The popular show adaptation of Game of Thrones often depicted adult-themed scenes, which included a lot of nudity, to which star Emilia Clarke explained she didn’t feel the need for a body double – like so many others on the show.
Emilia Clarke played Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons, in all eight seasons of the HBO series, which ran from 2011 to 2019.
In an interview with Dax Shepard on The Armchair Podcast, she admitted she didn’t know what quite to do when she stood there naked in front of everyone.
“I took the job, and then they sent me the scripts, and I was reading them, and I was like, ‘Oh, there’s the catch!'”
“But 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 – I’m going to make sense of it – that’s what I’m going to do – everything’s going to be cool.”
“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.”
“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,” she added.
“Regardless of there being nudity or not, I would have spent that first season thinking I’m not worthy of requiring anything.”
“I’m not worthy of needing anything at all.”
Speaking to Stephen Colbert, the American talk show host, in 2016, the Terminator actress revealed that she felt empowered after deciding against a body double in Season 6 during the scene where she emerges naked from the Temple fire.
“I did it before in season one – people like to talk about it.”
“So I just wanted to come out and do an empowered scene, which wasn’t sexual.”
“It was naked, but it was strong.”
To which Colbert replied, “You’re kicking ass naked!”
“I’m kicking ass naked!” she agreed.
“If you do it without any clothes, you’re a real badass,” she joked.
Later speaking to Entertainment Weekly, she added that she was “genuinely happy” and was very obviously proud of her scene.
“I’d like to remind people the last time I took my clothes off was Season 3.”
“That was a while ago,” she added.
“It’s now Season 6.”
“But this is all me, all proud, all strong.”
“I’m just feeling genuinely happy,” she continued.
“I said ‘Yes.’ That ain’t no body double!”
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