Emilia Clarke was naked quite a bit during her early tenure on Game of Thrones before working in a clause to quit the nude scenes. However, recently, she ditched her no-nudity clause in her contract and opted to get naked for an important Season 6 scene. Recently, she explained why she ultimately opted to do the scene instead of stick with the costumes she’s kept on for the last few seasons.
It was just a wonderful, strong moment I wanted to own, a real empowering, girl-power wow scene. I was so thrilled with it. It's not a sexy scene, she's not naked for no reason, it's not gratuitous. She's naked because she's just destroyed her enemies in this almighty blaze after they underestimated her – how could I say no?
While Emilia Clarke clearly isn’t too upset about having to drop trou, according to The Sun, the part where she mentions it would have been hard to say no is probably the most telling. The scene was crafted so that Dany would use her resistance to fire to burn down a meeting place filled with Khals. They all perished in the fire, but she came out completely unscathed… well, except for her clothes. She walked out of the burning remnants completely in the nude and wowed the Dothraki who had been waiting outside to learn what Dany’s fate would be.
If the building had not been burned down and Dany had simply run off as Jorah and Daario seemed to want her to, she would never have been able to rally the might of the Dothraki people to her cause. Therefore, the nudity served a lot more of a purpose than simply being written in to titillate.
Clarke also revealed in an interview a few weeks ago that the burning scene was something her character had been actively thinking about and had plotted before Jorah and Daario showed up on the scene, which fleshes out that storyline even more.
It’s something she’s been thinking of the entirety of Season 6. But it’s only when she sees Jorah and Daario that she knows she can actually go through this because there will be someone on the other side.
The moment was also reminiscent of the other time Dany was naked after she walked into the pyre at Khal Drogo’s funeral. That time, she also came out of the fire unscathed with young dragons on her back. While the Season 6 episode didn’t feature any dragon eggs, it was still a powerful image to see Dany emerge from the flames and look triumphant and awe-inspiring, despite the fact she was hanging out in her birthday suit. It's no wonder Emilia Clarke thought the scene was thrilling to film. (Although possibly less thrilling to watch later, since she sat down with her parents for the episode.)
Game of Thrones is currently airing on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET and is bound to feature more nude scenes in the weeks to come. To learn more about what is coming up, check out what we know.
