several major scenes.
- In a new interview, Clarke seemed tired of discussing the show's portrayal of sex.
- "There are so many shows centered around this very true fact that people reproduce," Clarke said. "People f--- for pleasure, it's part of life."
- Warning: Spoilers for "Game of Thrones" season seven below.
"Game of Thrones" star Emilia Clarke, who plays Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen, seems baffled by people's obsession with discussing the nudity and sex featured on HBO's hit series.
In a new interview with Harper's Bazaar, Clarke was described as venting when the topic of "Game of Thrones" and nudity came up:
I'm starting to get really annoyed about this stuff now because people say, "Oh, yeah, all the porn sites went down when 'Game of Thrones' came back on." I'm like, "The Handmaid's Tale?" I f------ love that show, and I cried when it ended because I couldn't handle not seeing it. That is all sex and nudity.
"There are so many shows centered around this very true fact that people reproduce,"Clarke said. "People f--- for pleasure — it's part of life."
Clarke's character on "Game of Thrones" has been the focal point of several significant scenes that required nudity. In the pilot for the series, "Winter is Coming," the young Daenerys Targaryen is stripped down and raped by her new husband Khal Drogo. By the season one finale, Daenerys emerges from Drogo's funeral pyre completely naked, covered in ash, and holding three baby dragons.
Clarke appeared nude on screen again for a bath scene on the third season, but didn't appear naked again until season six. In 2015, outlets incorrectly reported that Clarke had told "Game of Thrones" producers she didn't want to do any more nude scenes.
The actress took to Instagram and set the record straight. Her captioned explained that she was "perfectly fine with" scenes involving nudity if it moves the story forwards or adds insight to the characters. She wrote:
Sometimes explicit scenes are required and make sense for the characters/story, as they do in Westeros.
If it's gratuitous for gratuitous sake, then I will discuss with a director on how to make it more subtle. In either case, like a good Mother of Dragons, I'm always in control.
Clarke's season six nude scene involved her burning down a temple full of her would-be rapists and captors and emerging unscathed.
Given the actress' leading role on the series, questions about her sex scenes (or badass naked scenes) have followed her throughout every cycle of news.
She's been outspoken when it comes to equality in nudity, saying that more men on "Game of Thrones" should do full-frontal sex scenes. Clarke praised even the very un-sexy male nudity featured on season six, when a character briefly inspects his penis for warts in an close-up shot.
"You know, I did it — so why can't the boys do it?" she said on Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show."
And now, given her newest interview with Harper's Bazaar, she's ready to be asked about something else. Clarke will likely get her wish as "Game of Thrones" hurtles towards its series finale. In season seven, the number of nude scenes tapered off as more important visual shots (like ice dragons or armies of undead wights) took priority.
Of course, Clarke had one of the series' most-discussed sex scenes of all when Daenerys and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) hooked up on the season seven finale. But people were much more focused on the fact that Jon and Daenerys were actually aunt and nephew, and not the nudity (or lack thereof) involved.
Clarke will reprise her role as Daenerys Targaryen for the finale time when the final season of "Game of Thrones" airs, likely in 2019, though no date has been confirmed yet.
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