Emilia Clarke’s career breakthrough Game of Thrones has been one of the greatest HBO shows in history with an average of 18.4 million viewers every episode across all platforms the show was released.

Emilia Clarke in a still from Game of Thrones

But for Clarke, the rising star had trouble being nude on screen. Game of Thrones, by default, is filled with excessive s*x and violence. In the epic series, the British actor played  Daenerys Targaryen. Despite the strength of her character, she was victimized as well.

Also read: Emilia Clarke Reveals Jon Snow Spin-off is “Certified by Kit Harington”: “He’s in it from the ground up”

Game of Throne Naked Scene Traumatized Emilia Clarke

Jason Momoa and Emilia Clarke in Game Of Thrones

Starring in a show of epic proportion was a big deal for Emilia Clarke but the actor was surprised to see the meteoric rise of the HBO show. However, when it was time to shoot troubling nude scenes, the actor admitted to sobbing.

“I took the job and then they sent me the scripts and I was reading them,” Clarke told Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert. “And I was like, ‘Oh, there’s the catch!” she added.

“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 and I’m going to make sense of it and that’s what I’m going to do and everything’s going to be cool.”

Clarke, who was 23 at the time of shooting the horrifying nude scene, further revealed that she has never been to 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,” she recalled filming the nude scene for the show.

“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,” she added.

Eventually, her character transformed into a powerful being as she went on to become the ‘Mother of Dragons’ but as the show requires a lot of nudity, the actor said that there are other women who remove items of clothing on our show.

So, “they’ve kind of got my nipple count down now,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. Later, the actor made her New York stage debut in 2013 appearing in Breakfast at Tiffany’s as Holly Golightly where in a scene, she slipped naked into a bathtub. The audience instantly started filming her nude in the scene and it was a bit too much for the actor.

Also read: “I’m down for that”: Emilia Clarke Ignores Elizabeth Olsen’s Advice Ahead of Secret Invasion Premiere Despite Scarlet Witch Star’s Warnings

Emilia Clarke Said Jason Momoa Protected Her 

Jason Momoa and Emilia Clarke in Game Of Thrones

Aquaman and Fast X and Clarke’s Game Of Thrones co-star Jason Momoa, who was pretty much involved in the scene played Khal Drogo. Momoa’s character Drogo is ruthless and he was involved with the marital r*pe on their first night of the wedding. But when the scene was finished, “he was crying more than I was,” Clarke recalled.

“It’s only now that I realize how fortunate I was with that, because that could have gone many, many, many different ways. Because Jason had experience – he was an experienced actor who had done a bunch of stuff before coming on to this – he was like, ‘Sweetie, this is how it’s meant to be, this is how it’s not meant to be, and I’m going to make sure that that’s the f*cking gaze.’

He was always like, ‘Can we get her a f*cking robe? She’s shivering!’ … He was so kind and considerate and cared about me as a human being.”

Clarke, 36, also revealed that she had fought on set regarding further nude scenes.  “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,’” Clarke said adding, “And I’m like, ‘F*ck you.’” 

Out of concern for being labeled for doing nude scenes, Clarke declined the lead role in the $1.32 billion franchise, Fifty Shades.