'Game of Thrones' Actor Emilia Clarke on Empowering Nude Shot: "This Is All Me"

Culture

(Editor's note: Spoilers for the TV series ahead.) 

Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen on the HBO hit Game of Thrones, has a lot of feelings about the show's heavy-handed nudity, and she's never been shy about sharing them.

She's also been adamant that the show promotes female strength rather than subjugation, as some viewers have suggested. Clarke told Entertainment Weekly of her most recent naked appearance — which came Sunday night, following a wonderfully misandrist moment in which Khaleesi burned her would-be rapists alive — it was a perfect example of how powerful baring one's body can be.

"This is all me, all proud, all strong," Clarke said. "I'm just feeling genuinely happy I said 'Yes.' That ain't no body double!"

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Unlike nude scenes of previous seasons, the 29-year-old actress was able to shoot this one on a closed set, in Belfast. She wasn't obligated to appear naked out in the open, which she told EW made the whole thing more palatable. "Taking off my clothes is not the easiest thing, but with the magic of the effects, I don't have to do a season one and go on a cliff and do it," she told EW. "I'm in control of it."

In September, Clarke says she was misquoted by a Daily Mail journalist who followed her into a party, asking for her thoughts on gratuitous GoT sex scenes. The Mail reported that Clarke thought they should be "more subtle," and that she personally "can't stand" them. 

Clarke then took to Instagram shortly after the Daily Mail article surfaced to correct the misstatement, explaining that she was "perfectly fine with" nudity if it "forwards a story or is shot in a way that adds insight into characters," which Sunday night's scene did.  

"Like a good Mother of Dragons, I'm always in control," the caption read. 

Naked, proud and powerful, entirely on her own.

Read more: Emilia Clarke Proudly Admits 'That's Me Photoshopped and Drunk' in Her Esquire Shoot